"I'll promise to cut out the booze and
do the right thing if they'll try me again. But how did you get wise,
doc? B'gee, it's the swellest employment agency I was ever in, with its
flashlight owls and so forth."
With an indulgent smile the gracious host begged to be excused for two
minutes. He went out to the sidewalk and gave an order to the chauffeur,
who still waited with the car. Returning to the mysterious apartment,
he sat by his guest and began to entertain him so well by his witty and
genial converse that the poor Bed Liner almost forgot the cold streets
from which he had been so recently and so singularly rescued. A servant
brought some tender cold fowl and tea biscuits and a glass of miraculous
wine; and Thomas felt the glamour of Arabia envelop him. Thus half an
hour sped quickly; and then the honk of the returned motor car at the
door suddenly drew the Grand Duke to his feet, with another soft
petition for a brief absence.
Two women, well muffled against the cold, were admitted at the front
door and suavely conducted by the master of the house down the hall
through another door to the left and into a smaller room, which was
screened and segregated from the larger front room by heavy, double
portieres.
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