ious about her than he
had suspected. She had seemed to like him, the few times they'd met; and
he had liked her very well indeed; it's refreshing to meet a woman in
whom beauty and sensibility are combined; the combination's piquant,
when you come to consider how uncommon it is....

He didn't believe for an instant that she had meant to run away with the
Cadogan collar; and he hoped fervently that she hadn't been involved in
any serious trouble by the qualified thing. Furthermore, he candidly
wished he might be permitted to help extricate her, if she were really
tangled up in any unpleasantness.

Such, at all events, was the general tone of his meditations throughout
dinner and his homeward stroll down Fifth Avenue from Forty-fourth
Street, a stroll in which he cast himself for the part of the misprized
hero; and made himself look it to the life by sticking his hands in his
pockets, carrying his cane at a despondent angle beneath one arm,
resting his chin on his chest--or as nearly there as was practicable, if
he cared to escape being strangled by his collar--and permitting a
cigarette to dangle dejectedly from his lips....

He arrived in front of his lodgings at nine o'clock or something later.
And as he started up the brownstone stoop he became aware of a
disconsolate little figure hunched up on the topmost step; which was Mr.
Iff.

The little man had his chin in his hands and his hat pulled down over
his eyes. He rose as Staff came up the steps and gave him good evening
in a spiritless tone which he promptly remedied by the acid
observation:

"It's a pity you wouldn't try to be home when I call. Here you've kept
me waiting the best part of an hour."

"Sorry," said Staff gravely; "but why stand on ceremony at this late
day? My bedroom windows are still open; I left 'em so, fancying you
might prefer to come in that way."

"It's a pity," commented Iff, following him upstairs, "you can't do
something for that oratorical weakness of yours. Ever try choking it
down? Or would that make you ill?"

With which he seemed content to abandon persiflage, satisfied that his
average for acerbity was still high. "Besides," he said peaceably, "I'm
all dressed up pretty now, and it doesn't look right for a respectable
member of society to be pulling off second-story man stunts."

Staff led him into the study, turned on the lights, then looked his
guest over.

So far as his person was involved, it was evident that Iff had