u prescribed for me as a cure for my ills. I am quite calm
now, and my health is so good that when the waiter brings those little
pocket rolls this way I shall take a second and perhaps a third."

"My own nerves had gone to pieces or I shouldn't have flared as I did at
Portsmouth and I was even more irresponsible when I saw you in that
parlor car at Bennington."

"You saw me kiss a girl on the train. Miss Perry, I will not deceive you
about that. She was all but a stranger, and I had assisted her to elope.
Her husband was hiding in the baggage car."

"He would have thrown himself under the wheels if he had witnessed that
ardent kissing! I confess that I hadn't done justice to your
fascinations. And you were not her guardian, or anything like that?"

"Certainly not. She's a dairy maid I married to a diamond thief by
mistake. My ignorance of women is complete. Sally Walker's duplicity
wasn't necessary to convince me of that but your own conduct completely
crushed my vanity."

"The crushing has improved you, I think. Please don't think that because
I am showing you so much tolerance I am wholly satisfied that you
weren't trying to thwart my own criminal adventures. When we met at
Portsmouth I was trying to meet poor Mrs. Congdon somewhere to help
kidnap her little girl!"

"Edith--a lovely child," Archie remarked, and picked up the napkin that
slipped from her knees. He enjoyed her surprise. "Please don't scorn the
ice cream; you will find it very refreshing. As you were saying--"

"If I hadn't been warned by Ruth that you were to be trusted in this
business I should begin screaming. How did you know the child's name?
What do you know about the Congdons?"

"Volumes! Let my imagination play on your confession. You were trying to
find Mrs. Congdon and whisk the child away to your camp, when I ran into
you. You had missed connections with the mother and thought I was trying
to embarrass or frustrate you? I had troubles of my own and you couldn't
have done me a greater wrong!"

"Mrs. Congdon was in a panic, skipping about with the children to avoid
her husband; but it was really her father-in-law who was pursuing her.
He's a miserly, disagreeable wretch! I came here to meet Ruth, who is an
old friend of hers, hoping she might be able to deliver the little girl
to me undetected. I met both Mr. and Mrs. Congdon once, several years
ago, at a dinner in Chicago, but I can hardly say that I know them.
Ruth's to be the chief