oy?"

"I have said it."

"Then bring it here to me at once and tell me how you got it."

"I cannot come to you."

"Then I'll come to you. Where are you?"

"I do not know. I am lost."

"God, boy, what do you mean?"

"I am in a store of medicine that is many streets from that house of
good Mary Brown, and also from the house of Madam Taylor. I have the
intention of calling on the telephone my faithful Bonbon and asking
that he come and find me and deliver me to the home of Madam Taylor
and from thence transport this paper to you that you go to sleep for a
much needed rest."

"You helpless young idiot, call a taxi and come right here to me."

"I am promised to a dance with Mademoiselle Belle by the hour of ten,
of which it lacks now only a quarter. Cannot I go in that taxicab,
which it is of much intelligence of you to suggest to me, and send by
that taxicab to you the paper from Mary Brown while I stay to dance
that dance?"

"Well I'll be--no, I can't say it over the telephone."

"What is it, my Gouverneur Faulkner?"

"I'll say it in the morning to you in person. I'll just hold up the
wheels of state until that dance is over. Go ahead, youngster; call
the taxi and get back to Belle. I'll have Jenkins waiting at the
Taylor's to get the paper and you can--can tell me all about it in the
morning. Will nine o'clock be too early to call you from--your rosy
dreams?"

"I do not have coffee until nine o'clock, my Gouverneur Faulkner, and
I do not make a very hurried toilet, but I will come to you at the
Capitol at that nine o'clock if you so command--very gladly."

"Oh, no, we'll all of us just--just cool our heels until you get your
coffee and toilet. Don't hurry, I beg of you! Good night, and beat it
to Belle, as Buzz would say. Good night, you--you--but I'll say it all
in the morning if it takes a half day. Good night again." And with
that parting salutation my Gouverneur Faulkner's voice died from the
telephone with what I thought had the sound of a very nice laugh.

That Mademoiselle Belle Keith is a dancer of the greatest beauty, and
also is the homely Mildred Summers. The two hours until midnight at
the home of my lovely Madam Taylor seemed as one short half of an hour
to me. I also had the pleasure of conducting the nice Belle home in
the Cherry so that I could make a fine display to her of my skill with
a motor. In France it would be of a great scandal to allow a beautiful
_jeune fille_, as is that Be