ct. Her lodger sprang forward.

"Oh, dear me!" he cried. "I'm so sorry. Of course, of course. I BEG your
pardon, Cousin Gussie."

He hindered a little more than he helped with the removal of the coat
and then stood, with the garment in his arms, peering over the heap of
fur like a spectacled prairie-dog peeping out of a hole.

"Ah--sit down, sit down, please," he begged. "I--ah--please do."

Again Martha interrupted. "Here, let me take that coat, Mr. Bangs,"
she said, and took it forthwith. Galusha, coming to himself still more,
remembered the conventionalities.

"Oh, Miss Phipps," he cried, "may I introduce my--ah--cousin, Mr. Cabot.
Mr. Cabot, this is the lady who has taken charge of me, so to speak."

Both Martha and Cabot burst out laughing.

"That sounds as if I had arrested him, doesn't it?" observed the former.
"But it is all right, Mr. Cabot; I've only taken him to board."

"I understand. Well, unless he has changed a lot since I used to know
him, he needs some one to take charge of him. And it agrees with him,
too. Why, Loosh, I thought you were an invalid; you look like a football
player. Oh, pardon me, Miss Phipps, but don't trouble to take that coat
away. I can stay only a little while. My chauffeur is waiting outside
and I must get on to the hotel or I'll be late for dinner."

Martha, who was on her way to the hall and the coat rack, turned.
"Hotel?" she repeated. "What hotel, Mr. Cabot?"

"Why, the Something-or-other House over in the next town. The Robbins
House, is it? Something like that."

"Robbins House? There isn't any. Oh, do you mean Roger's Hotel at the
Centre?"

"Why, yes, that is it. I was told there was a hotel here, but they
forgot to tell me it was open only in the summer. What sort of place is
this Roger's Hotel?"

Martha looked at him and then at Galusha.

"Altogether too bad for any relation of Mr. Bangs's to go to," she
declared. "At least, to eat supper. You and Mr. Bangs will excuse me,
won't you? I'll be right back."

She hung the fur coat upon the rack and hastened back through the dining
room and out into the kitchen. Cabot took a chair and turned toward
Galusha.

"She is a capable woman," he observed, with a jerk of his head toward
the kitchen door. "She has certainly taken good care of you. You look
better than when I saw you last and that was--Good Lord, how long ago
was it?"

Galusha replied that it was a good many years ago and then switched the
subject to