as this queer little beak, with his eyes, that
made his countenance anything of a face at all. From a distance he
looked like the groceryman's delivery boy in a small town. His dress
seemed an acknowledgment of his grotesqueness: a short coat, like a
little boys' roundabout, and a vest fantastically sprigged and dotted,
over a lavender shirt.

At the sound of a muffled buzz, Mr. Landry sprang up.

"May I answer the telephone for you?" He went to the writing-table and
took up the receiver. "Mr. Ottenburg is downstairs," he said, turning to
Thea and holding the mouthpiece against his coat.

"Tell him to come up," she replied without hesitation. "How long are you
going to be in town, Dr. Archie?"

"Oh, several weeks, if you'll let me stay. I won't hang around and be a
burden to you, but I want to try to get educated up to you, though I
expect it's late to begin."

Thea rose and touched him lightly on the shoulder. "Well, you'll never
be any younger, will you?"

"I'm not so sure about that," the doctor replied gallantly.

The maid appeared at the door and announced Mr. Frederick Ottenburg.
Fred came in, very much got up, the doctor reflected, as he watched him
bending over Thea's hand. He was still pale and looked somewhat
chastened, and the lock of hair that hung down over his forehead was
distinctly moist. But his black afternoon coat, his gray tie and gaiters
were of a correctness that Dr. Archie could never attain for all the
efforts of his faithful slave, Van Deusen, the Denver haberdasher. To be
properly up to those tricks, the doctor supposed, you had to learn them
young. If he were to buy a silk hat that was the twin of Ottenburg's, it
would be shaggy in a week, and he could never carry it as Fred held his.

Ottenburg had greeted Thea in German, and as she replied in the same
language, Archie joined Mr. Landry at the window. "You know Mr.
Ottenburg, he tells me?"

Mr. Landry's eyes twinkled. "Yes, I regularly follow him about, when
he's in town. I would, even if he didn't send me such wonderful
Christmas presents: Russian vodka by the half-dozen!"

Thea called to them, "Come, Mr. Ottenburg is calling on all of us.
Here's the tea."

The maid opened the door and two waiters from downstairs appeared with
covered trays. The tea-table was in the parlor. Thea drew Ottenburg with
her and went to inspect it. "Where's the rum? Oh, yes, in that thing!
Everything seems to be here, but send up some currant preserve