on't
want to give them any more trouble. Promise me not to come!"

"Well, when you come back, then?"

"Yes, yes, when I come back," she whispered hurriedly. Then she put out
her hand impulsively. "I think you've been perfectly splendid to-night.
Good-by."

For a moment she stood there, her dainty figure silhouetted against the
bright doorway, with the light shining through her soft hair giving her
an undeserved halo. Then she was gone, leaving him on the steps in the
moonlight, tenderly contemplating the hand that had just held hers.

CHAPTER 8

It was well that Quin had an errand to perform that night. His emotions,
which had been accumulating compound interest since five o'clock,
demanded an outlet in immediate action. He had not the faintest idea
where the Aristo Apartments might be; but, wherever they were, he meant
to find them. Consultation with a telephone book at the corner drug-store
sent him across the city to a newer and more fashionable residence
quarter. As he left the street-car at the corner indicated, he asked a
man who was just dismounting from a taxi-cab for further information.

When the dapper gentleman, thus addressed, turned toward him, it was
evident that he had dined not wisely but too well. He was at that mellow
stage that radiates affection, and, having bidden a loving farewell to
the taxi driver, he now linked his arm in Quin's and repeated gaily:

"'Risto? Of course I can find it for you, if it's where it was this
morning! Always make a point of helping a man that's worse off than I am.
Always help a sholdier, anyhow. Take my arm, old chap. Take my cane, too.
I'll help you."

Thus assisted and assisting, Quin good-humoredly allowed himself to be
conducted in a zigzag course to the imposing doorway of a large
apartment-house across the street.

"Forgive me f' taking you up stairway," apologized the affable gentleman.
"Mustn't let elevator boy see you in this condishun. Take you up to my
apartment. Put you bed in m' own room. Got to take care sholdiers."

At the second floor Quin tried to disentangle himself from his new-found
protector.

"You can find your way home now, partner," he said. "I got to go down and
find out which floor my party lives on."

But his companion held him tight.

"No, my boy! Mustn't go out again to-night. M.P.'s'll catch you. I'll get
you to bed without anybody knowing. Mustn't 'sturb my wife, though.
Mustn't make an