y noise." And, adding force to persuasion, he got his arms
around Quin and backed him so suddenly against the wall that they both
took an unexpected seat on the floor.

At this inopportune moment a door opened and a delicate blonde lady in a
pink kimono, followed by an inquisitive poodle, peered anxiously out.

"'S perfectly all right, darling!" reassured the nethermost figure
blithely. "Sholdier friend's had a little too much champagne. Bringing
him in so's won't be 'rested. Nicest kind of chap. Perfectly harmless!"

Quin scrambled to his feet and exchanged an understanding look with the
lady in the doorway.

"I found him down at the corner. Does he belong here?" he asked. And,
upon being informed sorrowfully that he did, he added obligingly, "Don't
you want me to bring him in for you?"

"Will you?" said the lady in grateful agitation. "The maids are both out,
and I can't handle him by myself. Would you mind bringing him into his
bedroom?"

Quin succeeded in detaching an affectionate arm from his right leg and,
getting his patient up, piloted him into the apartment.

"I'd just as leave put him to bed for you if you like?" he offered,
noting the nervousness of the lady, who was fluttering about like a
distracted butterfly.

"Oh, would you?" she asked. "It would help me immensely. If he isn't put
to bed he is sure to want to go out again."

"Shure to!" heartily agreed the object of their solicitude. "Leave him to
me, darling. I'll hide his uniform so's he can't go out. Be a good girl,
run along--I'll take care of him."

Thus left to each other, a satisfactory compromise was effected by which
the host agreed to be undressed and put to bed, provided Quin would later
submit to the same treatment. It was not the first time Quin had thus
assisted a brother in misfortune, but he had never before had to do with
gold buttons and jeweled cuff-links, to say nothing of silk underwear and
sky-blue pajamas. Being on the eve of adopting civilian clothes for the
first time in two years, he took a lively interest in every detail of his
patient's attire, from the modish cut of his coat to the smart pattern of
his necktie.

The bibulous one, who up to the present had regarded the affair as
humorous, now began to be lachrymose, and by the time Quin got him into
the rose-draped bed he was in a state of deep dejection.

"My mother loves me," he assured Quin tearfully. "Gives me everything. I
don't mean to be ungrateful. But I c