o you I've no great fancy
for this place. Man told me at dayjooney this morning he'd just
come in from sitting under the palms before the Casino entrance.
. . . All of a sudden a young fellow walked out and shot
himself there, point-blank. Man who told me doesn't take any
interest in play--over from Mentone for the day, just to see
things.--Well, this young fellow, as I say, shot himself--put
revolver to his forehead--there on the steps. And by George,
sir, he was mopped up and into a sack within twenty seconds!
One porter ready with sack, another to help, third with sponge
to mop steps--stage clear almost before you could rub your eyes.
. . . I just tell it to you as it was told to me, and by a man
pretty far gone in consumption, so that you'd say he'd be
cautious about lying.'

"I lit another cigar. 'With so priceless a fool as this,' I said
to myself, 'you must not be in a hurry, John Foe.' Aloud I
said, 'I've no passion either, for this place. I wanted to see
it, and I've seen it. I'll knock in at your room at eight
o'clock, if that will suit you, and we'll discuss plans. For my
part, I had a mind to go back to Cannes and start for a ramble
among the Esterel.'"

"To be brief, we struck the bargain and--incredible as you may
find it--have been running in double harness ever since. . . .
I couldn't have believed it myself, in prediction: but here it
is--_and until a few hours ago Farrell never guessed_.

"No: that is wrong. He never guessed at all. I told him.

"It came to me, after the first week, as habitually as daily
bread. We put in a couple of days at Mentone, another couple at
Nice; then for a fortnight we made Cannes our centre, with a trip
up to Grasse and several long tramps among the mountains.
After that came St. Tropez, Costebello, Toulon, Marseilles,
Montpellier--with excursions to Aigues-Mortes, the Pont du Gard
and the rest of it. From Montpellier we turned right about on
our tracks; took Cannes again, Antibes; drove along the whole
Corniche in a two-horse barouche. There was a sort of compact
that we'd do the whole Riviera--French and Italian--as thoroughly
as tourists can do it; and we did--from Montpellier to
Bordighera, from Bordighera to Genoa. And he never guessed.

"I had two bad moments; by which I m