tering at the telephone a moment ago, too; and now the
faithful one was at the door and working over the latch.

Mary's ears were preternaturally keen, too; Mary had acquired a way of
standing erect and poising every time sounds came from that door. She
did it now, remaining on tiptoe until the oddest little giggle brought
Anthony and Johnson Boller to their feet also.

"That's a woman's voice!" Mary whispered.

And she looked about wildly, and, since there was no hope of escape
unseen by the corridor, her eyes fell upon the open door of Johnson
Boller's room. Mary, with a bound that would have done credit to a young
deer, was across the room, and the door clicked behind her just as
Wilkins, smiling in a perturbed and mystified way, appeared to announce:

"A lady, sir, who----"

Then the lady had passed him, moving with a speed almost equal to Mary's
own--a lovely lady, indeed, with great, flashing black eyes and black
hair--a lady all life and spirit, her face suffused just now with a
great joy. Wilkins, perceiving that neither gentleman protested after
gazing at her for one second, backed away to regions of his own, and the
spell on Johnson Boller broke and his soul found vent in one great, glad
cry of:

"Bee!"

"Pudgy-wudgy!" cried the lady, and flew directly into Johnson Boller's
arms!

Anthony Fry steadied himself, mentally and physically, and the little
smile that came to his lips was more than half sneer--because Johnson
Boller and his lovely wife were hugging each other and babbling
senselessly, and the best that Anthony could make of it at first was
something like:

"And was it lonely? Oh, Pudgy-wudgy, was it lonely?"

Whereat Johnson Boller burbled:

"Lonely, sugar-plum? Lonely, sweetie? Oh, Beetie-girl, if Pudgy-wudgy
could tell you how lonely----"

Here they kissed again, three times, four times, five times!

"Hell!" said Anthony Fry.

"And did it come back?" the imbecile that had been Johnson Boller
gurgled.

The dark, exquisite head burrowed deep on Boller's shoulder.

"Oh, Pudgy!" a muffled voice protested, almost tearfully. "I couldn't do
it! I thought I could, but I couldn't, sweetest!"

"And so it came back to its Pudgy-wudgy!" Johnson Boller oozed
ecstatically. "So it turned around and came back to its Pudgy!"

Mrs. Boller regarded him solemnly, holding him off for a moment.

"At some awful, awful place north of Albany," she said. "I couldn't go
any farther and I--I was going