Less than half an hour later, Jimmy's taxi stopped in front of the

fashionable Sherwood Apartments where Zoie had elected to live.

Ascending toward the fifth floor he scanned the face of the elevator boy

expecting to find it particularly solemn because of the tragedy that

had doubtless taken place upstairs. He was on the point of sending out

a "feeler" about the matter, when he remembered Zoie's solemn injunction

to "say nothing to anybody." Perhaps it was even worse than suicide. He

dared let his imagination go no further. By the time he had put out his

hand to touch the electric button at Zoie's front door, his finger was

trembling so that he wondered whether he could hit the mark. The result

Advertisement..

was a very faint note from the bell, but not so faint that it escaped

the ear of the anxious young wife, who had been pacing up and down the

floor of her charming living room for what seemed to her ages.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Zoie cried through her tears to her neat little

maid servant, then reaching for her chatelaine, she daubed her small

nose and flushed cheeks with powder, after which she nodded to Mary to

open the door.

To Jimmy, the maid's pert "good-morning" seemed to be in very bad taste

and to properly reprove her he assumed a grave, dignified air out of

which he was promptly startled by Zoie's even more unseemly greeting.

"Hello, Jimmy!" she snapped. Her tone was certainly not that of a

heart-broken widow. "It's TIME you got here," she added with an injured

air.

Jimmy gazed at Zoie in astonishment. She was never what he would have

called a sympathetic woman, but really----!

"I came the moment you 'phoned me," he stammered; "what is it? What's

the matter?"

"It's awful," sniffled Zoie. And she tore up and down the room

regardless of the fact that Jimmy was still unseated.

"Awful what?" questioned Jimmy.

"Worst I've ever had," sobbed Zoie.

"Is anything wrong with Alfred?" ventured Jimmy. And he braced himself

for her answer.

"He's gone," sobbed Zoie.

"Gone!" echoed Jimmy, feeling sure that his worst fears were about to be

realised. "Gone where?"

"I don't know," sniffled Zoie, "I just 'phoned his office. He isn't

there."

"Oh, is that all?" answered Jimmy, with a sigh of relief. "Just another

little family tiff," he was unable to conceal a feeling of thankfulness.

"What's up?"




Most Popular