"Do you generally play the messenger during business hours?" thundered

Alfred, becoming more and more enraged at Jimmy's petty evasions.

"Just SOMETIMES," answered Jimmy, persisting in his amiable manner.

"Jimmy," said Alfred, and there was a solemn warning in his voice,

"don't YOU lie to me!"

Jimmy started as though shot. The consciousness of his guilt was strong

upon him. "I beg your pardon," he gasped, for the want of anything more

intelligent to say.

"You don't do it well," continued Alfred, "and you and I are old

friends."

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Jimmy's round eyes fixed themselves on the carpet.

"My wife has been telling you her troubles," surmised Alfred.

Jimmy tried to protest, but the lie would not come.

"Very well," continued Alfred, "I'll tell you something too. I've done

with her." He thrust his hands in his pockets and began to walk up and

down.

"What a turbulent household," thought Jimmy and then he set out in

pursuit of his friend. "I'm sorry you've had a misunderstanding," he

began.

"Misunderstanding!" shouted Alfred, turning upon him so sharply that he

nearly tripped him up, "we've never had anything else. There was never

anything else for us TO have. She's lied up hill and down dale from the

first time she clinched her baby fingers around my hand--" he imitated

Zoie's dainty manner--"and said 'pleased to meet you!' But I've caught

her with the goods this time," he shouted, "and I've just about got

HIM."

"Him!" echoed Jimmy weakly.

"The wife-stealer," exclaimed Alfred, and he clinched his fists in

anticipation of the justice he would one day mete out to the despicable

creature.

Now Jimmy had been called many things in his time, he realised that he

would doubtless be called many more things in the future, but never by

the wildest stretch of imagination, had he ever conceived of himself in

the role of "wife-stealer."

Mistaking Jimmy's look of amazement for one of incredulity, Alfred

endeavoured to convince him.

"Oh, YOU'LL meet a wife-stealer sooner or later," he assured him. "You

needn't look so horrified."

Jimmy only stared at him and he continued excitedly: "She's had the

effrontery--the bad taste--the idiocy to lunch in a public restaurant

with the blackguard."

The mere sound of the word made Jimmy shudder, but engrossed in his own

troubles Alfred continued without heeding him.

"Henri, the head-waiter, told me," explained Alfred, and Jimmy

remembered guiltily that he had been very bumptious with the fellow.

"You know the place," continued Alfred, "the LaSalle--a restaurant where

I am known--where she is known--where my best friends dine--where Henri

has looked after me for years. That shows how desperate she is. She

must be mad about the fool. She's lost all sense of decency." And again

Alfred paced the floor.




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