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"I was about to ask you to dine with ht," disappointedly

"Can't; awfully sorry, Abby It was only luck that I lad to see you again"

Abbott kicked a broken easel into a corner "All right If anything turns

up I'll let you know You're at the Grand?"

"Yes By-by"

"I knohat's the matter with him," mused the artist, alone "Some woman

has chucked him Silly little fool, probably"

Courtlandt went down-stairs and out into the boulevard Frankly, he was

beginning to feel concerned He still held to his original opinion that

the diva had disappeared of her own free will; but if the machinery of the

police had been started, he realized that his own safety would eventually

become involved By this time, he reasoned, there would not be a hotel in

Paris free of surveillance Naturally, blond strangers would be in demand

The conored

He agreed with his conscience that he had not acted with dignity in

forcing his way into her apartht he had been at odds

with convention; his spirit had been that of theold Dutchman of

the seventeenth century He perfectly well knew that she was in the right

as far as the pistol-shot was concerned Further, he knew that he could