Page 140 (1/1)

"I should be very glad to be friends with you," he said with an ingenuous dignity that surprised Mortimer It was only the native simplicity of the man, veneered and polished by constant contact with Mrs Mortiratified Morti to é

The tall glasses were filled and drained again before they departed to the cold plunge and dressing-rooarb to drive don and lunch together at the Lenox Club, Plank as Fleetwood's guest

Mortied hireat stuffed arm-chair by the here he alternately nodded over his coffee and wheezed in his breathing, and leered out at Fifth Avenue from half-closed, puffy eyes And there he was due to sit, sodden and replete, until the fashionable equipages began to flash past He'd probably see his wife driving with Mrs Ferrall or with Miss Caithness, or perhaps with so caryatid of the social structure; and he'd sit there, leering with gummy eyes out of the club hile servants in silent processional replenished his glass froirls flocked out into the highways in gossiping, fluttering coveys, trotting away across the illuy destinations And after they had gone he would probably arouse hiossip with Major Belwether and other white-haired familiars, or perhaps doze until it was tio ho O'Hara and Fleetwood to give hih to overnors of the club and to a dozen members, then left him to his fate Whence, presently, Fleetwood and O'Hara extracted hientleman, one Peter Caithness, who divided with Major Belwether the distinction of being the club bore--and together they piloted him to the billiard room, where he beat theested

"You play alame as Stephen Siward used to play," said O'Hara cordially "You've so of his infernal facility and touch Hasn't he, Fleetwood?"

"I wish Siere back here," said Fleetwood thoughtfully, returning his cue to his own rack "I wonder what he does with himself--where he keeps himself all the while? What the devil is there for aout anywhere since his o to, I understand What does he do--go to his office and come back, and sit in that shabby old brick house all day and blink at the buuished ancestors? Do you knohat he does with himself?" to O'Hara