Indiscretions of Archie

ceased for the moment to be a thing of careless enjoyment. Mr. Wheeler, mourning over his lost home-brew and refusing, like Niobe, to be comforted, has suspended the sittings for the

was not surprised at her being popular and in demand among her frie

ice and liked exercising it on the subject of himself, had been telling Archie a few anecdotes about his professional past. From these the latter had conceived a picture of Roscoe Sherriff's life as a prismatic thing of energy and adventure and well-paid withal-just the s

it amazes me. All you birds seem to have been doing th

why don

h from his cigarette

ffam starts out to do things he infallibly makes a bloomer. There was a Moffam in the Middle Ages who had a sudden spasm

e get

mistook him for a tramp-or a varlet, or a scurvy knave, or whatever they

least he

ke a chappie

that he could make a convert of Archie and incidentally do himself a bit of good. For several da

hings," he said, "there's somethi

ction was what h

boy, anything! S

objection to putting

g up a

r a day

mean, old soul?

opolis, isn't it? Of course! You married old Br

d so forth, but my jolly old father-in-law would never let me keep a snak

uldn't

in the hotel that he doesn't

point of the thing is that

ome more ash int

you know what I mean," he said. "I mean to say-in the first place-why wou

to Mme. Brudowska. You've

e female in vaudeville or something, isn't

is the leading exponent of high-brow tra

d me wedged in an orchestra-stall before I knew what I was up against, and then it was too late. I remember

I bought Peter-its name's Peter-myself down on the East Side. I always believe in animals for Press-agent stunts. I've nearly always had good

courteously, "But how? Why is your

ed twenty, and every time she turns them down on the ground that that sort of thing is beneath the dignity of an artist in her p

Pinch it, a

e she's practically kidded herself into believing that Russian prince story. If I can sneak it away and kee

s

all it cheap and degrading and a lot of other things. It's got to be a genuin

to keep the jo

a hat-box, and make it up a shakedow

's away just now and it's a

Peter around. He's a great sc

I suppose, or st

pends on the weather. But, outside o

anaries," said Archie, thou

!" pleaded th

way, touching the matter of browsing

Well, I'm much obliged for your hospitality. I'll do the same for you another time. Now I must be getting along to see to the

been entirely wise to lend his sympathy and co-operation to the scheme. He had never had intimate dealings with a snake before, but he had kept silkworms as a child, and there had been the deuce of a lot of fuss and u

d uttered concerning Peter, he found his doubts increasing. Peter might, as the Press-agent had stated, be a great scout, but was his little Garde

My dear

round and bit his tongue. Revolving on his axis, he found himself confronting a middle-aged man with a face like a horse. The man was dressed in something of an ol

e been trying to find

since the days when he used to meet him at the home of young Lord Seacliff, his nephew. Arch

, what ho! What on earth

e into a side-street, "That's better." He cleared his throat once or t

fy here? Oh, I

like a horse with a secret sorrow. He coughed three times, like

," he said. "Let me see, how lo

e ref

a year before that. The old egg got a bit of shrapnel in his foo

d inaction led to disastrous results. You recollect, no doubt, that Se

g it? Looking on the jolly old stuff

act

ie n

r the wassail-bowl. When I met him in Paris,

r. My poor sister was extremely worried. In fact, to cut a long story short, I induced him t

rea

remaining in New York. He stated specifically that the thought of

e p

p. Prec

idea of bringing

e General looked at his watch. "It is most fortunate that I happened to run into you, my dear fellow. My train for Wash

say!

-stuff, and I should be infinitely obliged-and my poor sister would be infinitely grateful-if you would keep an eye on him." He hailed a

expressed a regret that he did not belong to the ranks of those who do things. Fate since then had certainly supplied him with jobs with a lavish hand. By bed-time he would be an active ac

Cosmopolis. Roscoe Sherriff was pacing the lobby

Good heavens, man, I've

as musing a bit and l

autiously round. There w

e is!"

ho

et

d Archie, st

him strolling arm-in-arm with me roun

he bag, made his way to the lift.

at the second floor where the tea-room is, and she had the contented expression of one who had tea'd to her satisfaction. She got off at the same floor as Archie, and walked swiftly, in a lithe, pantherist way, round the bend in the corridor. A

gs that were better closed. It would have been simple for Archie to have taken another step and put a door between himself and the world, but there came to him the ir

out popped the head of Peter. His eyes met Archie's. Over his head there seemed to be an invisible mark of

zards by the fact that the halves (RAMI) of the lower jaw are not solidly united at the chin, but movably connected by an elastic ligament. The vertebra are very numerous, gastroc

e had made any real impression on him, a piercing scream almost at his elbow-startled him out of his scientific reverie. A door opposite had opened, and the woman of the elevator was standing staring at him with an expression of horror and fury that w

ts worth of the great emotional star for nothing. For, having treated him gratis to the look of horror and fury, she now moved towards him with the sinuous walk a

hi

e way she

with a flying foot, and collapsed on the bed. Peter, the snake, who had fallen on the floor with a squashy sound, looked sur