"No. He was bailed out to-day. I thought you knew it."
"I didn't. I'm glad you told me, though. So King got bail! Who put it up? It was high!"
"Larch!"
"The hotel keeper?"
"So I understand. They took Harry away a while ago. I wish I had been in his shoes."
"I'm glad you're not. I don't imagine, for a moment, that fool King had a hand in this affair. In fact I know he didn't. But his are pretty uncertain shoes to be in just the same. Now cheer up! This setting him free on bail has given me a new angle to work on. So cheer up, and I'll do the best I can for you. Any message you want to send to Miss Mason?"
"Only that I—" Darcy hesitated and grew red.
"I guess I understand," said the colonel with a laugh. "I'll tell her!"
The colonel spent that evening in the grill room of the Homestead. Though it was not the same as it had been, and though patronage of the better sort had fallen off considerably, it was still a jolly enough sort of place of its character to be in. A number of "men about town," as they liked to be called, were in, and Colonel Ashley was sipping his julep when there entered Mr. Kettridge, the relative of Mrs. Darcy, whose jewelry shop he was managing pending a settlement of her estate.
"Good evening, Colonel," he called genially. "Will you join me in a
Welsh rabbit?"