“Then you had better.”
“Thank you, no.”
Miss De Voe thought her former thought again.
“Where do you generally dine?” she asked.
“I have no regular place. Just where I happen to be.”
“And to-night?”
Peter was not good at dodging. He was silent for a moment. Then he said, “I saw rather a curious thing, as I was walking up. Would you like to hear about it?”
Miss De Voe looked at him curiously, but she did not seem particularly interested in what Peter had to tell her, in response to her “yes.” It concerned an arrest on the streets for drunkenness.
“I didn’t think the fellow was half as drunk as frozen,” Peter concluded, “and I told the policeman it was a case for an ambulance rather than a station-house. He didn’t agree, so I had to go with them both to the precinct and speak to the superintendent.”
“That was before your dinner?” asked Miss De Voe, calmly.