“I look as if I had been out with the boys all night,” he said, observing his bloodshot eyes and pallid expression. “I’d give something to know what has knocked me out.”
He did not feel hungry, but he believed a cup of coffee would do him good.
On his way from the elevator to the dining-room he stopped at the office and asked the clerk if he had any idea when he came in last evening.
“You’ll have to see the night man about that,” replied the spruce young man with a quizzical smile. “Been having a good time, I suppose. Better get a bromo-seltzer before you eat. Step into the drug store, right through the corridor, and he’ll fix you up all right.”
Vance thought the clerk’s advice was good and he followed it, after which he went into breakfast.
It was not long before the events of the preceding evening began to fashion themselves in his brain, and the situation dawned upon him.
“But I didn’t drink anything at that place,” he persisted to himself, “that is, nothing but a cup of coffee. Perhaps strong coffee at midnight doesn’t agree with me, as I’m not used to it. All the same, it’s funny I don’t remember a thing about how the affair wound up, or how I got back and into my bed upstairs.”
The reflection annoyed him a good bit.
“That Miss Miller is a fine looking girl, all right,” he mused, trying to devote his attention to the morning’s report about the corn market; “I don’t think I ever met such an attractive person. Still, I think I prefer Bessie. And the chap that was with her—I forget his name—he seems to be a pretty swell party. Seems to me I’ve seen him before. If I have, of course it was in Chicago. I wonder if Dudley will be around looking for me this morning? I don’t fancy him much, although he certainly treated me away up in G. I’m sorry on the whole I met him, for if he returns to town before me he’ll probably mention that he met me out here, and that’s just what Mr. Whitemore doesn’t want. If it should get about that I was on a night racket with him it’s bound to hurt me. I guess I’d better cut Dudley out by taking an early train for Grainville.”
As this seemed to be good policy, Vance hastened to settle with the hotel people, and having found that he could get a train for his destination at 1:30 p. m., he snatched a hasty lunch, hired a cab, and reached the station in plenty of time to board the through accommodation.