"Has Lady Douglass gone away yet?"
"Now why, apropos of nothing, should you mention her name?"
"You never did have much sense about you, and now you seem to have none at all. Concentrate your mind. Think! What was the question I put to you?" He admitted he could not recall it, and she repeated the inquiry.
"Leaves early to-morrow morning," he answered; "that is partly why I have come up to town. I don't want to see her again before she goes." Jim Langham rested elbows on the counter, and covered eyes with his hands. "Have you ever," he asked, "in the course of your existence, met with a bigger fool than me?"
"To be quite candid," said Gertie, "I don't think I have."
She fetched the cup from the back room, and brought it to him. He sipped at the hot beverage, and appeared to recover.
"Do you mind if I smoke?" he asked courteously.
She laughed. "This is half a tobacconist's shop!"
"Quite so," remarked Jim Langham, taking a cigar from his case. "I say," he went on confidentially, taking the movable gas jet, "do you know anything about the Argentine?"
"Mr. Trew might tell you something about it if he were here. I don't take any interest in horse-racing."