At eleven o’clock the watchman of the building, noticing the light, came to investigate. A moment he stood in the open door, an appreciative observer. On tiptoe he moved away. 284
“Some one’s paying good and plenty for this,” he commented sotto voce and with a knowing wag of the head. “The old man’s all in—and he isn’t doing it for his health alone, you bet!”
CHAPTER VII
TRAVESTY
Out in the street, in front of the Gleason cottage, the red car glistened in the moonlight. In the shade of the familiar veranda Roberts tossed his gauntlets and cap on the floor and drew forth two wicker rocking-chairs where they would catch the slight midsummer night wind.
“Hottest night of the season, I fancy,” he commented, as he helped his companion remove her dust coat and waited thereafter until she was seated before he took the place by her side. “Old Reliable number two certainly did us a good turn this evening. Runs like an advertisement, doesn’t it?”
It was a minute before the girl answered. “Yes. It sounds cheap to say so, but at times, like to-night, it almost seems to me Paradise. It makes one forget, temporarily, the things one wishes to forget.”