HooJ Beats 



answer me; did she look like Alice?" I blurted 

 out at last. 



* ' Look like Alice ? Look like Alice ? ' ' Norman 

 hissed at me between clenched teeth. "It was 

 Alice, I tell you. Ruth and I both saw. " 



He left me there staring vacantly at the door 

 he'd slammed behind him. 



I didn't see Norman again for several days after 

 that. We rather avoided each other, I fancy. 

 Then, one morning Mrs. Norman called me up 

 and asked me there to dine that night. Norman 

 laughed a little sheepishly when we met. 



"Something must have got on my nerves the 

 other day. What rot! Believed it, too, you 

 know, hanged if I didn't. Have a cocktail?" 

 Mrs. Norman accepted for me. 



"Of course, we both will. What were you 

 saying about nerves?" 



But Norman was already making a great noise 

 with ice and a shaker. Either he didn't hear or 

 pretended not to. 



After dinner we sat and sipped our coffee com- 

 fortably, while Norman discoursed on the trials 

 and tribulations of an M. F. H. Once Mrs. Nor- 

 man interrupted. 



"We all ought to drop in on Jimmie this 

 evening. We haven't been for ages. Shall we?" 



The green and white farmhouse where Trotter 

 160 



