“Yes, Mr. O'Day, I wouldn't butt in if I could help it. Excuse me, ma'am, but there's Otto just got loose, and--Otto, come over here and take care of this lady who is goin' to let me have Mr. O'Day for half an hour. Thank ye, ma'am, you don't know me, but I'm Kitty Cleary, the expressman's wife, from across the street, and I'm always mixin' in where I don't belong and I know ye'll forgive me. Otto'll charge ye twice the price Mr. O'Day would, but he can't help it because he's Dutch. Oh, Otto, I know ye!” Felix laughed outright. “Thank you, Mr. Kling,” he said, yielding his place to his employer, “and if you will excuse me, madam,” and he bowed to his customer, “I will see what it is all about--and now, Mistress Kitty, what can I do for you?” Kitty backed away toward the door, so that a huge wardrobe shielded her from Otto and his customer. “Come near, Mr. O'Day,” she whispered, all her forced humor gone. “I've got the woman who dropped the sleeve-buttons.” Felix swayed unsteadily, and gripped a chair-back for support. “You've got--the woman--What do you mean?” he said at last. “Mike saw her at the police-station. They've put her in a cell.” “Arrested?” “Yes, for stealin'.” Involuntarily his fingers brushed his throat as if he were choking, but no words came. He had been all his life accustomed to surprises, some of them appalling, but against this, for the instant, he had no power to stand. Kitty stood watching the quivering of his lips and the drawn, strained muscles about his jaw and neck as his will power whipped them back to their normal shape. She was convinced now of the truth of her suspicions--the woman was not only interwoven with his past, but was closely identified with his present anguish. She drew closer, her voice rising. “Ye'll go with me, won't ye, Mr. Felix?” she went on, hiding under an assumed indifference all recognition of his struggle. “Father Cruse told me if I ever come across her again, and there wasn't time to get hold of him, to let ye know.” “I will go anywhere, where Father Cruse thinks I should, Mrs. Cleary--especially in cases of this kind, where I may be of use.” The words had come from between partly closed lips; his hands were still tightly clinched. “And you say she was arrested--for stealing?” “Yes, shopliftin', they call it. Poor creatures, they get that miserable and trodden on they don't know right from wrong!”