A terrific lump rose in the speaker's throat, and blinded again by grief he turned hastily away to continue his march. This time Bertram detained him. Freddy tried to escape, but it was a grip of steel on his arm. "Come into the club a minute," said King, and his companion obeyed the leading. At least it would be a place where he could use his handkerchief secure from observation. "Now, you're not taking me to your room," objected the younger man, as his captor, not relaxing the hold on his arm, led him toward the elevator. "Guess again, Freddy," said Bertram; and the visitor, after a moment of holding back, found himself in the elevator. When they were in King's room, and the door closed, the host indicated a chair, but the guest remained standing. Bertram smiled a little wistfully as he regarded the other's youthful strength, thinking his face, in its present condition of repressed emotion, looked as it must have done when he was ten. "What do you want with me?" asked Freddy, his head held high. "I wish I knew what you use for a hair tonic," said Bertram, passing his hand over his own fair locks, beginning to feel thin at the crown. "Don't be a--What have you brought me up here for?" "To let you pull yourself together for one thing. You were in a fair way to assault and batter all down the avenue." "You--you _fish_!" ejaculated the visitor, changing his mind suddenly, and dropping into the offered chair. Quite frankly he covered his flushed face with his handkerchief and choked into it. King sat down near an open window, and waited for the paroxysm to pass. "It breaks me up completely to see Linda like that," said Whitcomb at last, wiping his eyes and shaking his shoulders impatiently. He faced his host, and realized the latter's appearance. No one could look seedier than King, he thought. "Of course I know you're rushed," he added, "but in your place I'd rather have sat up all night than not to see her off; and the humorous part of it is that I've been believing you were crazy about her." The two regarded each other for a silent space, and for the first time there crept into the younger man's mind the cold suspicion that the change in Linda's fortune had affected Bertram King. Even so, it could not have made such a brute of him as to let Linda creep off alone! "Harriet was there, and Henry," he said, just for the sake of speaking, while he strove with this strange idea, one which had elements of relief for himself while it added fuel to his indignation with King. "Of course," answered the other coolly. "So that was a pretty good bodyguard, for you're always a host, Freddy." "There was very little I could do for her," declared Whitcomb, "and I'm sure you--you hurt her feelings." "I'm glad you were there," said King. "You've no right to be glad," retorted Freddy.