THE GIRL IN HIS HOUSE
But what of the other girl, the girl who was living in his house, believing it to be lawfully hers? She or her father had paid eighty thousand for it in good faith, and she was living there all alone, for her father was evidently something of a will-o'-the-wisp. He couldn't go to her and tell her she'd been rooked by a dishonest lawyer. Pearl and pomegranate and Persian peach! It was very pleasant to recall the amber nimbus over her hair, the round, lovely arms. What would have happened had she caught him behind those curtains? What an infernal muddle! And here was the very gate to it, the Armitage office-building.
He went in, prepared for the worst. After a search he found Morrissy, the janitor of the building, who had occupied his post for twenty-odd years.
"I'm Armitage," he announced without preamble. "Have you got the key to Bordman's office?"
"Yes, sir."
"Are all his things there?"
"Just as he left them. Been wondering if he was ever coming back. I recognize
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