Still, I had almost screwed
up my nerve to going out this afternoon--"
"It doesn't pay to take any risks," warned Blythe, as they shook
hands.
The two men looked each other closely, steadily in the eye. Courtney
was the first to speak at the end of this mutual scrutiny.
"I wasn't quite sure whether I met you over there, Captain Blythe,"
he said, "but now I know that I didn't. I've been puzzling my brain
for days trying to recall the name, or at least your face. I may
be wrong, however. I haven't much of a memory. I hope you will
forgive me if we did meet and I have forgotten it. I--"
"I have no recollection of ever having seen you, Mr. Thane," said
Blythe. "It isn't surprising, however. It--it was a pretty big war,
you know."
Charlie Webster was slightly dashed. If anything, Courtney Thane was
more at ease, more convincing than Addison Blythe. He felt rather
foolish. Something, it seemed, had fallen very flat. He evaded Mr.
Hatch's eye.
"Sit down, Captain Blythe," said Courtney affably. "Hope you don't
mind this bath gown. Charlie, make yourself at home on the bed,--you
too, Hatch. We're as shy of chairs here as we were at the front,
you see."
Blythe remained for half an hour and then went away with his two
companions. Courtney shook hands with him and said good-bye at the
hall door; then he strode over to the bureau to look at himself
in the glass.
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