get back home to breakfast."

Albert stared. "Well, I got to go upstairs and eat my own breakfast in
about a minute, haven't I? But just as it happens there wouldn't be any
use your goin' over there, or me, either."

"Why not?"

"Milla ain't there," said Albert, still searching the pockets of his
coat. "When we went by her house last night to tell her about your
headache and stomach and all, why, her mother told us Milla'd gone up to
Chicago yesterday afternoon with her aunt, and said she left a note for
you, and she said if you were sick I better take it and give it to you.
I was goin' to bring it over to your house after breakfast." He found
it. "Here!"

Ramsey thanked him feebly, and departed in a state of partial
stupefaction, brought on by a glimpse of the instabilities of life. He
had also, not relief, but a sense of vacancy and loss; for Milla, out of
his reach, once more became mysteriously lovely.

Pausing in an alley, he read her note.

Dearie: Thought I ought to call you up but over the 'phone is just nix
for explanations as Mama and Aunt Jess would hear everything and thought
I might seem cold to you not saying anything sweet on account of them
listening and you would wonder why I was so cold when telling you
good-by for a wile maybe weeks. It is this way Uncle Purv wired Aunt
Jess he has just taken in a big touring car on a debt and his vacation
starts to-morrow so if they were going to take a trip they better start