But the gallant friend of Pinkertons faced her--for the first
time. "Waste his travel-money?" he was inwardly exclaiming as
he said:

"But I thought you had some one in that room. I heard som--"

"That fellow! Oh, he ain't going to be perm'nent. And he
promised me--So you can have--"

"I'm _awful_ sorry, Mrs. Zapp, but I'm afraid I can't take it.
Fact is, I may go traveling for a while."

"Co'se you'll keep your room if you do, Mist' Wrenn?"

"Why, I'm afraid I'll have to give it up, but--Oh, I may not be
going for a long long while yet; and of course I'll be glad to
come--I'll want to come back here when I get back to New York.
I won't be gone for more than, oh, probably not more than a year
anyway, and--"

"And Ah thought you said you was going to be perm'nent!" Mrs.
Zapp began quietly, prefatory to working herself up into
hysterics. "And here Ah've gone and had your room fixed up
just for you, and new paper put in, and you've always been
talking such a lot about how you wanted your furniture arranged,
and Ah've gone and made all mah plans--"

Mr. Wrenn had been a shyly paying guest of the Zapps for four
years. That famous new paper had been put up two years before.
So he spluttered: "Oh, I'm _awfully_ sorry. I wish--uh--I