determinedly straining back against his tether. The collar had pulled
forward all the loose skin of his neck, so that his eyes and features were
lost in wrinkles.

"He doesn't yap," volunteered Nan.

Keith gave it as his opinion that Gringo would stop short of suicide,
commended Gringo's taciturnity and evident perseverance, and departed for
the hotel. In the dining-room he saw Mrs. Sherwood in a riding habit,
eating alone. Keith hesitated, then took the vacant seat opposite. She
accorded this permission cordially, but without coquetry, remarking that
Sherwood often did not get in at noon. Immediately she turned the
conversation to Keith's affairs, inquiring in detail as to how the settling
was getting on, when they expected to get in, how they liked the house,
whether they had bought all the furniture.

"You remember I directed you to the auctions?" she said.

She asked all these questions directly, as a man would, and listened to his
replies.

"I suppose you have an office picked out?" she surmised.

At his mention of the Merchants' Exchange Building she raised her arched
eyebrows half humorously.

"You picked out an expensive place."

Keith went over his reasoning, to which she listened with a half smile.