. . . Thank you! Thank you,
ma'am! Thank you!"
He banged up the receiver and flew out the basement door. When he
reached the news-stand, he stood with his hands twitching, talking to
himself for a half hour before Diana appeared. She walked up to him as
directly as a man would have done.
"What's happened, Jonas?"
"You and the boss must have quarreled last night. When anything
strikes the boss deep, he wants to gamble. Of late years he's mostly
fought it off, but once in a while it gets him. He's been at it since
last night over yonder, and for the first time in years I can't do
anything with him. And if it gets out, you know, Miss Allen, he's
ruined. I don't dast to leave him long, that's why I got you to come
here."
Diana's chin lifted. "Do you mean to tell me that a man of Mr.
Huntingdon's reputation and ability, still stoops to that sort of
thing?"
"Stoop! What do you mean, stoop? O Lord, I thought, seeing he sets
the world by you, that you was different from the run of women and
would understand." Jonas twisted his brown hands together.
"Understand what?" asked Diana, her great eyes fastened on Jonas with
pity and scorn struggling in them.
"Understand what it means to him. How it's like a conjur that Luigi
wished on him when he was a little boy.
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