"You poor, feckless dub!" she pronounced as she turned from him to dance through the gate.

He scarcely heard the words; her look and tone had been so warming.
Ten minutes later he was telling a barber that he had just finished a hard week on the Holden lot, and that he was glad to get the brush off at last.

From the barber's he hastened to the Patterson house, rather dreading the encounter with one to whom he owed so much money.

He found the house locked.

Probably both of the Pattersons had gone out into society.