Oh, Otto, I know ye!" Felix laughed outright.

"Thank you, Mr.Kling," he said, yielding his place to his employer, "and if you will excuse me, madam," and he bowed to his customer, "I will see what it is all about--and now, Mistress Kitty, what can I do for you ?" Kitty backed away toward the door, so that a huge wardrobe shielded her from Otto and his customer.
"Come near, Mr.O'Day," she whispered, all her forced humor gone.

"I've got the woman who dropped the sleeve-buttons." Felix swayed unsteadily, and gripped a chair-back for support.
"You've got--the woman--What do you mean ?" he said at last.
"Mike saw her at the police-station.

They've put her in a cell." "Arrested ?" "Yes, for stealin'." Involuntarily his fingers brushed his throat as if he were choking, but no words came.

He had been all his life accustomed to surprises, some of them appalling, but against this, for the instant, he had no power to stand.
Kitty stood watching the quivering of his lips and the drawn, strained muscles about his jaw and neck as his will power whipped them back to their normal shape.