Then, too, it seemed as if the bone in his nose was going, due perhaps to the shrinkage of the blood vessels from some cause.
Constance noticed a couple of girls whom she had seen Adele speak to on several other occasions approaching the young man.
There came an opportune lull in the music and from around the corner of her protecting angle Constance could just catch the greeting of one of the girls, "Hello, Sleighbells! Got any snow!" It was a remark that seemed particularly malapropos to the sultry weather, and Constance half expected a burst of laughter at the unexpected sally.
Instead, she was surprised to hear the young man reply in a very serious and matter-of-fact manner, "Sure.

Got any money, May ?" She craned her neck, carefully avoiding coming into Drummond's line of vision, and as she did so she saw two silver quarters gleam momentarily from hand to hand, and the young man passed each girl stealthily a small white paper packet.
Others came to him, both men and women.

It seemed to be an established thing, and Constance noted that Drummond watched it all covertly.
"Who is that ?" asked Constance of the waiter who had served her sometimes when she had been with Adele, and knew her.
"Why, they call him Sleighbells Charley," he replied, "a coke fiend." "Which means a cocaine fiend, I suppose!" she queried.
"Yes.

He's a lobbygow for the grapevine system they have now of selling the dope in spite of this new law." "Where does he get the stuff!" she asked.
The waiter shrugged his shoulders.

"Nobody knows, I guess.