He was silent for a moment.

Then he said, "I saw rather a curious thing, as I was walking up.

Would you like to hear about it ?" Miss De Voe looked at him curiously, but she did not seem particularly interested in what Peter had to tell her, in response to her "yes." It concerned an arrest on the streets for drunkenness.
"I didn't think the fellow was half as drunk as frozen," Peter concluded, "and I told the policeman it was a case for an ambulance rather than a station-house.

He didn't agree, so I had to go with them both to the precinct and speak to the superintendent." "That was before your dinner ?" asked Miss De Voe, calmly.
It was a very easily answered question, apparently, but Peter was silent again.
"It was coming up here," he said finally.
"What is he trying to keep back ?" asked Miss De Voe mentally.

"I suppose some of the down-town places are not quite--but he wouldn't--" then she said out loud: "I wonder if you men do as women do, when they dine alone?
Just live on slops.