Mr.Coulson, however, kept pace with him steadily, and toward midnight their acquaintance had steadily progressed until they were certainly on friendly if not affectionate terms.

A round of the supper places, proposed by the Englishman, was assented to by Mr.
Coulson with enthusiasm.

About three o'clock in the morning Mr.Coulson had the appearance of a man for whom the troubles of this world are over, and who was realizing the ecstatic bliss of a temporary Nirvana.
Mr.Gaynsforth, on the other hand, although half an hour ago he had been boisterous and unsteady, seemed suddenly to have become once more the quiet, discreet-looking young Englishman who had first bowed to Mr.
Coulson in the bar of the Grand Hotel and accepted with some diffidence his offer of a drink.

To prevent his friend being jostled by the somewhat mixed crowd in which they then were, Mr.Gaynsforth drew nearer and nearer to him.

He even let his hand stray over his person, as though to be sure that he was not carrying too much in his pockets.
"Say, old man," he whispered in his ear,--they were sitting side by side now in the Bal Tabarin,--"if you are going on like this, Heaven knows where you'll land at the end of it all! I'll look after you as well as I can,--where you go, I'll go--but we can't be together every second of the time.