We had meanwhile turned up a side street. Here the "Canadian" stopped and taking a couple of cent pieces showed the other how matching was done. "Ah, get along with you," said the young fellow, "You Can't fool me that way. Any sucker could beat you at that game. Its all baloney." "You think so?" said the "Canadian" "Let's try."
They matched, and, of course, the "Canadian" won, and the other handed him a dollar. They matched a second time with the same "csult and the young fellow walked eff a few yards, as if in a huff. I had watched these proceedings with only a very languid interest and in a very detached frame of mind.
It is true that so far I had signally failed to play the role of sucker that they had allotted for me; but then. on the other hand, neither did I
He asked me what I was doing in the afternoon. I said I was going on a sight-seeing tour, whereupon he expressed a wish fo accompany me to which I gave a very languid assent. I then went out to lunch and promptly forgot all about him. When I got back to the hotel I found him waiting for me in the hall He at once came up to me and said that the sightseeing bus did not start for another hour or more. (This was a very lucky shot of his, for as it happened I had not made any enquiries myself, nor did I go up to the hotel desk).
He then said that he must call round at a hat shop where he had ordered a hat that morning. And. indeed, the hat he was wearing did look a bit shabby and out of keeping with the rest of his smart apparel. Would I come along?
As we went out, he mentioned that he was staying at the hotel, giving the-mumber of his room as the one next to mine,—another "coincidence" that again failed to excite my attention. As we walked along we discussed England and Canada quite intelligently.
We had not gone very far when a youngish fellow with a strong American accent accosted us and asked u: the way to the Walton Hotel. I replied that we were strangers, and looked up the hotel in the guide-book I was carrying, but not unnaturally could not find it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.