made me tell him i was once married william my wife � it was just such a case as yours she did not get better sir no after a pause he said thank you sir meaning for the sympathy that made me tell him that but it must have been the wine that little girl comes here with a message from your wife yes if she three times it means my wife is a httle better she nodded thrice to day but she is told to do that to relieve me and maybe those don t tell the truth is she your girl no we have none but the baby she is a neighbour s she comes twice a day it is heartless of her parents not to send her every hour but she is six years old he said and has a house and two sisters to look after in the and a dinner to cook don t understand i suppose you live in some low part william the waiter off lane he answered flushing but � but it is n t low you see we were never used to anything better and i mind when i let her see the house before we were married she � she a sort of cried because she was so proud of it that was eight years ago and now � she s she die when i m away at my work did she tell you that never she always says she is feeling a little stronger then how can you know she is afraid of that i don t know how i know sir but when i am leaving the house in the morning i look at her from the door and she looks at me and then i � i know a green william i tried to forget william s vulgar story in but he had spoiled my game my opponent to whom i can give twenty ran out when i was sixty seven and i put aside my cue that in itself was bad form but what would they have thought had they known that a waiter s impertinence caused it i grew with william as the night wore on and next day i punished him by giving my orders through another waiter as i had my window seat i could not but see that the girl was late again somehow i over my coffee i had an evening paper before me but there was so little in it that my eyes found the waiter more of interest in the street it did not matter to me whether william s wife died but when that girl had promised to come why did she not come these lower classes only give their word to break it the coffee was at last i saw her william was at another window pretending to do something with the curtains i stood up pressing closer to the window the coffee had been so bad that i felt she nodded three times and smiled she is a little better william whispered to me almost gaily whom are you speaking of i asked coldly and immediately retired to the room where i played a capital game the coffee was much better there than in the dining room several days passed and i took care to show william that i had forgotten his i chanced to see the little girl though i never looked for her every evening and she always nodded three times save once when she shook her head and then william s face grew white as a i remember this incident because that night i could not get into a pocket so badly did i play that the thought of it kept me awake in bed and that again made me wonder how william s wife was next day i went to the club early which was not my custom to see the new books being in the club at any rate i looked into the dining room to ask william if i had left my gloves there and the sight of him reminded me of his wife so i asked the waiter for her he shook his head mournfully and i went off in a rage so accustomed am i to the club that when i dine elsewhere i feel uncomfortable next morning as if i had missed a dinner william knew this yet here he was me out of the club that evening i dined as the saying is at a where no was served with the as if that were not triumph enough for william his face came between me and every dish and i seemed to see his wife dying to annoy me i dined next day at the club for self preservation taking however a table in the middle of the room and engaging a waiter who had once nearly poisoned me by not interfering when i put two of sugar into my coffee instead of one which is my allowance but no william came to me to acknowledge his humiliation and by and by i became aware that he was not in the room suddenly the thought struck me that his wife must be dead and i � it was the worst cooked and the worst served dinner i ever had in the club i tried the smoking room usually the talk there is entertaining but on that occasion it was so frivolous that i did not remain five minutes in the card room a member told me excitedly that a policeman had spoken rudely to him and my strange comment was after all it is a small matter in the library where i had not been for years the waiter i found two members asleep and to my surprise william on a ladder books you have not heard sir he said in answer to my raised eyebrows descending the ladder he whispered it was last evening sir 