The League of Frightened Men

Wolfe snapped at him, "Whose wife?"

"Why, Paul's." „

If I had seen Wolfe astonished only three times in seven years, which is what I would guess, this was the fourth. He even moved in his chair. He looked at Cabot, not at Drummond, and demanded, "What is this nonsense?"

Cabot nodded. "Sure, Paul has a wife."

Wolfe poured a glass of beer, gulped half of it, let it settle a second, and swallowed the rest. He looked around for his handkerchief, but it had dropped to the floor. I got him one out of the drawer where I kept them, and he wiped his lips.

He said, "Tell me about her."

"Well…" Cabot looked for words.

"Paul Chapin is full of distortions, let us say, and his wife is one of them. Her name was Dora Ritter. He married her three years ago, and they live in an apartment on Perry Street."

"What is she like and who was she?"

Cabot hesitated again, differently. This time he didn't seem to be looking for words, he was looking for a way out. He finally said, ‹I don't see – I really don't see that this is going to help you any, but I suppose you'll want to know it. But I'd rather not – you'd better get it from Burton himself." He turned and called, "Lorry! Come over here a minute."

Dr. Burton was with the group at the table, talking and working on a highball.

He looked around, made some remark to

Farrell the architect, and crossed to

Wolfe's desk. Cabot said to him: ' "Mr. Wolfe has just asked me who Paul's wife was. Maybe I'm being more delicate than the circumstances require, I but I'd rather you'd tell him."

Burton looked at Wolfe and frowned.

He looked at Cabot, and his voice – sounded irritated: "Why not you, or anybody? Everybody knows it." i Cabot smiled. "I said maybe I was j overdelicate."

"I think you were." Burton turned to

Wolfe. "Dora Ritter was a maid in my employ. She is around fifty, extremely homely, disconcertingly competent, and stubborn as a wet boot. Paul Chapin married her in 1931."

"What did he marry her for?"

"I am as likely to tell you as he is.

Chapin is a psychopath."

"So Mr. Hibbard informed me. What sort of maid was she?"

"What^sort?"

"Was she in your office, for instance?"

Burton was frowning. "No. She was my wife^s maid.",,.