Dear Hon: I'll be in early but some parties I've got acquainted with in the hotel are waiting for me in quite a hurry and anyhow I don't want to wake you up if you're lying down. They want me to go eat dinner with them at a place where they have this celebrated Arab Koos Koos. So just as soon as this Koos Koos dinner is over I'll be back. You and Baby go right ahead and have your own dinner. Lovingly, Earl.
P. S. We may sit around and talk awhile after the Koos Koos, but anyhow I'll be in early.
When he had read this missive Ogle sat staring at it as he held it in his hand; then he asked her, "Is that the word you meant?"
"Yes. What he calls 'Koos Koos.' What in the world could he have meant?"
Ogle frowned as he explained. "Cous-cous is a dish of chopped meats and rice sprinkled with a kind of powder. I think the powder itself is called cous-cous. The Arabs are said to be fond of it—I loathe it myself." But there he spoke ungratefully, for when Mme. Momoro had taken him to eat cous-cous in Algiers just before their departure, he had praised the dish with honest fervour.
Olivia looked at him anxiously. "You see why his note might make my mother feel rather upset, don't you, Mr. Ogle?"
