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"Now, what do you want to know? Perhaps I can tell you everything before the soup comes. I'm an American——"

"That I shouldn't have guessed," said Spike, and John Wood nodded.

"I have lived a very long time in this country," he said. "In fact, I haven't been home for"—he paused—"many years," he added. "I don't want to talk very much about myself, and I'll get over the modest recital of my virtues as quickly as I possibly can. I live in Belgium, at a place called Wenduyne. I have a home there for consumptive children, which, by the way, I am moving to Switzerland this year. I am the inventor of the Wood's system of carburation, I am a bachelor—and I think that is about all."

"It is about the children's institution that I wanted to speak to you," said Spike. "We got a story about it from the Belgian Independent. They said you were raising funds to provide in every country in Europe a mother college. Now, what is a mother college, Mr. Wood?"

The grey man leant back in his chair and thought for some time before he replied.