“It’s a fine night,” I said.
“Delightful! I say, Charlie, it must be a terrible bore to lug the old woman around to all these shindigs with you, hey?”
“What do you think about the State election?” I demanded.
“The Republicans have got a dead sure thing, I’ll lay you a V. She has bulldozed you till you don’t dare open your head, my boy. Yours is one of the saddest and most malignant cases of mother-in-law I ever struck.”
“Fred,” I said, in hopes of bringing his tirade to an end, “your friendship is slightly oppressive. Confine your attentions to your own grievances. I will take care of mine.”
“Ah! at last you acknowledge that you have one. Confess, now, that old Pink is a confounded nuisance!”
“Well, then, yes, she is! Does that satisfy you, scandal-monger? Now, for Heaven’s sake, shut up!”
I heard a brisk rustling of silk just at my left and a little back of where I sat, and some one passed toward the front parlor.
“By Jove!” ejaculated Fred, looking intently. “It’s old Pink herself, and I hope she got the benefit of what we said about her. I had no idea she was sitting near us.”
“What we said about her!” I repeated. “I didn’t say anything about her.”