“He was standing in the first entrance on the other side. I know he tried to catch your eye.”
“What for?”
“Thought he could break you up.”
“Well, he didn’t succeed.”
“And I was mighty glad. He’s a bad egg. Some day he’ll hit you a slam in the back that will hurt you.”
“Oh, I rather think he’ll drop it after a while.”
“He won’t drop it, for he ain’t that kind. He’s a snake. But I must go on in a minute. See you later. Keep the good work up.”
She skipped away.
When Frank next went on, many of his lines were with Dunton.
Then it was that Dunton did his best to break Merry up. He transposed his speeches, getting everything in, but failing to give Frank more than a third of the cues, and often the continuity of the conversation depended entirely on the cues.