"No more'n a rattlesnake," Uncle Henry leaned out of his chair to whisper in a voice that could be heard by everyone.
"It's just that he doesn't know any better," Angela went on to Gilbert. "He's really very neighborly when he wants to be."
She rose, and "Red" offered her his arm; but she haughtily rejected it, and went out the door, unaware that the devoted and humble "Red" followed her.
Jasper Hardy was glad she had gone. He could speak freely now. He addressed Jones.
"Packed up yet?" he inquired, sarcastically, as though he meant to intimate that his coming journey would be a pleasant one.
Gilbert could have struck him; but he replied quietly: "I'll just put on my hat and I'll be ready."
But the literal-minded Hardy remarked:
"Them crockery, and the rugs?" pointing to the articles significantly.
"The rugs I'm presenting to a friend of mine. The crockery goes to the cook. He has a family, you know." His irony was lost on the imperturbable Hardy, who merely asked: