“I didn't call her no kind!” declared the Colonel. “All I say is, I've been married once already, and I know how women are. And I know Skinner. He's lookin' for to pay for that opery house with Pap Brigg's money that he'll git if he marries Sally. But he won't git it! I'm a-goin' to——” He was going to say he was going to get it, but he caught himself in time, and substituted “I'm a-goin' to see to that.”
“I see,” said Toole, “and you want to retain me as your attorney in case you have to sue for breach of promise?”
The Colonel scowled.
“I don't want to retain, and I don't want to sue, and I don't want no fees to pay. You get that clear in your mind. If I did, I'd go to a lawyer that had some experience. I jest dropped up——”
“Well, any time you wish, you can just drop down again, Colonel,” said Toole, but not ill-naturedly.
“Now, don't git that way,” said the Colonel. “I jest dropped up to do you a favor, and you git mad about it! I don't call that friendly. If you was to do me a favor I wouldn't git mad.”
“Go ahead with the favor, then,” said Toole, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet on his table.
“Miss Sally,” said the Colonel, “she told me all about this feller Rossiter, an' what he said, an' what she said, an' how he come to go to her house for board, an' how he skipped off, an' she showed me the note he left on the pin cushion, an' then she come down to business. 'Colonel,' she says, 'have I a right to take an' keep that box? Have I a right to open it? Is it mine by law? If I open it can he come back an' sue me, or anything?'
“'Can he?' says I. 'That's the question. Can he?'
“'It's a large box,' says Miss Sally.