"Calvin Van de Lear, you are a hypocrite. The gentleman you have slandered to win my favor is as dear to me as you are repulsive. Nay, sir, I'll teach you good behavior!"
She threw open the folding-doors just as Duff Salter had come to a terrific sneeze.
"Jericho! Jericho! Jer-rick-co-o-o-oh!"
Looking in with bold suavity, Calvin Van de Lear made a bow and took up his hat.
"Good-night," he said, "most reputable ladies, two of a kind!"
"I think," wrote Duff Salter frigidly, as the young man slammed the door behind him, "that we'll make a pitcher of port sangaree and have a little glass before we go to bed. We will all three take a hand at cards. What shall we play?"
"Euchre—cut-throat!" exclaimed Podge Byerly, rather explosively.
Duff Salter seemed to have heard this, for, with his grave eyes bent on Agnes, he echoed, dubiously:
"Cut-throat!"
With an impatient motion Podge Byerly snatched at the cards, and they fell to the floor.