'What about?' said Evan.
'Why, about my amazing luck! You haven't asked a question. A matter of course.'
Evan complimented him by asking a question: saying that Jack's luck certainly was wonderful.
'Wonderful, you call it,' said Jack, witheringly. 'And what's more wonderful is, that I'd give up all for quiet quarters in the Green Dragon. I knew I was prophetic. I knew I should regret that peaceful hostelry. Diocletian, if you like. I beg you to listen. I can't walk so fast without danger.'
'Well, speak out, man. What's the matter with you?' cried Evan, impatiently.
Jack shook his head: 'I see a total absence of sympathy,' he remarked.
'I can't.'
'Then stand out of the way.'
Jack let him pass, exclaiming, with cold irony, 'I will pay homage to a loftier Nine!'
Mr. Raikes could not in his soul imagine that Evan was really so little inquisitive concerning a business of such importance as the trouble that possessed him. He watched his friend striding off, incredulously, and then commenced running in pursuit.
'Harrington, I give in; I surrender; you reduce me to prose. Thy nine
have conquered my nine!—pardon me, old fellow. I'm immensely upset.
This is the first day in my life that I ever felt what indigestion is.
Egad, I've got something to derange the best digestion going!