"Ain't I doin' it, no matter how hard it is, sir?"
"Don't call me sir, I've told you."
Kern sadly retired. However, she did not do exactly what Mr. V.V. said. When, after forty minutes of storm and stress, he emerged from his bedroom and shouted to Mrs. Garland to come and see him if she liked, Kern, too, came running down the hall, still in her hat. Her interest in the gay evening being so peculiarly strong, Vivian did not have the heart to scold her very hard, especially as she cried ahead the promise to go to bed the very minute he was gone. And it might be that he was secretly rather glad to have his little friend see him in his splendid regalia.
He stood under the chandelier in his decaying chamber, revolving himself with complacence for the Garlands' inspection. It was O'Neill's old suit that he had borrowed, which, as the Honorable Commissioner had pointed out, really made a much better fit than the costly brand-new one just from Begg's. At the first sight of their boarder in it, the two women cried out with pleasure, likening him to dooks and dashing villains on the stage, well seen by them from upper galleries of the past. But with the dying of the first enthusiastic burst, Kern, the connoisseur, who had herself been clasped by gentlemen's fulldressuits at union hops, developed a more searching tendency. By the elbow she incited the doctor to keep on rotating.
"There's something wrong, sir, Mr. V.V., but I can't make out just what it is."
"It's these shoes," said Mr. V.V., frankly. "I really ought to have patent leathers to look like the rest of the bloods, but these'll do very nicely, when I have them well shined up. I'll stop by the stand at Ninth Street."
"This spot right in front of the coat don't look so very good," said Kern, scratching it with a small finger, which only whitened it up.
"Shuh, Kern! That!" said Mrs. Garland, who had seen the spot, but decided to say nothing about it. "Why, hot suds and a drop ammonia'll fade it out like sunshine, and nobody never know't was there. Wait till I get my pan now, Doctor."
"I wisht the coat could set a little snugger round your neck, Mr. V.V. But mercy, who cares, when you look so beautiful anyway! And you'll have the most beautiful lady and set and talk to her, won't you, Mr. V.V.?"
"Stranger things have happened, my dear Corinne!"