"Not in the least."
"Do you mind if I stay here?"
Pendleton blew smoke rings and made no reply.
"From which I might infer—a number of things," Porshinger laughed. "But I won't. I had one quarrel with a pretty woman over nothing last evening; I'm not going to have another quarrel with a good fellow this afternoon."
It was evident to Pendleton that Porshinger never suspected that Stephanie had told more than the simple fact of their quarrel, or else he was trying to draw him out so as to know what story he had to meet and overcome.
Just then Dolittle's voice came around the corner.
"Have you heard the latest scandal?" it enquired.
"No—what is it?" said another voice, which Pendleton recognized as Emerson's.
There was a moving of chairs and the two men sat down.
Pendleton took a long draw on his cigarette. He saw what was coming. Porshinger, however, did not see, and like the majority of his class, he craned his ears to overhear.