“Yes, in a way. Daddy, have Mr. Hungerford and Hapgood known each other long?”
“I guess so. He was Aunt Laviny's butler for a good many years, and Percy was a regular visitor there. What made you ask that?”
“Feminine curiosity, probably. Has our cousin many friends here in Scarford?”
“Why, he seems to know 'most everybody; everybody that's in what he and your mother call society, that is.”
“But has he any intimate friends? Have you met any of them?”
“I met one once. He seemed to be pretty intimate. Anyhow, they called each other by their first names. Ho! ho! that whole thing was kind of funny. I never wrote you about that, did I?”
He told of the meeting in the Rathskeller. Gertrude evinced much interest.
“What was this friend's name?” she asked.
“'Monty,' that's all I heard. Queer name, ain't it—isn't it, I mean. But it ain't any queerer than 'Tacks'; that's what he called Hungerford.”
“Has this 'Monty' called here? Has he been here at the house?”