Antony buttoned his gloves.
"Or if she does, it will be your fault, sir," pursued his uncle.
Antony selected a slender walking stick from a rack of many, and reviewed his collar with a critical hand.
"The young lady's topics of conversation will be a matter of indifference to me, Uncle Julius," said he, "I assure you."
"And I assure you," cried Uncle Julius, "that if we were not on this open porch, I should be strongly tempted to apply that stick of yours where, as we used to say, it would do the most good!"
Antony adjusted his coat trimly and started down the steps.
"But since we are upon this open porch, let us, Uncle Julius," 4 said he, "go where duty calls us. En avant!"
He strode along the flagged walk with Uncle Julius puffing behind him, loquaciously indignant.
"Look at your mates, sir, as we pass them, and notice how enviously they smile," he urged the youth, who replied shortly that he observed them.