"All right: laugh!" he said, darkly. "But I shall warn Jelnik, none the less!" And muttering: "Sophronisba! Lord have mercy on us! Sophronisba!" he departed hastily.
"What a nice neighbor!" commented Alicia. She added, musingly: "Sophy, this is an enchanted place—a place where one has good meals, bad advice, and black cats showered on one, free and gratis. All one has to do is to stand still and take things as they come!"
"And hope one won't follow in the footsteps of one's predecessor, who was an unmitigated old devil."
"At least," said Alicia, laughing, "he'll never live to be an old woman, will he, Sophy?"
"The man has the tact of a cannibal—"
"The shoulders of a Hercules—"
"An abominable temper—"
"And a beautiful beard. Somehow, Sophy, I rather approve of a beard, on somebody his size. I decidedly approve of a beard!"
"If his miserable hens come over here, I shall most certainly—"
"Keep the eggs. We'll tell him so when he comes again."