“Beware, lad, of women!” he importuned me.
“Humph! You still despise the sex on account of that affair with the colleen of the short upper lip.”
“Verily. And the eyes of that little lady, who guided your grandfather back from the other world, reminded me strongly of her! Bah, these women!”
“Precious little you know about them!” I retorted.
“The devil I don’t!”
“No,” said Stoddard, “invoke the angels, not the devil!”
“Hear him! Hear him! A priest with no knowledge of the world.”
“Alas, my cloth! And you fling it at me after I have gone through battle, murder and sudden death with you gentlemen!”
“We thank you, sir, for that last word,” said Larry mockingly. “I am reminded of the late Lord Alfred:
“I waited for the train at Coventry;
I hung with grooms and porters on the bridge,
To watch the three tall spires,—’ ”