“Is that so?” drawled the young Southerner, with languid insolence. “Then it’s a very singular coincidence, our being the double of each other. Why, one would be almost tempted to swear that the Mapleson blood flows in your veins; but since my governor and I are the very last of our race, that can’t be possible, and it can only be accounted for, I suppose, as a strange freak of nature.”
Geoffrey simply bowed in reply to these remarks; his blood began to boil at his visitor’s assumption of superiority, and his fingers began to tingle to take him by the collar and walk him out of the room.
“However,” young Mapleson resumed, rubbing his white hands and winking at his comrades, “we must not be diverted from the object of our visit. We have called upon you, Mr. Huntress, to test your powers of oratory; you will kindly favor us with a speech. Be seated, my fellow sophs.”
Everet Mapleson helped himself to the easiest chair in the room, and waved his hand toward his companions as a signal for them to do likewise.
Geoffrey saw by the expectant faces around him that there would be no reprieve for him, and though he inwardly rebelled against having his privacy thus unceremoniously invaded, and at being peremptorily ordered about by a conceited fellow younger than himself, as Mapleson evidently was, yet he knew he would get off easier if he made light of his uncomfortable situation and indulged their caprice, at least to a reasonable extent.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE HAZER HAZED.
Accordingly Geoffrey smiled and bowed, remarking, in an off-hand way:
“I fear that my powers as orator will be somewhat disappointing to you, gentlemen; nevertheless, I will favor you to the extent of my ability.”
Assuming a somewhat exaggerated attitude of dignity, he began reciting one of Cicero’s orations, rendering it in the original with perfect ease and fluency, while his audience listened as if spell-bound to the smoothly rolling sentences.
But this display did not satisfy Mapleson. He insisted that Geoffrey should give a recitation in a reversed position—the speaker standing on his head.