“‘You are too good a friend not to make a good husband,’ says she.
“In five minutes Paisley was on his side of Mrs. Jessup.
“‘In Silver City, in the summer of ’98,’ he begins, ‘I see Jim Batholomew chew off a Chinaman’s ear in the Blue Light Saloon on account of a crossbarred muslin shirt that—what was that noise?’
“I had resumed matters again with Mrs. Jessup right where we had left off.
“‘Mrs. Jessup,’ says I, ‘has promised to make it Hicks. And this is another of the same sort.’
“Paisley winds his feet round a leg of the bench and kind of groans.
“‘Lem,’ says he, ‘we been friends for seven years. Would you mind not kissing Mrs. Jessup quite so loud? I’d do the same for you.’
“‘All right,’ says I. ‘The other kind will do as well.’
“‘This Chinaman,’ goes on Paisley, ‘was the one that shot a man named Mullins in the spring of ’97, and that was—’
“Paisley interrupted himself again.