"But, Jack—Damn it!" broke out Jerry, as if exasperated by the very feasibility of his friend's sudden change of tactics, "I can't speak a word of their blessed lingo!"
"Pooh! Your French will carry you about well enough, and if worst comes to worst, you can fall back on Gonzague. At Naples you'll find them speaking English all over the lot."
"Jack Castleport, you're certainly the damnedest man to handle I ever came across," Jerry said in despairing tones. "A fellow might as well try to bully-rag a sea-cow as to argue you out of any of your confounded schemes."
"That's because they're so good," laughed Jack. "You see their profound wisdom carries me away so completely that objections can't touch me." Then he stretched his hand across the table corner, and caught hold of Jerry's. "I'm deuced sorry to give you the slip like this," he said, "but you know the reason."
The good-natured Tab melted at once. He returned the pressure of his friend's hand and tried to quote
"But when a woman's in the case,
All other things, you know, give place;"
but made so hopeless a mess of it that he could only break out into one of his boisterously jovial guffaws.
"Well, by George," he cried, "if she only knew how devoted you are, Jack, she'd let you wait a dog's age, just to try you."