"How sweet of you. I should have thought you would have forgotten my very existence."
"Guk!" said Hamilton Beamish, completely overcome.
"Well, shall I tell you something? I missed you, too."
Hamilton Beamish drew another completely unscientific deep breath, and was about to pour his whole soul into the instrument in a manner that would probably have fused the wire, when a breezy masculine voice suddenly smote his ear-drum.
"Is that Ed?" inquired the voice.
"No," thundered Hamilton Beamish.
"This is Charley, Ed. Is it all right for Friday?"
"It is not!" boomed Hamilton Beamish. "Get off the wire, you blot! Go away, curse you!"
"Certainly, if you want me to," said a sweet, feminine voice. "But...."
"I beg your pardon! I am sorry, sorry, sorry. A fiend in human shape got on the wire," explained Mr. Beamish hastily.