"No!"
"Well, then, didn't you ever marry a woman?"
"Not one. I've had the measles and the mumps, but I've never had matrimony."
"Oh, lucky man," beamed Wellington. "Hang on to your luck."
"I intend to," said Lathrop, "I was born single and I like it."
"Oh, how I envy you! You see, Mrs. Wellington—she's a queen among women, mind you—a queen among women, but she has the 'stravagance of a——"
Lathrop had endured all he could endure, even from a privileged character like little Jimmy Wellington. He rose to take refuge in the smoking-room. But the very vigor of this departure only served to help Wellington to his feet, for he seized Lathrop's coat and hung on, through the door, down the little corridor, always explaining:
"Mrs. Wellington is a queen among women, mind you, but I can't stand her temper any longer."
He had hardly squeezed into the smoking-room when the porter and an usher almost invisible under the baggage they carried brought in a new passenger. Her first question was:
"Oh, porter, did a box of flowers, or candy, or anything, come for me?"