His tone was so fatherly that I knew only gratitude for being saved from two months in a Texas dungeon.
“Thank you, your Honor,” I faltered.
Outside, Toby looked at me in scorn.
“What did you thank him for?” she asked.
Whether it be contempt of court or no, I wish to state that subsequent inquiry among the hairdressers, hotel clerks, and garage men of Houston, revealed that a fine of such magnitude had never been imposed in the annals of the town. The usual sentence was a rebuke for first offenses, two dollars for the second and so on. The judge was right. I was a stranger——
But what could you expect from a soul of granite who could resist such a mellowing, opportune, side-splitting bon mot?—could swallow it unsaid?
I hope it choked him.
CHAPTER IV
CHIVALRY VS. GUMBO
A GUIDE, who at the age of twelve had in disgust left his native state, once epitomized it to me.