The Baron saw it.

"And have you been introduced to these?" I says, flashin' a big,
wrist-size wad of tens and fives.

Oh, he was acquainted all right.

"Well," says I, "Sadie's got enough of these put away to fill two carts
like that."

Fetch him? Why, his fingers almost burnt a hole through his gloves.

"Ah-h-h!" says he, and takes a little time out to picture himself
dippin' into the family pocket-book.

Course, it wa'n't any of my funeral, but when I thinks of a sure-enough
live one, like Sadie, that I'd always supposed had a head like a
billiard table, gettin' daffy about any such overstuffed frankfurter as
this specimen, I felt like someone had shoved a blue quarter on me.
Worst of it was, I'd held the step-ladder for her to climb up where such
things grow.

I was gettin' rawer to the touch every minute, and was tryin' to make up
my mind whether to give the Baron a quick run down the stairs, or go
off an' leave him to dislocate his neck tryin' to see the small of his
back in the mirror; when in comes Pinckney, with that little sparkle in
his eyes that I've come to know means any kind of sport you're a mind to
name.

"Hello!" says he, givin' the Baron a hand. "You found him, eh? Hello,
Shorty. Got it all fixed, have you?"

"Say," says I, pullin' Pinckney over by the window, "did you put this up
on me?"

He said he didn't, honest.

"Then take your fat friend by the hand," says I, "and lead him off where
things ain't liable to happen to him."

"Why, what's up, Shorty?" says he. "Haven't you given him your blessing,
and told him to go in and win?"

"Switch off!" says I. "I've heard enough of that from the Baron to last
me a year. What's it all about, anyway? Suppose he has laid his plans to
Miznerize Sadie; what's he want to come hollerin' about it to me for?
I'm no matrimonial referee, am I?"

I knew somethin' was ticklin' Pinckney inside; but he put up a front
like a Special Sessions judge. "Baron," says he, callin' over to
Patchouli, "I forgot to mention that our friend, the professor, doesn't
understand the European system of conducting such affairs as this. If
you'll pardon me, I'll make it clear to him."

Well, he did and a lot more. It seems that the Baron was a ringer in the
set where Sadie and Pinckney had been doing the weekend house-party
act. He'd been travelin' on that handle of his, makin' some broad jumps
and quick shifts, until he'd worked himself up, from a visitor's card at
a