lls in
Butte. I am not angry, merely grieved. We'll argue this out as we have
breakfast and drive on. I can prove to you that, though occasionally I
let my fancy color mere untutored fact with the pigments of a Robert J.
Ingersoll---- By the way, do you know his spiel on whisky?"

"Stick to the subject. We'll finish our arguing right now, and I'll
give you breakfast, and we'll sadly part."

"Merely because I am lighter of spirits than this lugubrious old world?
No! I decline to be dropped. I'll forgive you and go on with you. Mind
you, I am sensitive. I will not intrude where I am not welcome. Only you
must give me a sounder reason than my diverting conversational powers
for shucking me. My logic is even stronger than my hedonistic contempt
for hitting the pike."

"Well, hang it, if you must know---- Hate to say it, but I'd do almost
anything to get rid of you. Fact is, I've been sort of touring with a
lady and her father, and you would be in the way!"

"Aaaaaaah! You see! Why, my boy, I will not only stick, but for you, I
shall do the nimble John Alden and win the lady fair. I will so bedizen
your virile, though somewhat crassly practical gifts---- Why, women are
my long suit. They fall for----"

"Tut, tut, tut! You're a fool. She's no beanery mistress, like you're
used to. She really is a lady."

"How blind you are, cruel friend. You do not even see that whatever my
vices may be, my social standing----"

"Oh--shut--up! Can't you see I'm trying to be kind to you? Have I simply
got to beat you up before you begin to suspect you aren't welcome? Your
social standing isn't even in the telephone book. And your
vocabulary---- You let too many 'kids' slip in among the juicy words.
Have I got to lick----"

"Well. You're right. I'm a fliv. Shake hands, m' boy, and no hard
feelings."

"Good. Then I can drive on nice and alone, without having to pound your
ears off?"

"Certainly. That is--we'll compromise. You take me on just a few miles,
into more settled country, and I'll leave you."

So it chanced that Milt was still inescapably accompanied by Mr. Pinky
Parrott, that evening, when he saw Claire's Gomez standing in the yard
at Barmberry's and pulled up.

Pinky had voluntarily promised not to use his eloquence on Claire, nor
to try to borrow money from Mr. Boltwood. Without ever having quite won
permission to stay, he had stayed. He had also carried out his promise
to buy his half of the provisions by adding a fi