sudden? We walks thirty blocks, chinnin' like brothers,
and when we stops on the corner of 42d I've got the whole story of maw
and Langdon, with some of Pembroke's hist'ry thrown in.

It was just a plain case of mother bein' used as a doormat by her dear,
darling boy. She was more or less broke in to it, for it seems that
the late departed had been a good deal of a rough houser in his day,
havin' been about as gentle in his ways as a 'Leventh-ave. bartender
entertainin' the Gas House Gang. He hadn't much more'n quit the game,
though, before Langdon got big enough to carry out the program, and
he'd been at it ever since.

As near as I could figure, Pembroke was a boyhood friend of maw's.
He'd missed his chance of bein' anything nearer, years ago, but was
still anxious to try again. But it didn't look like there'd be any
weddin' bells for him until Langdon either got his neck broke or was
put away for life. Pemby wa'n't soured, though. He talked real nice
about it. He said he could see how much maw thought of Langdon, and it
showed what good stuff she was made of, her stickin' to the boy until
he'd settled on something, or something had settled on him. Course, he
thought it was about time she had a let up and was treated white for
awhile.

Accordin' to the hints he dropped, I suspicions that Pembroke would
have ranked her A-1 in the queen class, and I gathers that the size of
her bank account don't cut any ice in this deal, him havin' more or
less of a surplus himself. I guess he'd been a patient waiter; but
he'd set his hopes hard on engagin' the bridal state room for a spring
trip to Europe.

It all comes back, though, to what could be done with Langdon, and that
was where the form sheet wa'n't any help. There's a million or so left
in trust for him; but he don't get it until he's twenty-five.
Meantime, it was a question of how you're goin' to handle a youngster
that's inherited the instincts of a truck driver and the income of a
bank president.

"It's a pity, too," says Pembroke. "He hasn't any vicious habits, he's
rather bright, and if he could be started right he would make quite a
man, even now. He needs to be caged up somewhere long enough to' have
some of the bully knocked out of him. I'm hoping you can do a little
along that line."

"Too big a contract," says I. "All I want is to make his ears buzz a
little, just as a comeback for a few of them grunts he chucked at me."

And who do you sup