d post Swifty
Joe on the outside to see that nobody butts in.

All the Dobsons is that way. They're the kind of folks that lives on
Fifth-ave., with the front shades always pulled down, and they shy at
gettin' their names in the papers like it was bein' served with a
summons.

Course, they did have their dose of free advertisin' once, when that
Tootsy Peroxide bobbed up and tried to break old Peter Dobson's will;
but that case happened so long ago, and there's been so many like it
since, that hardly anybody but the Dobsons remembers it. Must have
been a good deal of a jolt at the time, though; for as far as I've
seen, they're nice folks, and the real thing in the fat wad line,
specially Ferdy. He's that genteel and refined he has to have pearl
grey boxin' gloves to match his gym. suit.

Well, I wa'n't thinkin' any of him, or his set, havin' just had a
session with a brewer's son that I've took on durin' the dull season,
when I looks out into the front office and sees my little old Bishop
standin' there moppin' his face.

"Hello, Bishop!" I sings out. "Thought you was in Newport, herdin' the
flock."

"So I was, Shorty," says he, "until six hours ago. I came down to look
for a stray lamb."

"Tried Wall Street?" says I.

"He is not that kind of a lamb," says the Bishop. "It is Ferdinand
Dobson. Have you seen him recently?"

"What! Ferdy?" says I. "Not for weeks. They're all up at their Lenox
place, ain't they?"

No, they wa'n't. And then the Bishop puts me next to a little news
item that hadn't got into the society column yet. Ferdy, after gettin'
to be most twenty-five, has been hooked. The girl's name was Alicia,
and soon's I heard it I placed her, havin' seen her a few times at
different swell ranches where I've been knockin' around in the
background. As I remembers her, she has one of these long, high toned
faces, and a shape to match--not what you'd call a neck twister, but
somethin' real classy and high browed, just the sort you'd look for
Ferdy to tag.

Seems they'd been doin' the lovey-dovey for more'n a year; but all on
the sly, meetin' each other at afternoon teas, and now and then havin'
a ten-minute hand holdin' match under a palm somewhere. They was so
cute about it that even their folks didn't suspect it was a case of
honey and honey boy; not that anyone would have raised a kick, but
because Ferdy don't want any fuss made about it.

When Alicia's mother gets the facts, though, s