y on the table.

"No, I don't!" cried the Colonel in alarm; "I don't want to run up no
charges. I don't care whether it's legal or not, it ain't friendly,
after him and me has worked together buildin' up this Citizens' Party,
and all. What does he mean, sendin' Miss Sally porterhouses, when she
only orders flank steak, like he was wrappin' up love and affection into
every steak? He's got mighty proud since he set out to build that there
Kilo Opery House of his. He's a fool to spend money on an opery house in
this town. He's a beefy, puffy old money bag, he is. He needn't tell ME
he expects to get even on what he spent on that Opery House Block out
of what he'll make on it; he just built it to make a show, so some dumb
idiot like Sally Briggs would think he amounted to more than others, and
marry him."

The Colonel brought down his hand with a bang on the attorney's table.

"What kind of an idiot did you call Miss Briggs?" asked Toole
pleasantly.

"I didn't call her no kind!" declared the Colonel. "All I say is, I've
been married once already, and I know how women are. And I know Skinner.
He's lookin' for to pay for that opery house with Pap Brigg's money that
he'll git if he marries Sally. But he won't git it! I'm a-goin' to----"
He was going to say he was going to get it, but he caught himself in
time, and substituted "I'm a-goin' to see to that."

"I see," said Toole, "and you want to retain me as your attorney in case
you have to sue for breach of promise?"

The Colonel scowled.

"I don't want to retain, and I don't want to sue, and I don't want no
fees to pay. You get that clear in your mind. If I did, I'd go to a
lawyer that had some experience. I jest dropped up----"

"Well, any time you wish, you can just drop down again, Colonel," said
Toole, but not ill-naturedly.

"Now, don't git that way," said the Colonel. "I jest dropped up to do
you a favor, and you git mad about it! I don't call that friendly. If
you was to do me a favor I wouldn't git mad."

"Go ahead with the favor, then," said Toole, leaning back in his chair
and putting his feet on his table.

"Miss Sally," said the Colonel, "she told me all about this feller
Rossiter, an' what he said, an' what she said, an' how he come to go to
her house for board, an' how he skipped off, an' she showed me the
note he left on the pin cushion, an' then she come down to business.
'Colonel,' she says, 'have I a right to take an' keep that box? Have I
a ri