"
The attendant brusquely ushered the visitor into a leather-upholstered
reception room and left him. The captain amused himself by looking at
the prints and framed letters and autographs on the walls. Then a round,
red, pleasant-faced man entered.
"Pardon me," he said, "is this Captain Warren?"
"Yes, sir," was the reply. "That's my name. This is Mr. Sylvester, ain't
it? Glad to know you, sir."
"Thanks. Sorry to have made you travel way up here, Captain. I waited
until twelve-thirty, but as you didn't come then, I gave you up. Hope I
haven't inconvenienced you."
"No, no. Not a mite. Might just as well be here as anywhere. Don't think
another thing about it."
"Have you lunched, Captain Warren?"
"No, come to think of it, I ain't. I've been kind of busy this forenoon,
and a little thing like dinner--luncheon, I mean--slipped my mind.
Though 'tain't often I have those slips, I'm free to say. Ho! ho!
Abbie--she's my second cousin, my housekeeper--says I'm an unsartin
critter, but there's two things about me she can always count on, one's
that my clothes have always got a button loose somewheres, and t'other's
my appetite."
He laughed, and Sylvester laughed with him.
"Well," observed the lawyer, "I'm not sure that I couldn't qualify on
both of those counts.
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