Nay,
sir, I'll teach you good behavior!"
She threw open the folding-doors just as Duff Salter had come to a
terrific sneeze.
"Jericho! Jericho! Jer-rick-co-o-o-oh!"
Looking in with bold suavity, Calvin Van de Lear made a bow and took up
his hat.
"Good-night," he said, "most reputable ladies, two of a kind!"
"I think," wrote Duff Salter frigidly, as the young man slammed the door
behind him, "that we'll make a pitcher of port sangaree and have a
little glass before we go to bed. We will all three take a hand at
cards. What shall we play?"
"Euchre--cut-throat!" exclaimed Podge Byerly, rather explosively.
Duff Salter seemed to have heard this, for, with his grave eyes bent on
Agnes, he echoed, dubiously:
"Cut-throat!"
With an impatient motion Podge Byerly snatched at the cards, and they
fell to the floor.
Agnes burst into tears and left the room.
"Upon my word," thought Podge Byerly, "I believe this old gray rat is a
detective officer!"
There was a shadow over the best residence on Queen Street.
Anonymous letters continued to come in almost by every mail, making
charges and imputations upon Agnes, and frequently connecting Podge
Byerly with her.
Terrible epithets--such as "Murderess!" "A second Mrs.
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