"I think you will have that satisfaction," her brother replied, "if you'll walk into his office this afternoon, and tell him there is no one in the three towns can act as well as he can, and ask will he please be that drivelling idiot of a patriarch." "I'll do nothing of the kind. Besides, I'm going to ride with Clarence Toxteth this afternoon." "He's always dangling round you nowadays, it seems to me." "Well, I can't help that, can I?" "You could if you wanted to. If you married anybody for his money, Patty, I'd never speak to you again." "Pooh! You'd speak to me if I married a boa-constrictor." "No. I'd send you a card on which you'd find nothing but the awful words,-- 'BOA-CONSTRICTORESS, FAREWELL!'" "Nonsense! You'd come over to be constricted, and the long and lovely bridegroom could make his supper of you. You know you adore me, Will, and so you'll see Tom Putnam. Tell him Sol is sick, or lame, or dead, or whatever it is, and we can't do without him." "I'm always put upon," her brother said with mock despair: "in fact, I'm but a lovely, timorous flower that has been snubbed in the bud. I suppose I'll have to do it." "That's a duck. You're an awful nice brother! But then who wouldn't be with such a surpassingly lovely sister!" Half an hour later, Will encountered the lawyer in the street. "I was going to see you," he said. "You presented yourself in the nick of time." "People who present themselves in the nick of time," Putnam answered good-humoredly, "generally find themselves in a tight place. What did you want of me?" "I wanted to tell you that you are to take the part of the patriarch in the sensational, melodramatic madness entitled 'The Faithful Jewess,' to be performed for the benefit of the church on the 23d of this blessed month of October." "You are sure that you are not misinformed?" "Quite sure." "But I have already declined to take part in those theatricals." "My informant was very positive," Will said. "May I ask the name of your informant?" "Patty Sanford." "Did she say I was to act?" "Certainly," Will answered, distorting the truth with perfect recklessness. "Um! The part must have been given to some one before this." "Yes. When you refused, there was nobody left to take it but Sol Shankland." "What has become of him?" asked the lawyer. "General inanity, I suspect, though he says, 'neümonyer,' as he calls it." "In that case," Putnam said, laughing, "he might furnish the funds." "But you'll come to rehearsal to-morrow night?" Sanford asked, fumbling in his pocket for a play-book. "It's at our house at half-past seven." "If your sister has issued her commands, I suppose I've nothing to do but to obey."