SECOND FIDDLE My plan was quite obvious in its simplicity, and not in the least discreditable from my point of view.

It was perhaps inevitable that a boy like Bob should imagine I was trying to "cut him out," as my blunt friend Quinby phrased it to my face.

I had not, of course, the smallest desire to do any such vulgar thing.

All I wanted was to make myself, if possible, as agreeable to Mrs.Lascelles as this youth had done before me, and in any case to share with him all the perils of her society.

In other words I meant to squeeze into "the imminent deadly breach" beside Bob Evers, not necessarily in front of him.