I suggested that a bet might tauten his nerves, and that I would offer one, but that as I did not want it to be an expense to him, but only a help, I would make it small--a cigar, if he were willing--a cigar that he would fail again; not an expensive one, but a cheap native one, of the Crown Jewel breed, such as is manufactured in Hartford for the clergy.

It set him afire all over! I could see the blue flame issue from his eyes.

He said, "Make it a hundred!--and no Connecticut cabbage-leaf product, but Havana, $25 the box!" I took him up, but said I was sorry to see him do this, because it did not seem to me right or fair for me to rob him under our own roof, when he had been so kind to us.

He said, with energy and acrimony: "You take care of your own pocket, if you'll be so good, and leave me to take care of mine." And he plunged at the congress of balls with a vindictiveness which was infinitely contenting to me.

He scored a failure--and began to undress.
I knew it would come to that, for he was in the condition now that Mr.
Dooley will be in at about that stage of the contest on Friday afternoon.