What I may have to say to you and each of you hereafter--what
I may choose to demand of you, according to your own code of honor,"--he
fixed his eyes on Captain Pinckney's,--"is another question, and one not
usually discussed before a lady."
"Pardon me. A moment--a single moment."
It was the voice of Colonel Starbottle; it was the frilled shirt front,
the lightly buttoned blue coat with its expanding lapels, like bursting
petals, and the smiling mask of that gentleman rising above the table
and bowing to Clarence Brant and his wife with infinite courtesy.
"The--er--humiliating situation in which we find ourselves,
gentlemen,--the reluctant witnesses of--er--what we trust is only
a temporary disagreement between our charming hostess and
the--er--gentleman whom she recognized under the highest title to
our consideration,--is distressing to us all, and would seem to amply
justify that gentleman's claims to a personal satisfaction, which I
know we would all delight to give. But that situation rests upon the
supposition that our gathering here was of a purely social or festive
nature! It may be," continued the colonel with a blandly reflective
air, "that the spectacle of these decanters and glasses, and the nectar
furnished us by our Hebe-like hostess" (he lifted a glass of whiskey and
water to his lips while he bowed to Mrs.
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