He usually added to this: "Minus one, Marmion," meaning thus to exclude the girl who preferred him to any one else.

When I ventured to suggest that Miss Treherne might also be excepted, he said, with maddening suggestion: "She lets Mrs.Falchion fool her, doesn't she?
And she isn't quite sure the splendour of a medical professor's position is superior to that of an author." In these moments, although I tried to smile on him, I hated him a little.

I sought to revenge myself on him by telling him to help himself to a cigar, having first placed the box of Mexicans near him.

He invariably declined them, and said he would take one of the others from the tea-box--my very best, kept in tea for sake of dryness.

If I reversed the process he reversed his action.