I warn you." "Ha!" said Francis Charles again.
Sedgwick raised his voice appealingly.
"Hi, Thompson! Here a minute! Shouldn't Francis Charles marry ?" "Ab-so-lute-ly!" boomed a voice within.
The two young men, it should be said, sat on the broad porch of Mitchell House.

The booming voice came from the library.
"Mustn't Francis Charles go to work ?" In the library a chair overturned with a crash.

A startled silence; then the sound of swift feet.

Thompson came through the open French window; a short man, with a long shrewd face and a frosted poll.

Feigned anxiety sat on his brow; he planted his feet firmly and wide apart, and twinkled down at his young guests.
"Pardon me, Mr.Sedgwick--I fear I did not catch your words correctly.
You were saying-- ?" Francis Charles brought his chair to level and spoke with great feeling: "As our host, to whom our bright young lives have been entrusted for a time--standing to us, as you do, almost as a locoed parent--I put it to you--" "Shut up!" roared Ferdie.