"I'll get you a good one now.

Oh, well, deary me! I must be gettin' absent-minded.

I ain't asked you where you've been all the afternoon." Abishai's eyes turned beseechingly toward his promised backer.

Ellery could not resist that mute appeal.
"Your brother has been with me for some time, Miss Pepper," he volunteered.
"Oh, has he?
Ain't that nice! He couldn't have been in better comp'ny, I'm sure.

But oh, say, 'Bishy! I ain't told you how nigh I come to not gettin' out at all.