when I said you and I would tour around with them with pleasure, and offered to bring you over and introduce you, they hesitated a little, and asked if you were from the same establishment that I was. I said you were, and then they said they had changed their mind and considered it necessary to start at once and visit a sick relative in Siberia."
"Ah me, you struck the summit! You struck the loftiest altitude of stupidity that human effort has ever reached. You shall have a monument of jackasses skulls as high as the Strasburg spire if you die before I do. They wanted to know if I was from the same 'establishment' that you hail from, did they? What did they mean by 'establishment?'"
"I don't know; it never occurred to me to ask."
"Well I know. They meant an asylum—an idiot asylum, do you understand? So they do think there's a pair of us, after all. Now what do you think of yourself?"
"Well I don't know. I didn't know I was doing any harm; I didn't mean to do any harm. They were very nice people, and they seemed to like me."
Harris made some rude remarks and left for his bedroom,—to break some furniture, he said. He was a singularly irascible man; any little thing would disturb his temper.
I had been well scorched by the young woman, but no matter, I took it out of Harris. One should always "get even" in some way, else the sore place will go on hurting.
