women, "I have the honor to wish you good evening."
There was a moment of silence after his withdrawal, during which they all sat staring rather foolishly at the dollar. But if he had thought to humiliate them, he had mistaken his audience.
"There, now!" was the opening remark, contributed by Mrs. Betts; "you 've gone and rubbed him up the wrong way. And I don't see what satisfaction you get from it."
"Well," said Mr. Betts, "I 'll get the dollar, anyway."
He made a playfully frenzied lunge for the coin. But Charley Ryan had anticipated the movement, and his hand struck it first. An animated tussle ensued, during which Miss Mercer averted a catastrophe by removing the lamp.
"Lord! Lord!" cried Mrs. Betts, querulously, "what under the canopy possesses them? It 's like living in a bear-garden."
The struggle ended with the triumph of Charley Ryan, who, with an exaggerated bow and an affectation of the colonel's manner, presented his trophy to Mrs. Betts. She took it, threw it into her work-basket, and said snappishly:
"The old man gets that to-morrow. I ain't goin' into the hold-up business."
