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A BIT OF A BLOW
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room leading into the hall. If you go in there, I go, too."

Mr. Meyrick glared. Harrowby stood embarrassed.

"Very well," said Meyrick through his teeth. "We'll stay here. It doesn't matter to me. I simply want to say, Lord Harrowby, that when you get to Jersey City you needn't trouble to come back, as far as my family is concerned."

A look of pain came into Harrowby's thin face.

"Not come back," he said. "My dear sir—"

"That's what I said. I'm a plain man, Harrowby. A plain American. It doesn't seem to me that marrying into the British nobility is worth all the trouble it's costing us—"

"But really—"

"It may be, but it doesn't look that way to me. I prefer a simple wedding to a series of vaudeville acts. If you think I'm going to stand for the publicity of this latest affair, you're mistaken. I've talked matters over with Cynthia—the marriage is off—for good!"