stopping-place, and Leander went through perfect contortions of apology
and self-effacement before he could bring himself to ask them to do him a
favor. It would have taken a very stern order of womankind to refuse
anything so abject, and they blindly committed themselves to the pledge.

"Tell him I send my compliments," he whispered, and, looking about him
furtively, he repeated the blood-curdling request.

"Is that all?" sniffed the fat lady, at no pains to conceal her
disappointment.

"It’s enough, if it was known, to raise a war-whoop and stampede this yere
family." His glance at the door through which his wife had disappeared was
pregnant with meaning.

"Family troubles?" asked the fat lady, as a gourmet might say "Truffles."

"Looks like it," said Leander, dismally. "Me and Johnnie don’t ask for
nothin’ better than to bask in each other’s company; but our wives insists
on keepin’ up the manoeuvres of a war-dance the whole endoorin’ time."

"So," said the fat lady, as a gourmet might tell of a favorite way of
preparing truffles, "it’s a case of wives?"

"Yes, marm, an’ teeth an’ nails an’ husbands thrown in, when they get a
sight of each other’s petticoats."

"I’ve known sisters-in-law not to agree," helped on the fat lady, by way
of an encouraging parallel.