"Sssh!" P. Sybarite warned him sibilantly. "Miss Lessing might hear
you.... What will happen if you disobey me," he added as the shop girl
turned in at the gateway, lowering his own voice and fixing the
shipping clerk with a steely stare, "will be another accident, much
resembling that of this afternoon--if you haven't forgotten. Now mind
what I tell you, and be good."

Mr. Bross swelled with resentment; exhibited a distorted and empurpled
visage; but kept silence.




V

THE COMIC SPIRIT


Pausing at the foot of the stoop, Miss Lessing looked up at the two
young men and smiled.

"Good-evening," she said with a pretty nod for P. Sybarite; and, with
its fellow for George, "Good-evening, Mr. Bross," she added.

Having acknowledged this salutation with that quaint courtesy which
somehow seemed to fit him like a garment, P. Sybarite smiled strangely
at the shipping clerk.

The latter mumbled something incoherent, glanced wildly toward the
young woman, and spluttered explosively; all with a blush so deep that