the arm.

[Illustration: "HE COULD HEAR THE CRASH, SEE THE GREAT BOW SINKING"]

"Where have you been, Nuncky dear?" she inquired most sweetly.

"Looking for you, my dear Marcia."

"For two whole days?"

"Well--er--yesterday I--er--thought you'd better be left alone,
and--er--where did you meet that young man?"

"Oh, Bertha Sands introduced him--he's a dear! You came just a minute
too late." Miss Dorn laughed and squeezed her uncle's arm. "He's _so_
amusing. You'd _love_ to meet him!"

"That silly ass!" grunted Admiral Paulding. "Not much. He makes my toe
itch! I've got a good name for him--'the smoke-room pest.' He's always
doing card tricks under your unwilling nose, pretending to sit on
somebody's hat, upsetting the dominos! If he can get a laugh out of a
waiter, he's perfectly satisfied. I squelched him the other day, I can
tell you!"

"What did you do?" Miss Marcia asked the question with mock
seriousness.

"Never mind; but I taught him a lesson. Marcia, my dear, you do pick
up the most peculiar acquaintances."