"The same there! Frightful expense,--and also rotten taste!
No, the Metropolitan Athletic Club can't stoop to such
entertainments. If it were a worth-while little playhouse, now,
and if they had a high class of performances, that would be
another story. Hey, Aunt Abby? What do you think?"

"I don't know, Sanford, you know I'm ignorant on such matters.
But I want to ask you something. Have you read the paper
to-day?"

"Why, yes, being a normal American citizen, I did run through the
Battle-Ax of Freedom. Why?"

"Did you read about Hanlon--the great Hanlon?"

"Musician, statesman or criminal? I can't seem to place a really
great Hanlon. By the way, Eunice, if Hendricks blows in, ask him
to stay to dinner, will you? I want to talk to him, but I don't
want to seem unduly anxious for his company."

"Very well," and Eunice smiled; "if I can persuade him, I will."

"If you can!" exclaimed Miss Abby, her sarcasm entirely unveiled.
"Alvord Hendricks would walk the plank if you invited him to do
so!"

"Who wouldn't?" laughed Embury. "I have the same confidence in
my wife's powers of persuasion that you seem to have, Aunt Abby;
and though I may impose on her, I do want her to use them upon me
deadly r-rival!"