Go on!"
"Well, about six months ago, her stepmother up and dies. The old man
promptly sends for her to come back and cheer his declinin' years, as
the novel writers say. Ernie writes all this to me and I gets the
letter a couple of months ago down in New Orleans, where I was
attendin' Mardi Gras, a sort of annual custom of mine, don't you know,
old chap, by Jove! I'm terrible careless about my correspondence,
which accounts for my neglectin' to write this to you. However, I'm
not so careless that I neglected to write this to Ruby--a thing I do
reg'lar every month, some months. Four days ago, in Looieville, I gets
two letters, one from her and one from Ernie. Ernie knows everything.
He's seen Christine nearly every day for three months, but she ain't
seen him. Poor devil of an Ernie! I made him what he is--I banged him
up for life."
"It was an accident, Dick. Don't take it--"
"Nix. It ain't no accident when you kick a four-year-old kid down a
flight of stairs. Well, anyhow, they both write me that Tom Braddock
is in New York and actin' terrible ugly. He's layin' for Bob Grand. As
luck would have it, the Colonel is off attendin' the races along the
spring circuit, and Ernie says he won't be back in New York for three
or four days.
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