"He's my prodigal father and I'm the fatted son. Do
you know the governor?"
"Yes, slightly."
"Well, what do you think of that? He's a great old party, isn't
he?" He chuckled irrepressibly. "Did you ever hear him swear?"
The woman shook her head with a smile. "I hardly know him well
enough for that."
"Oh, he's a free performer; he swears naturally; can't help it.
Everybody knows he doesn't mean anything. It's funny, isn't it,
with all his credit, that I can't get a shirt until I put up a
diamond ring? He could buy a railroad with half that security."
"You are joking, are you not?"
"No indeed. I never needed a shirt so badly in my life. You see, I
didn't intend to take this trip; I didn't even know I had sailed.
When I woke up I thought this was a hotel. I've got no more
baggage than a robin."
"Really?" The woman by now had closed her book and was giving him
her full attention, responding to some respectful quality in his
tone that robbed his frankness of offence. "How did it happen?"
"Well, to be perfectly honest, I got drunk--just plain drunk. I
didn't think so at the time, understand, for I'd never been the
least bit that way before. Hope I don't shock you?"
His new acquaintance shrugged her shoulders.
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