"You come right down to it--I bet a cookie he stays just where I tell
him to stay," insisted Cousin Egbert. The evident conviction of his
tone alarmed his hearers, who regarded each other with pained
speculation.
"Right where I tell him to stay and no place else," insisted Cousin
Egbert, sensing the impression he had made.
"But this is too monstrous!" said Mr. Jackson, regarding me
imploringly.
"The Honourable George," I admitted, "has been known to do unexpected
things, and there have been times when he was not as sensitive as I
could wish to the demands of his caste----"
"Bill is stalling--he knows darned well the Judge is a mixer," broke
in Cousin Egbert, somewhat to my embarrassment, nor did any reply
occur to me. There was a moment's awkward silence during which I
became sensitive to a radical change in the attitude which these
people bore to Cousin Egbert. They shot him looks of furtive but
unmistakable respect, and Mrs. Effie remarked almost with tenderness:
"We must admit that Cousin Egbert has a certain way with him."
"I dare say Floud and I can adjust the matter satisfactorily to all,"
remarked Belknap-Jackson, and with a jaunty affection of
good-fellowship, he opened his cigarette case to Cousin Egbert.
"I ain't made up my mind yet where I'll have him stay," announced the
latter, too evidently feeling his newly acquired importance.
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