He squirted water
all over the drawing-room furniture, and I haven't been allowed to put
foot into the house since. My own darlin' sister refused to look at me
for a week, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if she changed me
namesake's title to something less enfuriating than William." A look
of distress came into his merry eyes. "By Jove, I'd like nothing
better than to ask you in to have a dish of tea,--it's tea-time, I'm
sure,--but I'd no more think of doing it than I'd consider cutting off
me head. He doesn't like strangers. He--"
"My dear fellow, don't distress yourself," cried Barnes heartily.
"There isn't the least reason in the world why--"
"You see, the poor old chap asks us up here once or twice a year,--
that is to say, De Soto and me,--to keep his sister from filling the
house up with men he can't endure. So long as we occupy the only
available rooms, he argues, she can't stuff them full of
objectionables. Twice a year she comes for a month, in the late fall
and early spring. He's very fond of her, and she stands by him like a
major."
"Why does he continue to live in this out-of-the-world spot, Mr.
O'Dowd? He is an old man, I take it, and ill.
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