If he'd missed her,
I'd have chipped in. Thar warn't no sense in my doing his duty
onless he failed."
Somehow the story got out. The Man from Solano as a butt became
more popular than ever, and of course received invitations to
burlesque receptions, and naturally met a great many people whom
otherwise he would not have seen. It was observed also that his
seven hundred dollars were steadily growing, and that he seemed to
be getting on in his business. Certain California stocks which I
had seen quietly interred in the old days in the tombs of their
fathers were magically revived; and I remember, as one who has seen
a ghost, to have been shocked as I looked over the quotations one
morning to have seen the ghostly face of the "Dead Beat Beach
Mining Co.," rouged and plastered, looking out from the columns of
the morning paper. At last a few people began to respect, or
suspect, the Man from Solano. At last, suspicion culminated with
this incident:--
He had long expressed a wish to belong to a certain "fash'n'ble"
club, and with a view of burlesque he was invited to visit the
club, where a series of ridiculous entertainments were given him,
winding up with a card party.
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