"
"On YOUR invitation?"
"Dear, no! all I did was to pay for it. Tom Soufflet gave the
dinner and invited the people. Everybody knows Tom. You see, a
friend of mine put me up to it, and said that Soufflet had fixed up
no end of appointments and jobs in that way. You see, when these
gentlemen get sociable over their wine, he says carelessly, 'By the
way, there's So-and-so--a good fellow--wants something; give it to
him.' And the first thing you know, or they know, he gets a
promise from them. They get a dinner--and a good one--and he gets
an appointment."
"But where did you get the money?"
"Oh,"--he hesitated,--"I wrote home, and Fanny's father raised
fifteen hundred dollars some way, and sent it to me. I put it down
to political expenses." He laughed a weak, foolish laugh here, and
added, "As the old man don't drink nor smoke, he'd lift his
eyebrows to know how the money goes. But I'll make it all right
when the office comes--and she's coming, sure pop."
His slang fitted as poorly on him as his clothes, and his
familiarity was worse than his former awkward shyness.
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