dear boy, with this fire burnin' and my hands itchin' for you?"

"Dodging Chad's guns. Got that same old arsenal with him, I see," Fitz
answered, edging his chair nearer the fire and stretching out his
hands to the blaze. "Pity you didn't fill Klutchem full of lead when
you had the chance, Colonel. It would have saved some of us a lot of
trouble. He's got the Street by the neck and is shaking the life out
of it."

"How was it when you left, Fitz?" I asked in an undertone.

"Looked pretty ugly. I shouldn't wonder if the stock opened at 60 in
the morning."

"Have you covered your shorts yet?" I continued in a whisper.

"Not yet." Here Fitz leaned over and said to me behind his hand: "Not
a word of all this now to the Colonel. Only worry him, and he can't do
any good."

"By the by, Colonel"--here Fitz straightened up, and with a tone in
his voice as if what he really wanted to talk about was now on the end
of his tongue said: "is Aunt Nancy coming for Christmas? Chad thinks
she is."

The Colonel, who had noticed the confidential aside, did not reply for
a moment. Then he remarked, with a light trace of impatience in his
voice:

"If you have unloaded all the caares of yo' office, Fitz, I will
answer yo' question, but I cannot soil the dear lady's name by
bringin' it into any conversation in which that man has a part. There
are some subjects no gentleman should discuss; Mr. Klutchem's affairs
is one of them. I have already expressed my opinion of him both to the
Major and to Chad and I have promised them both that that scoundrel's
name shall never again pass my lips. Oblige me by never mentionin'
it. Forgive me, Fitz. There's my hand. You know I love you too well
for you to think that I say this in anythin' but kindness. Let me put
a little mo' whiskey in that toddy, Fitz--it lacks color. So--that's
better. Aunt Nancy did you ask about, my dear Fitz?--of co'se, she's
comin'. And, Major,--did I tell you"--here the Colonel turned to
me--"that she's going to bring a servant with her this time? The dear
woman is gettin' too old to travel alone, and since Chad has been with
me she has felt the need of some one to wait upon her. She has passed
some weeks or mo' in Richmond, she writes, and has greatly enjoyed the
change. Make no engagement for Christmas, either one of you. That
loveliest of women, suh, will grace our boa'd, and it is her special
wish that both of you be present."

Fitz crushed the sugar in his glass, r