Page:Penrod by Booth Tarkington (1914).djvu/284

270 Sammy Williams and Maurice Levy were there for the same reason, and they just whispered 'little gentleman,' so low you could hardly hear them—and Penrod began fighting with them right before me, and it was really all the barber and I could do to drag him away from them. The barber was very kind about it, but Penrod"

"I tell you he's a lunatic!" Mr. Schofield would have said the same thing of a Frenchman infuriated by the epithet "camel." The philosophy of insult needs expounding.

"Sh!" said Mrs. Schofield. "It does seem a kind of frenzy."

"Why on earth should any sane person mind being called"

"Sh!" said Mrs. Schofield. "It's beyond me!"

"What are you sh-ing me for?" demanded Mr. Schofield explosively.

"Sh!" said Mrs. Schofield. "It's Mr. Kinosling, the new rector of Saint Joseph's."

"Where?"

"Sh!" On the front porch with Margaret; he's going to stay for dinner. I do hope"

"Bachelor, isn't he?"

"Yes."