least," allusions Rusper could never make head or tail of, and got at

last to disregard as a part of Mr. Polly's general eccentricity. For a

long time that little tendency threw no shadow over their intercourse,

but it contained within it the seeds of an ultimate disruption.

Often during the days of this friendship Mr. Polly would leave his

shop and walk over to Mr. Rusper's establishment, and stand in his

doorway and enquire: "Well, O' Man, how's the Mind of the Age

working?" and get quite an hour of it, and sometimes Mr. Rusper would

come into the outfitter's shop with "Heard the (kik) latest?" and

spend the rest of the morning.

Then Mr. Rusper married, and he married very inconsiderately a woman

who was totally uninteresting to Mr. Polly. A coolness grew between

them from the first intimation of her advent. Mr. Polly couldn't help

thinking when he saw her that she drew her hair back from her forehead

a great deal too tightly, and that her elbows were angular. His desire

not to mention these things in the apt terms that welled up so richly

in his mind, made him awkward in her presence, and that gave her an

impression that he was hiding some guilty secret from her. She decided

he must have a bad influence upon her husband, and she made it a point

to appear whenever she heard him talking to Rusper.

One day they became a little heated about the German peril.

"I lay (kik) they'll invade us," said Rusper.

207

The History of Mr Polly