I FOUND Norris looking better, and it's a sure thing that I was looking
worse. I felt weary--the natural reaction of all that deviltry! Exercise
with the pitchfork is all right under proper circumstances, but a man
near fifty years of age should use more care than I had done in the
choice of circumstances.
“What's the matter?” was the query of Norris.
“Been fightin',” I said, remembering how I had answered a similar
question of my father one day when I returned from school with a black
eye and my trousers torn. “They kep' pickin' on me.”
Then I told him the story of my quarrel with the slim count and its
climax. But I said nothing of Forbes's part in the matter. We laughed so
loudly that the nurse entered in a panic to see what was the matter.
“Nothing's the matter except good health,” I said. “We're both twenty
years younger than we were a short time ago, and if you know any remedy
for that go and throw it out of the window.”
She retired from the scene, and we went on with our talk.
“You're about the most versatile lawyer that I ever knew,” said he.
“Such devotion I did not deserve or expect. If there's any more fighting
to be done we'll hire a boy. For what you have done I say 'Thanks,' and
you know what I mean by that. Gosh t' Almighty! I'm going to get out of
bed, and we'll have some fun.”
“I'm beginning to long for the old sod!” I remarked.
“So'm I. Let's go south for a little while and then home. It looks as if
we should have to take a count with us as a souvenir.”
“The Raspagnetti?” I asked.
“The same,” said he. “Read that.”
He drew from under his pillow a letter from the Count Raspagnetti, which
said:
_I am sorry that you are sick, for I desire so much to talk with you and
tell you, I should say, how profoundly I am in love with your beautiful
and accomplished daughter. The esteemed Monsignor who bears this note,
and who is my friend and yours also, can tell you that I am worthy of
your confidence, although unworthy, so to speak, of such an adorable
creature as Miss Gwendolyn. But I feel in my heart that I cannot be
happy without her. I assure you that I would rather die than find it
impossible to make her my wife. So I hope that you will let me see you
soon, if your health should cherish the endurance, and permit me to
speak of such things to her._