"Jefferson dear, it's no use getting angry. . . . There's no harm done. He's gone."
"No harm done! Think of our children. Suppose there'd been a stranger here instead of Wilkinson. What would he have thought of our home?"
"Dont worry about that," croaked Mr. Wilkinson, "accidents will happen in the best regulated families."
"Poor Joe's such a sweet boy when he's himself," said Aunt Emily. "And think that it looked for a while years ago as if Harland held the whole Curb Market in the palm of his hand. The papers called him the King of the Curb, dont you remember?" "That was before the Lottie Smithers affair. . . ."
"Well suppose you children go and play in the other room while we have our coffee," chirped Aunt Emily. "Yes, they ought to have gone long ago."
"Can you play Five Hundred, Jimmy?" asked Maisie.
"No I cant."
"What do you think of that James, he cant play jacks and he cant play Five Hundred."
"Well they're both girl's games," said James loftily. "I wouldn't play em either xept on account of you."
"Oh wouldn't you, Mr. Smarty."
"Let's play animal grabs."
"But there aren't enough of us for that. It's no fun without a crowd."
"An last time you got the giggles so bad mother made us stop."
"Mother made us stop because you kicked little Billy Schmutz in the funnybone an made him cry."
"Spose we go down an look at the trains," put in Jimmy.
"We're not allowed to go down stairs after dark," said Maisie severely.
"I'll tell you what lets play stock exchange. . . . I've got a million dollars in bonds to sell and Maisie can be the bulls an Jimmy can be the bears."
"All right, what do we do?"
"Oh juss run round an yell mostly. . . . I'm selling short."
