"
"Thank you," Fenton responded, brightly. "I am awfully glad you like
it. I fancy," he added, with a laugh, "that the tabby-cats will be
shocked."
His companion made no reply, and the approach of Rangely afforded
Arthur a chance to change the conversation.
"I say, Fred," he demanded, "have you congratulated Thayer Kent yet?"
"Congratulated him?" echoed Rangely.
"Yes. Didn't you know his engagement is out?"
Rangely might have been said to take a page out of Fenton's own book,
as he answered,--
"But what's the etiquette of precedence?" "Of precedence?" echoed
Arthur, in his turn.
"Yes," Rangely returned. "Which of us should congratulate the other
first? Only," he added, hitting to his own delight upon a position
which might save him from some awkwardness in the future, "of course my
engagement can't be announced until Miss Merrivale gets home to her
mother."
"Well," Arthur said, "marriage is that ceremony by which man lays aside
the pleasures of life and takes up its duties. I congratulate you on
your determination to do anything so virtuous."
"Sardonic, as usual," retorted Fred, laughing; and then he went to find
Miss Merrivale, convinced that under the circumstances the sooner he
proposed to her the better.
XXXII
HEART-BURNING HEAT OF DUTY.
Love's Labor's Lost; i.
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