“Do you know what I have done?” he collectively and blandly inquired. “I told Skitt to buy me, at the opening, 1,000 Atchison and 1,000 Steel. Now I would like a quiet drink.”
Loftus stood up. “I am going in the Park for a quiet smoke. But I thought you had sworn off.”
Annandale tugged at his cavalry mustache and laughed. “I haven’t touched a thing for nearly a year. But on a night like this, when the whole town is mad, I think I might have a drop. Stop, dear boy, won’t you, and have one with me? No? Well—” And, accompanying Loftus to the door, he whispered to him there, “My compliments to Miss Leroy.”
“Don’t forget, Royal,” Fanny called after him, “that you dine with us on the ninth.”