The Little Warrior - Penn State University

“Oh, don’t be absurd! Wally has all the money anybody
needs. What’s money?”
“What’s money?” Uncle Chris stared. “Money, my
dear child, is … is … well, you mustn’t talk of it in
that light way. But, if you think you will really have
enough …?”
“Of course we shall. Now you can go back. Mrs
Peagrim will be wondering what has become of you.”
“Must I?” said Uncle Chris doubtfully.
“Of course. You must be polite.”
“Very well,” said Uncle Chris. “But it will be a little
difficult to continue the conversation on what you might
call general lines. However!”
* * *
Back in the box, Mrs Peagrim was fanning herself with
manifest impatience.
“What did that girl want?” she demanded.
Uncle Chris seated himself with composure. The
weakness had passed, and he was himself again.
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“Oh, nothing, nothing. Some trivial difficulty, which
I was able to dispose of in a few words.”
Mrs Peagrim would have liked to continue her researches,
but a feeling that it was wiser not to stray too
long from the main point restrained her. She bent towards
him.
“You were going to say something when that girl interrupted
us.”
Uncle Chris shot his cuffs with a debonair gesture.
“Was I? Was I? To be sure, yes. I was saying that you
ought not to let yourself get tired. Deuce of a thing,
getting tired. Plays the dickens with the system.”
Mrs Peagrim was disconcerted. The atmosphere
seemed to have changed, and she did not like it. She
endeavored to restore the tone of the conversation.
“You are so sympathetic,” she sighed, feeling that she
could not do better than to begin again at that point.
The remark had produced good results before, and it
might do so a second time.
“Yes,” agreed Uncle Chris cheerily. “You see, I have
seen something of all this sort of thing, and I realize the