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"I read the whole thing once. No, I guess I'm thinkin' of The County Fair, a drammer that I saw at the Bee-jou. But I guess they're all the same, those Fairs." "Say Doc," he went on presently, "I'm going to double you on Number Seven, beginning from to-morrow, hear?" Number Seven was one of the stiffest of Klinker's Exercises for All Parts of the Body. Queed looked up absently.
At 11.45 Queed's open watch kept accurate tally there came Trainer Klinker, who, having sought his pupil vainly in the Scriptorium, retraced his steps to rout him out below. At sight of the tall bottle in Klinker's hand Queed shrank, fearing that Fifi had sent him with a second dose of turpentine.
These principles Queed was endeavoring, with his peculiar faculty for patient effort, to apply practically in his daily offerings. It is enough to say that he found the task harder than Klinker's Exercises, and that the little article on the city's method of removing garbage, which failed to appear in this morning's Post, had stood him seven hours of time. It was a warm rainy night in early May.
But under Klinker's stern discipline, he was already acquiring something like a form. By midsummer he had gained a small reputation for scientific precision buttressed by invincible inability to learn when he was licked, and autumn found many of the Mercuries decidedly less Barkis-like than of old.
The agent sat down in a chair across the table, William Klinker's chair, and rested her chin upon her shapely little hand. The other shapely little hand toyed with the crisp twenty dollar bill, employing it to trace geometric designs upon the colored table-cloth. Mr. Queed had occasion to consult his watch again before she raised her head.
Klinker's hunch was not without foundation; this very question was being agitated at that moment in the room just over his head. Miss Weyland, having passed the parlor portières with no thought that her movements were attracting interest on the other side of them, skipped up the stairs, rapped on her Aunt Jennie's door, and ran breathlessly into the room.
If he liked, he could idle for ten years, twenty years, and still be more than abreast of his age. And as it was, he could not pretend that he had kept the faith, that he was inviolably holding his Schedule unspotted from the world. No, he himself had outraged and deflowered the Schedule. Klinker's Exercises and the Post were deliberate impieties.
Gimme an hour a day for just a month, and I'll bet you the drinks you wouldn't quit after that for a hundred dollars." Queed turned away from Klinker's honest eyes, and wrestled the bitter thing out.
What was there about him that invited this sort of thing?... And he was going to take Klinker's advice; he had seized upon it gratefully. Nor could he say that he was utterly insensate to Fifi's: he had caught himself saying over part of it not ten minutes ago.
It won't take a minute, and you can catch it up eating supper faster if you feel you got to." Queed, curious, as well as decidedly impressed by Klinker's sure knowledge in a field where he was totally ignorant, was persuaded. The two groped their way down a long dark passage at the rear of the shop, and into a large room like a cavern. Klinker lit a flaring gas-jet and made a gesture.
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