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At the breakfast table Bill handed me that fez. "Senator, you dropped your
hat on the floor of the 'fresher."
Also at the table were Gwen, the Hendersons-Ingrid, Jinx, Gretchen,
Wolf-and two boarders, Eloise and Ace, and three small children. It was a good
time for me to come out with a brilliant ad-lib that would account for my
possession of this funny hat. What I said was, "Thank you. Bill."
Jinx and Ace exchanged glances; then Jinx offered me Masonic recognition
signs.
That's what I have to assume they were. At the time I simply thought that
he was scratching himself. After all, all Loonies scratch because all Loonies
itch. They can't help it-not enough baths, not enough water.
Jinx got me alone after breakfast. He said, "Noble-"
I said, "Huh?" (Swift repartee!)
"I couldn't miss it that you declined to recognize me there at the table.
And Ace saw it, too. Are you by any chance thinking that the deal we made last
night wasn't level and on the square?"
(Jinx, you cheated me blind, six ways from zero.) "Why, nothing of the
sort. No complaints." (A deal is a deal, you swiftie. I don't welch.)
"Are you sure? I've never cheated a lodge brother-or an outsider, for that
matter. But I take special care of any son of a widow just the way I would one
of my own blood. If you think you paid too much for being rescued, then pay what
you think is right
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