features with incredible speed, and shaking his gaunt head slightly from side to side, until at length he whispered in a tone of passionate disgust and revulsion: “Oh, bad! Bad! Bad! By every gesture! by every act! he betrays the boor, the vulgarian! Can you imagine”—here his voice sank even lower in its scale of passionate whispering repugnance—“can you for one moment imagine a man of breeding and the social graces breaking wind publicly?—And before his own daughter. Oh, bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!”
And in the silence, while Uncle Bascom stood shaking his head in its movement of downcast and convulsive distaste, they could hear, suddenly, the ripping noise Brill would make as his pungent answer to all the world—and his great bellow of throaty laughter. Later on, if Bascom had to consult him on any business, he would open his door abruptly, walk out into Brill’s office clutching his hands together at his waist, and with disgust still carved upon his face, say: “Well, sir…. If you have concluded your morning devotions,” here his voice sank to a bitter snarl, “we might get down to the transaction of some of the day’s business.”
“Why, Reverend!” Brill roared. “You ain’t heard nothin’yet!”
And the great choking bellow of laughter would burst from him again, rattling the windows with its power as he hurled his great weight backward, with complete abandon, in his creaking swivel-chair.
It was obvious that he liked to tease the old man, and never lost an opportunity of doing so: for example, if anyone gave Uncle Bascom a cigar, Brill would exclaim with an air of innocent surprise: “Why, Reverend, you’re not going to smoke that, are you?”
“Why, certainly,” Bascom said tartly. “That is the purpose for which it was intended, isn’t it?”
“Why, yes,” said Brill, “but you know how they make’em, don’t you? I didn’t think you’d touch it after some dirty old Spaniard has wiped his old hands all over it—yes! an’spit upon it, too, because that’s what they do!”
“Ah!” Bascom snarled contemptuously. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! There is nothing cleaner than good tobacco! Finest and healthiest plant on earth! No question about it!”
“Well,” said Brill, “I’ve learned something. We live and learn, Reverend. You’ve taught me somethin’worth knowing: when it’s free it’s clean; when you have to pay for it it stinks like hell!” He pondered heavily
