"
Alice and I screamed in one breath, "You're _not_ going to give away
the dressing-case!"--for it had been my father's.
"I said a _bargain_" replied Philip, rubbing harder than ever; "you
can't get hold of a gun every day Without paying down hard cash."
"I hate Mr. Clinton!" said Alice.
It was a very unfortunate speech, for it declared open war; and when
this is done it cannot be undone. There is no taking back those sharp
sayings which the family curse hangs on the tips of our tongues.
Philip and Alice exchanged them pretty freely. Philip called us
selfish, inhospitable, and jealous. He said we grudged his enjoying
himself in the holidays, when he had been working like a slave for us
during the half. That we disliked his friend because he _was_ his
friend, and (not to omit the taunt of sex) that Clinton was too manly
a fellow to please girls, etc., etc. In self-defence Alice was much
more out-spoken about both Philip and Mr. Clinton than she had
probably intended to be. That Philip began things hotly, and that his
zeal cooled before they were accomplished--that his imperiousness laid
him open to flattery, and the necessity of playing first-fiddle
betrayed him into second-rate friendships, which were thrown after the
discarded hobbies--that Mr.
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