what to do, while Bliss passed around and distributed the plates from the table. Hart had just perceived that something in his method of procedure was wrong, when there came the sound of singing from outside. Hollingsworth turned suddenly in response to an interrogation of the girl at his side, and his elbow struck the bottom of the bowl of salad. How it occurred Hart could never tell, but the bowl slipped from his fingers and landed bottom uppermost on the top of Mr. Hollingsworth's silk hat, which received the contents without spilling even so much as a drop of the dressing. Hollingsworth observed the accident with an exclamation of anger.
"The clumsy chump!" he said, looking up at poor Hart, who in his effort to secure the lost balance of the salad bowl had distributed two or three of the croquettes on the floor. "What are you doing?"
"I am very sorry, sir," Hart began. Hollingsworth was in an irritable mood.
"Oh, get out," he said, "before you do more damage!"
Hart had now grown to be a little angry himself.
