"A--what?"

"A mouse."

"G-green?"

"Pea green.... Come, now, Smith, if you were just leaving your office and
your clerk should come in, looking rather puzzled and silly, and should
hand you a card with nothing on it but a little green mouse, wouldn't it
give you pause?"

"I suppose so."

Brown removed his straw hat, touched his handsome head with his
handkerchief, and continued:

"I said to Snuyder: 'What the mischief is this?' He said: 'It's for you.
And there's an exceedingly pretty girl outside who expects you to receive
her for a few moments.' I said: 'But what has this card with a green
mouse on it got to do with that girl or with me?' Snuyder said he didn't
know and that I'd better ask her. So I looked at my watch and I thought
of you----"

"Yes, you did."

"I tell you I did. Then I looked at the card with the green mouse on
it.... And I want to ask you frankly, Smith, what would _you_ have done?"

"Oh, what you did, I suppose," replied Smith, wearily. "Go on."