Narrator Glenn Hascall magnificently captures the characters of this O. Henry short story about a Southern gentleman who still maintains the manners of the antebellum South although he is now living in a boardinghouse in Washington, D.C.

Henry Hopkins Hargraves, an actor who also lives at the boardinghouse, befriends Major Pendleton Talbot, is apparently entranced by the Major's stories, and is happy to sit and listen for hours as Maj. Talbot rambles on. Of course O. Henry adds a wonderful twist to this humorous short story.