Old Bryson's relationship with Gillian. Bryson says there is only one logical thing for Here, O. Henry uses irony, sarcasm, and understatement to imply the nature of
Gillian to do (buy a sheep ranch), which is completely illogical for a city-dweller like
presence" to sarcastically imply that Gillian would be detrimental to a ranch of any
Gillian who is used to the finer things in life. Bryson uses the phrase "inflict your
understated way to inform Gillian that Bryson would never visit or see him again. By
kind. Lastly, Bryson suggests a sheep ranch because Bryson dislikes sheep-an
hinting at Bryson's attitude toward Gillian with humor instead of directly stating his
feelings, O. Henry entices the reader to consider the text in a different way.

For each phrase below, describe what O. Henry implies about his characters.
You may need to revisit the story to recall the context of each phrase.
1. "showing as much interest as a bee shows in a vinegar cruet” (paragraph 11)
2. "He's left his whole cargo of doubloons to a microbe." (paragraph 12)
3. "Miss Lotta Lauriere was assisting nature with a powder puff." (paragraph 24)