tural period. Some distance off in this latter direction the
vista between the buildings was cut across by the straddle-bug structure
of one of the Elevated roads. All this Mr. Leary comprehended in a quick
glance about him, and then he turned on the culprit cabman with rage in
his heart.

"See here, you!" he snapped crossly, jerking the other by the shoulder.
"What do you mean by bringing me away off here! This isn't where I
wanted to go. Oh, wake up, you!"

Under his vigorous shaking the driver slid over sideways until he
threatened to decant himself out upon Mr. Leary. His cap falling off
exposed the blank face of one who for the time being has gone dead to
the world and to all its carking cares, and the only response he offered
for his mishandling was a deep and sincere snore. The man was hopelessly
intoxicated; there was no question about it. More to relieve his own
deep chagrin than for any logical reason Mr. Leary shook him again; the
net results were a protesting semiconscious gargle and a further
careening slant of the sleeper's form.

Well, there was nothing else to do but walk. He must make his way afoot
until he came to Sixth Avenue or on to Fifth, upon the chance of finding
in one of these two thoroughfares a ranging nighthawk cab. As a last
resort he could take the Subway or the L north. This contingency,
though, Mr. Leary considered with feelings akin to actual repugnance. He
dreaded the prospect of ribald and derisive comments from chance fellow
travellers upon a public transportation line. For you should know that
though Mr. Leary's outer garbing was in the main conventional there were
strikingly incongruous features of it too.

From his neck to his knees he correctly presented the aspect of a
gentleman returning late from social diversions, caparisoned in a
handsome fur-faced, fur-lined top coat. But his knees were entirely
bare; so, too, were his legs down to about midway of the calves, where
there ensued, as it were, a pair of white silk socks, encircled by pink
garters with large and ornate pink ribbon bows upon them. His feet were
bestowed in low slippers with narrow buttoned straps crossing the
insteps. It was Miss Skiff, with her instinct for the verities, who had
insisted upon bows for the garters and straps for the slippers, these
being what she had called finishing touches. Likewise it was due to that
young lady's painstaking desire for appropriateness and completeness of
detail that Mr. L