ed advisable, was
suddenly immensely distasteful. He bought Tit-bits and Ally Sloper at
the bookstall, squeezed his way into a crowded third-class compartment,
and joined in a noisy game of nap with half a dozen roistering young
clerks, who were full of jokes about his crumpled dinner clothes.
Arrived in London, he had the utmost difficulty to refrain from buying a
red and yellow tie displayed in the station lavatory where he washed and
shaved, and the necessity for purchasing a collar stud left him for a
few moments in imminent peril of acquiring a large brass-stemmed
production with a sham diamond head. He hastened to his rooms, scarcely
daring to look about him, turned over the clothes in his wardrobe with a
curious dissatisfaction, and dressed himself hastily in as offensive a
combination of garments as he could lay his hands upon. He bought some
common Virginian cigarettes and made his way to the offices of Messrs.
Waddington and Forbes.

Mr. Waddington was unfeignedly glad to see him. His office was
pervaded by a sort of studious calm which, from a business point of
view, seemed scarcely satisfactory. Mr. Waddington himself appeared to
be immersed in a calf-bound volume of Ruskin. He glanced curiously at
his late employee.

"Did you dress in a hurry, Burton?" he inquired. "That combination of
gray trousers and brown coat with a blue tie seems scarcely in your
usual form."

Burton dragged up a chair to the side of his late employer's desk.

"Mr. Waddington," he begged, "don't let me go out of your sight until I
have taken another bean. It came on early this morning. I went through
all my wardrobe to find the wrong sort of clothes, and the only thing
that seemed to satisfy me was to wear odd ones. Whatever you do, don't
lose sight of me. In a few hours' time I shouldn't want to take a bean
at all. I should be inviting you to lunch at the Golden Lion, playing
billiards in the afternoon, and having a night out at a music hall."

Mr. Waddington nodded sympathetically.

"Poor fellow!" he said. "Seems odd that you should turn up this
morning. I can sympathize with you. Have you noticed my tie?"

Burton nodded approvingly.

"Very pretty indeed," he declared.

"You won't think so when you've had that bean," Mr. Waddington groaned.
"It began to come on with me about an hour ago. I forced myself into
these clothes but the tie floored me. I've a volume of Ruskin here
before me, but underneath, you see," he continue