e in the Big League.

He noticed that she was not slashed up the side or down the back, had
no metallic Insteps, carried her own Hair, and was in no way concealed
behind the usual pallid Veneering.

He remembered dimly that she had been with him on the Underground.

Then he recalled a previous Existence in which the Dripped Absinthe
was a Breakfast and the Cigarette a Luncheon and Elphye was trotting
in her Glads and he had a Swell Bet down on Tin Bucket Preferred. The
whole Lay-Out seemed unreal and remote and entirely disconnected with
Friend Nurse.

He inquired the Day of the Week, and when he learned it was Next Month
he started to get right up and put on his Things.

Annie quietly spread him back on the Pillow and laid down the Law
regarding Rest and Quiet.

Then he begged her to ring up McCusick & Co. and get the latest Bucket
Preferred.

He said he had plastered his last Samoleon and, not being there to
watch the Board and concentrate his wonderful Trading Instinct on
every jiggle of the Dial, there was no telling what the Bone-Heads had
done to him.

You see, he had no recollection whatever of going Short, for he had
been in a Walking Delirium at the time and crazy as a Cubist.

Annie said it was wrong to Gamble and he was not to read the Papers or
fuss with Visitors until Doc gave the word.

Suddenly he remembered that he was engaged to Elphye and he wondered
if she had forgotten.

So many things can happen in a Great City within two weeks.

He told Nurse about Elphye. Annie did not seem madly interested, but
she wrote a Note to the Sazerack Apartment Building and notified the
Seraphine that her prospective Producer was still extant and would be
willing to renew acquaintance if she could spare an hour or two from
her Dancing.

Elphye came out two days later made up as a Princess in the Christmas
Pantomime and diffusing pleasant Odors in all directions.

She sat down alongside of Annie and immediately she was shown up and
went back to the Minors.

Her Second-Reader Conversation, complicated with the phoney Boston
sound of "A" as in "Squash," did not improve her General Average.

Bob suddenly realized that in getting rid of the Bronxes and the
Nicotine and various other Toxins, he also had lost his appetite for
Elphye.

But he was Game and willing to go through on his own Proposition.

He sent Nurse for a glass of Water and then begged his Fiancee to
smuggle in a Newspaper so he could find