like new.

Signor Tortoni hadn't been losin' a look nor a word, and the minute he
ties us up to them speckled ponies he maps out a change of act. Before
I could call the waiter and get my change, Tortoni was right on the
ground.

"I beg pardon," says he, "but isn't this my old friend, Professor
McCabe?"

"You've sure got a comin' memory, Skinny," says I.

"Why!" says he, gettin' a grip on my paw, "how stupid of me! Really,
professor, you've grown so distinguished looking that I didn't place
you at all. Why, this is a great pleasure, a very great pleasure,
indeed!"

"Ye-e-es?" says I.

But say, I couldn't rub it in. He was so dead anxious to connect
himself with that red cart before the crowd that I just let him spiel
away. Inside of two minutes the honours had been done all around, and
Sadie was bein' as nice to the girl as she knew how. And Sadie knows,
though! She'd heard that sigh, Sadie had; and it didn't jar me a bit
when she gives them the invite to take a little drive down the road
with us.

Well, it was worth the money, just to watch Skinny judgin' up the house
out of the corner of his eye. I'll bet there wa'n't one in the
audience that he didn't know just how much of it they was takin' in;
and by the easy way he leaned across the seat back and chinned to
Sadie, as we got started, you'd thought he'd been brought up in one of
them carts. The madam wa'n't any in the rear, either. She was just as
much to home as if she'd been usin' up a green transfer across 34th.
If the style was new to her, or the motion gave her a tingly feelin'
down her back, she never mentioned it.

They did lose their breath a few, though, when we struck Wigghorn Arms.
It's a whackin' big place, all fenced in with fancy iron work and
curlicue gates fourteen feet high.

"I've just got to run in a minute and say a word to Mrs. Wigghorn,"
says Sadie. "I hope you don't mind waiting?"

Oh no, they didn't. They said so in chorus, and as we looped the loop
through the shrubbery and began to get glimpses of window awnings and
tiled roof, I could tell by the way they acted that they'd just as soon
wait inside as not.

Mrs. Wigghorn wasn't takin' any chances on havin' Their Dukelets drive
up, leave their cards, and skidoo. She was right out front holdin'
down a big porch rocker, with her eyes peeled up the drive. And she
was costumed for the part. I don't know just what it was she had on,
but I've seen plush parlour suit