lph Rackstraw in "Pinafore"
for the benefit of the Library Fund, including Cues.

He scolded his Aunt Mary for doing her own Housework and told the
Colored Men how to lay the Cement Walk down through the Grape Arbor.
He promised his Father not to play Poker any more and vowed to his
Mother that she was a better Chef than the one up at Del's.
But his sub-conscious Self was so considerate of Elphye that he never
brought in her Name at all, at all.

Sometimes he would get back to the Ticker, but he was ready to leave it
any time to go fishing in the Crick with the Lads from the other side
of the Tracks.

Through the final Crisis he played tag with the Grim Reaper and just
escaped being It.

The Sun was slanting into the little white Room when he crawled feebly
back to Earth and tried to get his Bearings.

Annie was looking right at him, relieved and smiling and happy. She
had won her first game 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 Samoelon 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 intere