know?"

"Certainly, sir," responded Jenkins absently, for he was intensely
concentrated on the selection of a scarf-pin.

I went on: "It's about--oh, don't you know--about when you've tried
being engaged to one person and you don't like it, and you are thinking
of being engaged to another--something of that sort, dash it--oh, _you_
know!" And I wondered if it would be the sardonyx or the ruby, and hoped
it would be the ruby.

"Mm-m-m," murmured Jenkins, blinking thoughtfully. "Let's see, sir--it
ain't that one about the hair of the dog, is it?"

"Hair of the--Certainly _not_!" I exclaimed with indignation. "No, it's
some jolly saw about being off with the old and on with--" I stalled.

"Off and on," came quickly from Jenkins; then he went back to his jolly
pins.

"Maybe," I said, trying to think, "but there's something else about
being on with the new--or being on to the new--Oh, yes, the devilish
thing starts off: ''Tis well to be off'--um, off--Dash it, off _what_?
You catch the idea, don't you?"

"Certainly, sir." He tried the ruby and sardonyx in turn against the
silk and rejected both--_he_ took a garnet. It wouldn't have been _my_
taste, but then it wasn't my business, you know! His jolly old lips
moved as he repeated something to himself; he rolled his eyes to the
ceiling and cleared his throat--and _then_ I knew he had it!

"I don't seem to remember it, sir--not _precisely_--h'm--but could it be
this: ''Tis well to be off--'" He paused with finger on chin, rolling
his eyes upward.

"Oh, dash it, yes!" I said disgustedly. "Why, _I_ told you--"

He lifted his hand. "'Tis well to be off and on--'" And he stuck again,
dash it! Then his lips worked some more and his face cleared. "Oh,
_here_ it is, sir--_I've_ got it now! See if this ain't it:"

And he laid it off with his fingers the way a woman counts the words in
a telegram to keep from going over ten:

"'Tis-well-to-be-off-and-on-with-the-old-love,
but-don't-let-on-to-the-new'--_there you are, sir_!"

"By Jove!" I exclaimed, batting at him; and the brushes in my hands
paused and pulled hard on each side of my part. "Oh, I say!" And I had
him repeat it again.

The thing troubled me! Odd I had not more carefully noticed before the
wording of the jolly thing! But then of course my interest in it had not
been so dashed personal as now. Kept running in my head now and
disturbing me all the while Jenkins was busying himself about me. And
_then_, as if