ed quietly to the broker and said aloud: "Give me a pen,
Thwicket!"

He took a blank check from his pocket-book--a check on the Chemical
Bank, wherein $2.17 reposed peacefully to his credit.

"I don't think you have very much money of mine here, Thwicket?" he
continued, as he slowly wrote the date-line in the check.

"Don't think we have. Robert, what is Mr. Gallivant's balance?"

The clerk turned over his ledger and presently replied: "Mr. Gallivant
has a credit of $382.22."

[Illustration: "ROBERT, WHAT IS MR. GALLIVANT'S BALANCE?"]

"I don't think we'll bother with Snapshot Consolidated, Thwicket.
Truth is, I'm afraid of it. My wits haven't been working right here
lately. But I'll just give you a check for $20,000, and you can buy me a
nice little block of Michigan Border--say a hundred shares, just to see
how the cat jumps, you know."

Thwicket took the check, but with a troubled air. "My dear Gallivant,"
he said, "why do a thing like that? I'm very glad to have another order
from you, but I don't want to see a valuable customer like you lose any
more money. Michigan Border was doing very well a month ago, but it is
declining now, and for good reasons. Let's take a flyer in Snapshot!"

"Hand me that check!" said Mr. Gallivant in a most decisive tone and
with a profoundly irritated air. "Hand it back, Thwicket! Hand it right
over, and draw me a check for my balance of $382.22. I'm going to cut
the d--d Gordian knot and get out of this! No use talking, my head's all
bemuddled. 'F I was to go into the Street to-day I'd lose my whole
fortune. Now, don't argue with me, old man, I'm out of sorts, and the
best thing for me to do is to stop right short till I get clear-headed
again. Draw me that check. Let me have every penny I've got on your
books. I'm going up to my place in the country and spend a month
reading Greek plays. If anything 'll calm me, that will."

The broker looked vastly disappointed, but smiled consentingly. He
returned the $20,000 check, which Mr. Gallivant tore to pieces with a
great show of nervousness and irritation, and in another moment,
possessed of his precious $382.22, he departed gloomily.

But a long and cheery smile, that reached nearly to the tips of his
mustache and almost sufficed to give them a faint curl, spread itself
over his face as he turned from Wall Street into Broadway. He caressed
the check with his fingers and softly observed, "H'm, I flatter myself
that was well done.