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 out the name of his
getting-off Station.
Next day she brought the Market Page in her wonderful jewel-crusted
Bag.
Bob took one Look and crawled under the Covers.
The Market had gone Blooey.
Bucket Preferred was down in the Subway, bleeding from a dozen Wounds.
The Whole List was on the Blinkety Fritz.
"Courage, Dearie," said Bob, taking Elphye by the Rings. "Your little
Playmate is erased from the map."
Elphye upset two Rolling Chairs and one Interne getting from the
Convalescent Department to the open Air.
Annie found the poor Bankrupt much improved as to Pulse and
Temperature.
He told her the whole Story of how his Lady Fair had canned him
because he was no longer a Live One.
She held his hand and pushed back his Locks and told him that any Girl
with a Heart would stick closer than ever to her Selection when he was
under the Rollers.
Just then a Messenger from McCusick came in and showed Bob that by
going Short and standing pat he was $1,800,000 to the Desirable.
After that, Bob was known up and down the Street as The Wizard.
Annabelle, remembering how they had got to her Father, made him cut
out the Margins and put the whole Chunk into listed Securities and
Real Estate.
He wanted to stick around and parlee up to a Billion, but she raised a
most emphatic Nixey.
He was so used to taking orders from her as a Trained Nurse that he
cut out speculating and played Safe.
The whole game was punk for months after, so every one said he had
been a Wise Mug for backing away.
The Missus allows him a light one (mostly Vermouth) before Dinner each
evening and has taught him a private Signal which means that she is
ready to duck and go Home.
At present they are in Paris, where she is working to get the same
hilarious _Tout Ensemble_ formerly exhibited by Elphye, the Ex-Empress
of the White Light Reservation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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