Course, that knocks out my scheme. I'd passed the sad news on to Snick; and it was near noon Wednesday, when I'm called up on the 'phone by Sadie. Seems that Mrs. Purdy-Pell had signed a lady harpist and a refined monologue artist to fill in the gap between coffee and bridge, and the lady harper had scratched her entry on account of a bad case of grip. So couldn't I find my friend Mr. Butters and get him to produce his singer? The case had been stated to Mrs. Purdy-Pell, and she was willin' to take the risk. "All right," says I. "But it's all up to her, don't you forget." With that I chases down to Madison Square, catches Snick just startin' out with a load of neck stretchers, gives him the number, and tells him to show up prompt at nine-thirty. And I wish you could have seen the joy that spread over his homely face. Even the store eye seemed to be sparklin' brighter'n ever. Was he there? Why, as we goes in to dinner at eight o'clock, I catches sight of him and Hermy holdin' down chairs in the reception room. Well, you know how they pull off them affairs. After they've stowed away about eleventeen courses, from grapefruit and sherry to demitasse and benedictine, them that can leave the table without wheel chairs wanders out into the front rooms, and the men light up fresh perfectos and hunt for the smokin' den, and the women get together in bunches and exchange polite knocks. And in the midst of all that some one drifts casually up to the concert grand and cuts loose. That was about the programme in this case. Hermy was all primed for his cue, and when Mrs. Purdy-Pell gives the nod I sees Snick push him through the door, and in another minute the thing is on. The waiter's uniform was a tight fit, all right; for it stretches across his shoulders like a drumhead. And the shirt studs wa'n't mates, and the collar was one of them saw edged laundry veterans. But the general effect was good, and Hermy don't seem to mind them trifles at all. He stands up there lookin' big and handsome, simpers and smiles around the room a few times, giggles a few at the young lady who'd volunteered to do the ivory punishing, and then fin'lly he gets under way with the Toreador song. As I say, when it comes to gems from Carmen, I'm no judge; but this stab of Hermy's strikes me from the start as a mighty good attempt. He makes a smooth, easy get-away, and he strikes a swingin', steady gait at the quarter, and when he comes to puttin' over the deep, rollin' chest notes I has feelin's down under the first dinner layer like I'd swallowed a small thunder storm. Honest, when he fairly got down to business and hittin' it up in earnest, he had me on my toes, and by the look on Sadie's face I knew that our friend Hermy was going some.