ersons had gone out into
society. He let himself in and began to follow the directions of the
Montague girl. The bath, clean linen, the other belted suit, already
pressed, the other shoes, the buttoned, cloth-topped ones, already
polished! He felt now more equal to the encounter with a heartless
society woman. But, as she did not return, he went out in obedience to a
new hunger.

In the most sumptuous cafeteria he knew of, one patronized only in his
first careless days of opulence, he ate for a long time. Roast beef
and potatoes he ordered twice, nor did he forget to drink the milk
prescribed by his benefactress. Plenty of milk would make him more than
ever resemble Harold Parmalee. And he commanded an abundance of dessert:
lemon pie and apple pie and a double portion of chocolate cake with
ice-cream. His craving for sweets was still unappeased, so at a near-by
drug store he bought a pound box of candy.

The world was again under his feet. Restored to his rightful domain,
he trod it with lightness and certainty. His mind was still a pleasant
jumble of money and food and the Montague girl. Miles of gorgeous film
flickered across his vision. An experienced alcoholic would have told
him that he enjoyed a coffee "hang-over." He wended a lordly way to the
nearest motion-picture theatre.

Billed there was the tenth installment of The Hazards of Hortense. He
passed before the lively portrayal in colours of Hortense driving a
motor car off an open drawbridge. The car was already halfway between
the bridge and the water beneath. He sneered openly at the announcement:
"Beulah Baxter in the Sensational Surprise Picture of the Century." A
surprise picture indeed, if those now entering the theatre could be told
what he knew about it! He considered spreading the news, but decided to
retain the superiority his secret knowledge gave him.

Inside the theatre, eating diligently from his box of candy, he was
compelled to endure another of the unspeakable Buckeye comedies.
The cross-eyed man was a lifeguard at a beach and there were
social entanglements involving a bearded father, his daughter in
an inconsiderable bathing suit, a confirmed dipsomaniac, two social
derelicts who had to live by their wits, and a dozen young girls also
arrayed in inconsiderable bathing suits. He could scarcely follow the
chain of events, so illogical were they, and indeed made little effort
to do so. He felt far above the audience that cackled at these dre