d your troubles! I might a-knowed you was some
new kind of a panhandler when you come a-snortin' in my ear that-a-way.
Better beat it while the goin's good. You're in the wrong neighbourhood
to be springin' such a gag as this one you just now sprang on me.
Anyhow, I've wasted enough time on the likes of you."

He was ten feet away when Mr. Leary, his wits sharpened by his
extremity, clutched at the last straw.

"One moment," he nervously begged. "Did I understand you to say your
name was Cassidy?"

"You did. Wot of it?"

"Well, curious coincidence and all that--but my name happens to be
Leary. And I thought that because of that you might----"

The stranger broke in on him. "Your name happens to be Leary, does it?
Wot's your other name then?"

"Algernon."

Stepping lightly on the balls of his feet Mr. Cassidy turned back, and
his mien for some reason was potentially that of a belligerent.

"Say," he declared threateningly, "you know wot I think about you? Well,
I think you're a liar. No regular guy with the name of Leary would let a
cheap stiff of a stick-up rob him out of the coat offen his back without
puttin' up a battle. No regular guy named Leary would be named Algernon.
Say, I think you're a Far Downer. I wouldn't be surprised but wot you
was an A. P. A. on the top of that. And wot's all this here talk about
goin' to a sociable functure and comin' away not suitably dressed? Come
on out of that now and let's have a look at you."

"Really, I'd much rather not--if you don't mind," protested the
miserable Mr. Leary. "I--I have reasons."

"The same here. Will you come out from behind there peaceable or will I
fetch you out?"

So Mr. Leary came, endeavouring while coming to wear a manner combining
an atmosphere of dignified aloofness and a sentiment of frank
indifference to the opinion of this loutish busybody, with just a touch,
a mere trace, as it were, of nonchalance thrown in. In short, coming out
he sought to deport himself as though it were the properest thing in
the world for a man of years and discretion to be wearing a bright pink
one-piece article of apparel on a public highway at four A. M. or
thereabouts. Undoubtedly, considering everything, it was the hardest
individual task essayed in New York during the first year of the war.
Need I add that it was a failure--a total failure? As he stood forth
fully and comprehensively revealed by the light of the adjacent
transparency, Mr. Cassidy's squint o