I said to myself that I would take the first favourable occasion to
hint to Mr. Alpha how profoundly, etc., etc.
The occasion arrived sooner than I had feared. Alpha had an illness.
It was not alarming, and yet it was sufficiently formidable. It began
with colitis, and ended with appendicitis and an operation. Soon after
Alpha had risen from his bed and was cheerfully but somewhat feebly
about again I met him at a club. He was sitting in an arm-chair in one
of the huge bay-windows of the club, and gazing with bright interest
upon the varied spectacle of the street. The occasion was almost
ideal. I took the other arm-chair in the semicircle of the window. I
saw at once by his careless demeanour that his illness had taught him
nothing, and I determined with all my notorious tact and
persuasiveness to point a moral for him.
And just as I was clearing my throat to begin he exclaimed, with a
jerk of the elbow and a benevolently satiric smile:
"See that girl?"
A plainly-dressed young woman carrying a violin-case crossed the
street in front of our window.
"I see her," said I. "What about her?"
"That's Omega's second daughter."
"Oh, Omega," I murmured. "Haven't seen him for ages.
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