What's he doing
with himself? Do you ever meet him nowadays?"
Said Mr. Alpha:
"I happened to dine with him--it was chiefly on business--a couple of
days before I fell ill. Remarkably strange cove, Omega--remarkably
strange."
"Why? How? And what's the matter with the cove's second daughter,
anyway?"
"Well," said Alpha, "it's all of a piece--him and his second daughter
and the rest of the family. Funny case. It ought to interest you.
Omega's got a mania."
"What mania?"
"Not too easy to describe. Call it the precaution mania."
"The precaution mania? What's that?"
"I'll tell you."
And he told me.
V
"Odd thing," said Alpha, "that I should have been at Omega's just as I
was sickening for appendicitis. He's great on appendicitis, is Omega."
"Has he had it?"
"Not he! He's never had anything. But he informed me that before he
went to Mexico last year he took the precaution of having his appendix
removed, lest he might have acute appendicitis in some wild part of
the country where there might be no doctor just handy for an
operation. He's like that, you know. I believe if he had his way there
wouldn't be an appendix left in the entire family. He's inoculated
against everything.
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