"No; of course not."

"Den vot you gonna do vit it?"

"I'm going to take it to the hungry men outside."

Well, sir, you'd have thought the world had stopped turning round,
so still it was. The two waiters nearly dropped their order-pads and
their napkins; they did drop their jaws, and Mrs. T-S's permanent
wave seemed about to go flat.

"Oh, hell!" cried T-S at last. You can't do it!"

"I can't?"

"You can't order only vot you gonna eat."

"But then, I don't want anything. I'm not hungry."

"But you can't sit here like a dummy, man!" He turned to the waiter.
"You bring him de same vot you bring me. Unnerstand? And git a move
on, cause I'm starvin'. Fade out now!" And the waiter turned and
fled.



XV


The proprietor of Eternal City wiped his perspiring forehead with