B1205 <=> B1207 [BTG XLVIII From the Author, p. 1206]

“Thanks merely to the likeness, which has just struck you, between the face of the chauffeur and the face of the drunkard you bumped into last year when you were returning somewhat tipsy yourself from a rowdy birthday party, you notice that the accident on the street-corner is unaccountably connected in your associations with a meringue you ate at that party.

“Ah, what a meringue that was!

“That servant of yours, forgetting your newspaper today, spoiled your morning coffee. Why not make up for it at once?

“Here is a fashionable cafe where you sometimes go with your friends.

“But why did you recall the servant? Had you not almost entirely forgotten the morning’s annoyances? But now . . . how very good this meringue tastes with the coffee.

“Look! There are two ladies at the next table. What a charming blonde!

“You hear her whispering to her companion, glancing at you: ‘Now he is the sort of man I like!’

“Do you deny that from these words about you, accidentally overheard and perhaps intentionally said aloud, the whole of you, as is said, ‘inwardly rejoices’?

“Suppose that at this moment you were asked whether it had been worth while getting fussed and losing your temper over the morning’s annoyances, you would of course answer in the negative and promise yourself that nothing of the kind should ever occur again.

“Need you be told how your mood was transformed while you were making the acquaintance of the blonde in whom you were interested and who was interested in you, and its state during all the time you spent with her?

“You return home humming some air, and even the sight of the broken mirror only elicits a smile from you. But how about the business on which you had gone out this morning. . . . You only just remember it. Clever . . . well, never mind, you can telephone.