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E. A. SOTHERN, SR.
thrown completely out of gear by the in-
trusion of another idea. The rhythmic mo-
tion of Asa Trenchard's foot made it impos-
sible for him to remember the words of his
song ; the accidental view of a split hair
in his whiskers caused him to be oblivious
of Georgina's narrative j
a sudden discov-
ery of her chignon, when her back was
modestly turned, and the train of conse-
quent meditation, broke him off in the
midst of an offer of marriage.
The funniest and most highly illustra-
tive incident of this sort was the famous
passage in which his search for his mis-
placed trousers pocket passed from a usual
automatic act to a mind-absorbing effort,
and— with a perfect parallelism of effect
at every stage — at first left his words un-
checked, then gradually slowed his tongue,
then stopped his speech altogether, finally
required the united devotion of hand, eyes,
and brain to discover the missing recep-
tacle. Dundreary's mind had — to change
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