(This is one of the marvels of Nature.)

Jay brought a menu.

"Terrible, about your nephew," he said.

"It's all right, now. He'll pull out of it."

"That kind of thinking, I guess, is more than men can stand."

"It's the thinking they don't do that they can't stand."

Jay smiled a little. "Then they aren't any different from the rest of us."

"They aren't. Only—they don't know it." Jay glanced down at the menu. "Sole," I said, "and parsley potatoes Tartar sauce and a baked apple."

My mind flared and guttered over the anticlimaxes of the day. Soon, it commenced to take its ribald revenge.

I sent a message to the neurologists: