‘What is the name you bear?’
He shook his head—tum, tumpty, tum——”
Jimmy faltered! “He shook his head— He shook his head——”
“Maybe he had a chill,” suggested Leon.
“He shook— Well, I’ll have to let it go for now. I have to be in the mood. That’s the way with all of us great song writers. But you do like it, don’t you, Monty dear?”
“I’m crazy about it. Or I would be if I heard it again.” Despite a certain ambiguity, Jimmy accepted the praise at its face value and bowed. “It’s funny how the idea of that song came to me,” he remarked, dreamily. “I was listening to Wilcox explaining in that simple, direct way of his how he had arrived at a most extraordinary result in trig., and watching dear Mr. Nellis’s expression change from one of bewilderment to a sort of rapt incredulity——”
“They say he reads Henry James in the original,” whispered Dud admiringly.
“—When the great idea flashed upon me. ‘How awful,’ I thought, ‘to go through life with an impossible name like—like—well, like some of the impossible names folks do go through life with.’” Leon had a violent fit of coughing. Monty’s gaze narrowed. “One would, of course, do one’s best to cloak the—the disgrace, but eventually the horrific truth would out. What a tragedy! Imagine a man leading a blameless life for years and years, liked and respected by his neighbors, beloved by his family, and then having his name suddenly become known! Could anything be more horribly painful, more—er—dramatic? ‘There,’ said I, ‘is subject for a pathetic ballad. I will write it!’ No sooner exclaimed than executed. With my faithful fountain-pen, which happened to be working this morning for some unknown reason, I composed the words on a fly-leaf of my trigonometry. Dear Mr. Nellis interrupted me once with a request for information, but I waved him aside. The music was composed at the piano later. It is very nice music. I forget who wrote it first.”
“I like it because it’s so familiar,” murmured Leon. “You don’t have to learn it.”
“I suppose,” said Monty, “that you fellows know what your trouble is, but I don’t. If you think I’m going to sit around here and listen to your yawping all the evening——”