'But now an' then them gusts of apprehensions frequent with married gents sweeps over me an' I feels weak.

But comin' back to the dance-hall: As I su'gests thar's many a serene hour I whiles away tharin.

Your days an' your _dinero_ shore flows plenty swift in that temple of merriment; an' chilled though I be with the stiff dignity of a wedded middle age, if it ain't for my infant son, Enright Peets Tutt, to whom I'm strivin' to set examples, I'd admire to prance out an' live ag'in them halcyon hours; that's whatever! "'Thar's quite a sprinklin' of the _elite_ of Tucson in the dance-hall the evenin' I has in mind.

The bar is busy; while up an' down each side sech refreshin' pastimes as farobank, monte an' roulette holds prosperous sway.

Thar's no quadrille goin' at the moment, an' a lady to the r'ar is carollin' "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower." "Fair as a lily bloomin' in May, Sweeter than roses, bright as the day! Everyone who knows her feels her gentle power, Rosalie the Prairie Flower." "'On this yere o'casion I'm so far fortunate as to be five drinks ahead an' tharfore would sooner listen to myse'f talk than to the warblin' of the cantatrice.