Chapter V: Act IV: Scene 1. Enter Virtuous Banker. "All is lost. There

is a run on the bank -----"

_Enter Unprincipled Clerk_. "WALTER CORAM presents check for L7 4 S. We have no funds. Shall we pay it?"

_Enter Original Coram_. (_Aside_.) "I am WALTER CORAM; but I can't prove it, the villains having taken my other handkerchief. (_To the Banker_.) Sir, you once gave me a penny, and you have since embezzled my fortune. How can I repay such noble conduct? Here is a bag of gold. Take it and pay your creditors."

_Scene_ 2. _Enter Unprincipled Clerk and Comic Villain_.

_Unprincipled Clerk_. "The original CORAM has turned up. We must turn him down again. I will burn him in his bed to-night."

_Comic Villain_. "Burn him; but don't attempt any violence." (_Swears and smashes in his hat_.)

_Scene_ 4. _Enter Original Coram_. "I am WALTER COHAM; but I can't prove it--I forget precisely why. What is this in my coffee? Opium! It is, by SIVA, VISHNU, and others! They would fain drug my drink. Ha! Ha! I have drank, eaten, smoked, chewed, and snuffed opium for ninety years. I like it. So did my parents. I am, so to speak, the child of poppy. Ha! What do I see? Flames twenty feet high all around me! Can this be fire? The wretches mean to burn me alive! (_Aside_--And they'll do it too, some night, if Moss don't keep a sharp look-out after those lazy carpenters.)"

_Enter Miss Effie German_. (_Aside_.) "I must get on the roof and drag CORAM out. I hate to do it; for I shall have to show my ankles in these horrid trowsers. But I suppose I must." (_Gets on the roof with Comic Villain's Daughter, shows ankles, lifts up roof and saves Coram, amid whirlwinds of applause and smoke.--Curtain_)

* * * * *

_Young Lady before-named_. "Isn't EFFIE GERMON _too_ lovely?"

_Bostonian Youth_. "Yes. RISTORI is, however -----"

_Heavy old Party_. "This fire business is dangerous, sir. Never saw it done at the old Park. EDMUND KEAN would -----"