The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball

0:00 Jessie raised her eyebrows and one shoulder slightly.

0:03 Entirely, she said with a sculpted smile,

0:06 I could not conscientiously advise anyone to drink or smoke or whistle on Sunday.

0:13 The meal was finished almost in silence.

0:16 Bob tried to make talk, but his efforts lacked the stimulus of previous evenings.

0:21 He felt miserable, and once or twice his eye wandered toward the bottle,

0:25 but each time the scathing words of his bibulous friend sounded in his ear,

0:31 and his mouth set with determination.

0:34 Jessie felt the change deeply.

0:37 The essence of their lives seemed to have departed suddenly.

0:41 The restless fever, the false gaiety,

0:44 the unnatural excitement of the shoddy bohemia in which they lived

0:48 had dropped away in the space of the popping of a cork.

0:51 She stole curious and forlorn glances at the dejected Bob.