Page:Tex; a chapter in the life of Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (IA texchapterinlife00mcke).pdf/62



Reggie pro rata''. [Bridge winnings at this time were thriftily exchanged for War Savings Certificates.] This morning I (pro)-rated the girl at the post-office for not "pushing" those certificates. I said that, whenever any one asked for a penny stamp, she should ask:''

"May we not supply you with one of these?"

It went very well with the audience. This morning, he writes later'', I have bought my thirteenth fifteen-and-sixpennyworth of Uncle Reggie. Mindful of my injunction to "push" the goods, the post-office girl urged me to buy a £19. 7. affair which would be good for £25 in five years' time. Alas! Still, there are hopes.''

In his preface to The Admirable Bashville, Bernard Shaw explains his reason for throwing it into blank verse: "I had but a week to write it in. Blank verse is so childishly easy and expedious (hence, by the way, Shakespeare's copious output), that by adopting it I was enabled to do within the week what would have cost me a month in prose." Pressure of work sometimes drove Teixeira to a similar expedient in rimed verse:

Letter just received, he writes in haste on