"Don't come in," he murmured wanly,

   Gloria and Dick came in at five and called his name. There was no answer—they went into the living room and found a chair with its back smashed lying in the doorway, and they noticed that all about the room there was a sort of disorder—the rugs had slid, the pictures and bric-à-brac were upset upon the centre table. The air was sickly sweet with cheap perfume.

    
   They found Anthony sitting in a patch of sunshine on the floor of his bedroom. Before him, open, were spread his three big stamp-books, and when they entered he was running his hands through a great pile of stamps that he had dumped from the back of one of them. Looking up and seeing Dick and Gloria he put his head critically on one side and motioned them back.

  "Anthony!" cried Gloria tensely, "we've won! They reversed the decision!"



  "Don't come in," he murmured wanly, "you'll muss them. I'm sorting, and I know know you'll step in them. Everything always gets mussed."



   "What are you doing?" demanded Dick in astonishment. "Going back to childhood? Don't you realize you've won the suit? They've reversed the decision of the lower courts. You're worth thirty millions!"


   Anthony only looked at him reproachfully.

   "Shut the door when you go out." He spoke like a pert child.



   With a faint horror dawning in her eyes, Gloria gazed at him—



   "Anthony!" she cried, "what is it? What's the matter? Why didn't you come—why, what is it?"



   "See here," said Anthony softly, "you two get out—now, both of you. Or else I'll tell my grandfather."



   He held up a handful of stamps and let them come drifting down about him like leaves, varicolored and bright, turning and fluttering gaudily upon the sunny air: stamps of England and Ecuador, Venezuela and Spain—Italy….



 

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922.

Keynsham: Bonzo Dog Band (Link)

The Bride Stripped Bare By The Bachelors (V. Stanshall/N. Innes)

(So The Boys Got Together And Formed A Band;

Fate Played The Straight Man, And Since Then They've Never Looked Back.)

We arrived at the gig looking rough.

Not happy, We'd all had enough

Of Eight Hours On The Road.

Legs Larry said: "Ee, It's the Boozer for me, dear boy."

(Yip, Yip! Yes, Indeed!...)

And the Hotel Reception was empty and cold,

With horrid red wallpaper, forty years old.

It stank like a Rhino House.

Mr. Slater said: "Pooh -- I can smell vindaloo."

"Oh, really?"

"No, Sir. O'Reilly!"

As We Wave To The People Who Frown
At Our Hair As We Ride Into Town. . .

And Chalky and Noz set up the gear

At the club where the Do-Pal Show would appear

In Person As Themselves

In Person As Themselves

And Neil, Fred and I played darts for a while
Before we switched on our theatrical smiles

LINK:

Bonzo Dog Band: The Bride Stripped Bare By The Bachelors (from Keynsham) 

Has there ever been?  I ask You.

Readymades (Vivian Stanshall-Neil Innes)

Wendy Wetlip stares from a poster,

Ignoring the drawing adorning her smile.

Her lover has shuffled away,

Looking the other way

Ronnie the Raincoat hangs out in a book store.

He's never seen his own wife in the nude.

Somebody called him depraved.

But think of the money he saved. 

Dwarf on a moped speeds through the park,

To Kilroy's Renaissance -- the Temple of Art.

Signs with a flourish and makes it his own,

Pockets his pencil and slyly rides home. 

Annual cultural African dancers,

Bereft Isabella in rubber thigh boots.

A man was arrested today,

For something he put on display.

 

Note to reader: Link in last line to Exploding Sausage film featuring the Bonzo Dog Band "at play" and en famille.  Songs featured are: (i) Quiet Talks and Summer Walks (from Keynsham); (ii) We Are Normal (from The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse (UK) and The Urban Spaceman (US)); and (iii) Readymades (beginning at 5:10)(from Tadpoles). It's really wonderful footage to watch of a great, inspired, and highly original band. No other group could have or would have dreamed of making the wonderful Readymades. The song's mood kind of reminds me of this.