All (Frightfully Unofficial) About an Old Friend of Mine / What He Most Probably Was. What He Most Certainly Will Be, and Who Has Done This? Why the Cat.

A satirical sketch follows an aging bank clerk through stages of service, shifting from early confidence to long familiarity, dashed hopes for a pension, and fanciful dreams of grateful directors and domestic comfort. The narration alternates ironic observation and imagined scenes in which committees and managers demand resignation before granting aid, treat loyalty as expendable, and propose cheap replacements. Recurring dream sequences, a meddlesome phantom argument at a committee, and a final, sharp coincidence culminate with the clerk ending up under the line, underscoring a critique of how labor and reward are administered in a commercial setting.