Doubled and Redoubled

The very first thing that startled Jimmy Childers that extraordinary, repetitive June day was the alarm-clock going off. It shouldn't have gone off. He remembered distinctly setting it at "Silent" when he went to bed the night before, and thumbing his nose derisively at it. He was a big shot now; he could get down to the office, along with the Westchesterites, at a quarter of ten, not at nine, as heretofore. He rose on an elbow and hurled a pillow at the jangling thing, then flopped back onto the pillow for a moment's luxurious retrospect...