He pulled a lever and made his mind revolve about him, a monstrous wheel of fortune, a merry-go-round of memory, a revolving sphere of wisdom.

Faster and faster it revolved, until its vortex sucked him in and he was flung whirling through black chaos.
Quite naturally he found himself at a mangle, feeding starched cuffs.

But as he fed he noticed figures printed in the cuffs.

It was a new way of marking linen, he thought, until, looking closer, he saw "$3.85" on one of the cuffs.

Then it came to him that it was the grocer's bill, and that these were his bills flying around on the drum of the mangle.