The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-10-12


found the place crowded. to overflow
ing, as it was pretty apt to be on Saturday
evening; and having looked around IN
vain for an unoccupied table / was
on the point of going away to seek re-
treshnent elsewhere wheil the euterpr1s-
ing wife Of The proprietor, observing my
predicament and reluctant to lose my
reckoning, came up and exhorted me to
remain. No place. she queried. 'tOh,
that's all right. / make place for you"
She led me into small back room,
properly a sort of ante-chanber to the
kitchen, which served as arlnory Of the
stronghold, It's walls being lined with
dressers containing pots and pans, spits
and skewers and such other weapons, Of
fensiye and defensive, as are required to
complete the accoutrement of belted
cook, but which, on occasions like the
present, was thrown open to the public,
and there she kept her promise TO make
a place for me by ordering a chair to be
brought and planting it at one side of a
tiny table. the opposite side of which
was already in commission.
''Set there, she bade me. ''You'H be
all right.
/ obediently seated myself there; but ]
did so with beating heart, for the oecu-
pant of the other side of the table was
Miss Eczardy.
Well, there we sat, facing each other
across that tiny table throughout that
long Italian table d'hote, and ate our re-
spective dinners in solemn, unbroken
silence. / WANTED desperately 20 begin
a conversation with her, but / lacked the
hardihood to speak the first word, and
of course l could not expect the first
word to come from her. thought out
dozen possible maneuvers by which
the ice might be broken and the CONVEX
sation started; but when it came to the
rub of putting any one Of them in opera
ton my heart failed me, my tongue
Glove to the roof of my mouth. / fancied
l had got my courage quite screwed up
to the point Of asking her to pass the
vinegar; that, 1t seemed to me, would
be a natural opening and one that might
lead to something; but then at the
eleventh hour it occurred to me that the
vinegar cruet stood within easy reach of
my own hand, and that it would be in
fnitely ridiculous to impose upon her the
supererogatory task of passing it. and so
/ dared not. This was utterly absurd.
There was no reason why we should
not chat together. She knew who / was.
I knew who she was; we were members
of the same guild, dwellers under the
same roof tree; we had even correspond
ed together-did I not hold in my pos
session one Of her visiting cards, with
note written on it by her hand for my
eyes? There could have been no earthly
harm or wrong IN our speaking to each
other and making friends. It would
have been unconventional, if you like,
but not unconventional in any bad sense;
and beside, isn't unconventionality in
their mutual intercourse the privilege of
artists? Yet there we sat vis-a-vis, dis
tant not more than eighteen inches from
each other. and my childish timidity
tied my tongue and prevented my max
ing the first advance.
As time went on and saw the mo-
ment drawing near and nearer when she
would have finished her dinner and be
ready to leave the restaurant my ankle
ty to speak to her waxcd more intense,
but not 50 my courage. wondered
whether she appreciated the situation as
I did and perceived my faint hearted
ness, and was laughing at me in her
sleeve. stole glance at her beautiful
white face; it was inscrutable. Present.
ly she rose from her chair, put on her
mantle and moved off into the other room,
into the street.
The chance was gone. It was too late
now. Such chance might never occur
again. I reviled myself with curses not
loud but deep.
CHAPTER VII.