The sun., 1906-12-23

brilliance or beauty7 Thatn do for your
| sarcasm, now, lanes Rubberino. Don't try
10 be clever with me. You may be able
| to fool folks downtown with that sort OF
thing, but beg of you not to attempt to
make a hit with me. | am too well ac-
quainted with you for that.
Il met that tallSative little Oldfash woman
in the vestibule W hen l went down to get
the mail this afternoon, and she had to
grab hold of me, too, and brag about the
fruit cakes she is making for Christmas.
l declare, every single W oman that I've
met around here to-day has had something
to blow and talk big about. l suppose
that garrulous little Oldfash woman thinks
she's the only human being on earth Who
ever heard of a Christmas fruit cake, much
less knows how TO make one. She wanted
to drag me into her fiat to show me how
she made hers, but wasn't to be dragged.
Then she offered to make my fruit cake
for me if / wanted her to-the nerve OF heri
As il wanted every pair of hands belonging
to everybody 1 know poking into things
meant for uS to eat! .. %
WHAT You think it was very kind OF
Mrs. Oldfash to offer to make my fruit
cake? Oh, l knew perfectly well you'd
say somethi.g like that. Eve got so
can read you like book, and know every
thing you're going to say before, you say
it, But it wasn't any such thing kind
of her to offer to make my fruit cake. All
she wanted to do was TO snoop around my
kitchen to find something to critioise so
that she could romp all over the building
and tell everybody all about 1t, guess
know something about cats. They cans
fool me, no sir!
SMrs. Perdunsrs is going to have Christ
mas tree for her raft of brats, and suppose
they'll be making enough noise around here
TO wake the dead. for a week or so after
Christmas. The idea OF having Christ
mas tree in such a teeny fiat as the Per-
ducems, anyway. It's bad enough to
have children around flats, much less giving
'em Christmas trees to hop and dance
around and yell and howl over and disturb
everybody within mile OF them. should
think folks with such a kennel OF young 'uns
as the Perducems have would move out into
the country, anyhow.
@Oh, / forgoti OF all the gally women
that ever lived and breathed that Havealot
woman in the right hand fat on the ground
floor is the galliest. She called me in as
l passed by to-day to show me the set OF
sables-she called em sables-that her
husband had sent to Alaska for her Christ
mas-ves YOU can believe il OF not, she
did say that her husband had sent 70
Alaska for the furs! They'd just arrived,
she told me- and she was dying to have me
see them. OF all the ratty, catty looking
furs, they were the worst! No more sable
than cowhide is sable. But she just went
right ahead and Dragged herself bla0k in
the face of those skinny looking common
old furs, that | could get any pAce Tor
$50 or $50. She unwound the longest story
of how her husband had heard OF a man
up in Alaska who dealt in sahles direct
with the purchaser and how he had made
inquiries about this man and how he had
finally made up his mind to get her the
sablnS and" '''
-What's that? Mr.. Havalot tpld you
back in October about the Alaska sable
merchant and howed you the letter in
which he was sending for a set for his wife?
Humph' | suppose, that's another one Of
yo,ir fnade-up Stories, sprCiug for the pur-
pose of taking up for Mrs. Havalot, like
you do all the rest Of the womer around
! here. II you saw such a letter it's p wonder
you didn't say anything. about it 10 me. l
s'pose you really expect me TO believe such
yarn, don't you? Well, IL they are sables,
excuse me from sables. =
-How's that? You sent for a set OF
sables for me at the same time Mr.. Havalot
did? Why, you dear old thing When are
they going TO arrve3 You've got 'em
down al your office now? Well, IL you're
not the love! They're simply the beauti-
fullest sables | ever saw in my born days,
and / was only Joking about Mrs. Hav-
alot They're perfectly lovely and stun
ming and / was angry TO think that she
had EN- and didn't And my set is just
like hers? You perfect darling! just wait
a minute: | want to run down and have
another look at Mrs. Havalot's Are you
perfectly sure mine are exactly like hersp
We'll, isn't that grand! | could just hug
youl just wait a minute-I must go down
this instant to see Mrs. Havalot's sables
that are just like mine!"