Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-20
UNWELCOME VISITORS


.swhen was girl at boarding school."
observed a young matron who lives in a fiat,
I'VE had q scheme that amply provided Tor
our solitude when we wanted to be let alone
ana did not feel like receiving visitors.
Each Of us had printed piacard, bearing
In large letters the single word Studying. :
When we had letters to write. or for any
other reason desired to be alone and to ex-
cfude visitors. we simply hung out the
Studying placard on the outside OF the
door. and it always sufficed. No girl disre-
garded the placard. The hanging out OF the
card meant just as plainly as a great many
more words could have conveyed the Idea
that the girl In her room behind that door
wanted to be alone. No girl ever took OF
tense upon being confronted with thar sign
when she started down the hall to make
call upon a chum She didn't rap upon the
door, either to ascertain with her own eyes
whether the girl with the Studying sign
out really was engaged in STUDY. Sucn q
thing would have been an unheard-of preaSn
teachers deferred their visits to another
time when they saw that sign hanging Out
on the door. :. >.
well. I've been wondering lately II II
would be possible for me now TO make
different application of that system am
meditating getting a sign printed bearing
the word Sleeping and hanging II out On
the entrance to our fiat on SUNDAY aa, 49,
Moons My husband enthusiastically DUCKS
up this plan. In fact, when he LETT lot ms
office this morning he declared that he was
going to have the Sleeping placard prih'eu
today. ,,r
about 9 o'clock on Sundays. and after am
ner we send the maid servant away anu
with the Sunday papers stacked arouho u.s.
we distribute ourselves on couches III sep
for a
ping. We look over the papers for a nttle
while and then we draw the curtains anu
have a fine old Sunday afternoon siunioel.
THAT is to say, we used to- But we uoli
any more For the past six Sundays some
body in the fiat has called upon us JUST as
we were tearing off. as my husoaiio
presses it. large hunks of slumDef. Ahd
we couldn't meet them at the door ana
tell, them that we had been engaged IN
catching I'D on sleep when they raped on
the door. We had to do the pest we coule
to hide the tousled-looking appearance VI
our hair and to rub the heavy sieepiness GU,
of our ewes. and then sit down and enter
tain the folks who thought they'd Just run
in for a comfy talk. Now, both my nus
band and l are neighboriy. we IKE our
friends We enjoy having them come 10 see
us-in. season. There's nothing inhospitable
about u.s. But IL there's anything meahef
in this life than being awakened on gray
and somber Sunday afternoon, just Wheh
you're beginning to dream of turquoise seas
to brush up for couple of hours or snall
talk with people who merrily teli you that
they always find 1t Impossible 10 steep III
the daytime then I'd like to know what 1t
is My husband is always as eros as d
bear under such circumstances.
ION Sunday afternoon last we were both
relapsing into a pleasant Sunday afternoon
sleep when little spnster in the nat VINO
has been employed in government oHice
for ever so many years, raped on the door.
OF course / had to get up and let her IN
and conduct her to the front room, where
nv husband, not exactly in receiving dress,
either was comfortably Sprawled all over
the coy corner couch, with the Pillows
heaped up under his head. l had TO drive
him out of the room, and he went with all
of the ambling grace of grizzly bear that
has been smoked out of his winter hiber-
mating tree. and then invite the visitor into
the room. She was full of just one subject
the recent dismissal of a woman friend OF
hers from one of the departments. 1t was
an absorbing grievance with her, ana she
sat down and mourned and walled over II
for an hour and a half, while, almost per-
shing with the feeling that comes from
broken sleep-we had been out late at
party the night beforeI had to sit there
and murmur sympathetic phrases. In the
meantime my husband. who can never sleep
during the daylight hours once his sleep
has been broken. gloomed and glowered out
in the dining room. smoking pipe after pipe,
and smelling UP the curtains horribly with
his tobacco, and mluttering things to him
self that just knew must have been terri
BILE.
II almost hope that he'll carry out his
threat and have that Sleeping placard
sary for me to make up my mind as to
whether it shall he hung out on the door
on Sunday afternoons. He'll attend to that
part of it himself"