The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1907-11-22
HER
PREDICAMENT'
She Ead Lunch With the Man
She Hated Most.


been q perfect stranger; but to find
yourself sitting opposite the man you
hate most in all the world and have
vowed never to speak to again-to find
yourself sitting opposite him, / say
and eating dinner at his expense-can
you imagine anything more tragic?
but you could have left-or-or--
explained" began her hostess.
: No, couldn't walled the girl from
the Bronx. How are you going to ex.
plain anything to anybody without
speaking to him? And | had vowed |
wouldn't by all the gods, big and little.
And, besides, it happened so naturally
well, I'll tell you all about it.
New York is pretty big place, but
| find that when there is anybody in
town whom you particularly don't want
to meet the town gets SO cramped that
you always are stepping on one an
others toes. At any rate, you always
are running across the people YOU
don't want to see, and you never by
any chance run across somebody that
you are dying to see. So, of course. it
was only week after we had quarrel
ed and separated forever, that-the
thing happened
Il had been shopping all morning.
and when noon time came l was just
so tired that | thought | would Just
take an elevator to the lunch room
OF the department store instead of 60
ing home. You know how crowded
those places are at noon. We'll, when
| reached this one, it looked like the
geological gardens at feeding time.
Everybody in town seemed to be eat
ing there; and there wasn't a table
lett-only a seat opposite a gentle
man, the waiter informed me, and he
asked me if l would mind occupying
it. was so hungry and exhausted
that l would have been glad to eat
opposite a polar BEAR so | was only
too grateful to be allowed to sit oppo-
site the gentleman.
i followed the waiter through the
lanes made by tables and had dropped
down in my chair before | glanced at
the gentleman; and then discovered
to my horror that he wasn't a gentle
man at all, and just the rudest, most
overbearing man 1 ever knew, and the
very one | had quarreled with the
week before. OF course, he might
have risen and gone away; but he
didn't And then another waiter came
over for my order and took the gen
tleman's' at the same time. | got
awfully busy fussing with my wraps
and my gloves; but he just sat there
not seeming to notice me after the
first stare of blank amazement. It
seemed to me | dropped everything |
possessed in rapid-fire succession.
Say, how long does it take to make
soup, anyway? 1t seemed fully three
quarters of an hour before that blessed
waiter returned bringing a tray with
tureen on it. And when he did ap-
pear he set the tureen down in front
of him instead of me. And that wasn't
the worst The next thing he did was
to take two plates, wipe them off with
his serviette and place them in front
of-that man. Then, before I could
catch my breath or scream, or some
thing, he was gone, and he was pass
ing me a plate of soup.
Il accepted that plate with as good
a grace as possible and determined to
get a cup of coffee and roll and dis
appear. But fate and that waiter
were against me. ] was only half
through my soup when that waiter
came sailing back with a tray con-
tanning two orders of Ash. He had
ordered fish for himself, it seems;
and the idiot took it for a double or
der. ! don't believe up to that time
he really intended to make a joke of
it; but when he saw how things were
going 1t entered his soul to push them
along little.
Il would have refused the fish. but
by the time l caught my breath the
waiter had disappeared again-and
wouldn't speak to him. Besides, how
could | have explained to the waiter?
Neither one of us had told him that
we were not together when he brought
the soup, and we could hardly explain
that we had made each others ac-
quaintance during that course. | was
in for it! So | merely gulped, and
went through the courses silently, one
after another. But | didn't speak!
And neither did he. 1t got to be a sort
of painful pleasure after awhile. and
| could easily imagine how the early
Christian martyrs felt when they en-
dured slow torture for the sake of
their principles. / had triumphantly
swallowed the last drop of coffee when
the waiter appeared with the bill.
Then | rose to the occasion. / fixed
that waiter with my eye
Bring two bills commanded.
steadily And though the man jumped
he said nothing and took the bill back
and brought two separate ones. He