Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-08
IN THE GRAY DAWN

logueS was pulled OF when he returned
home a bit after the other morning.
obviously in possession OF one of the me-
dium-size pickles of the fifty seven varie-
ties. She was sitting up in bed. bolstered
by the pillows, waiting for him to enter,
limping and here Is how the skrmish
went:
She-You're keeping it up, aren't you?
He-What? The pew rent? didn't know
Id sent EN- check. Did I?
She-Oh, you're funny this time. are you?
Well I'd rather have you come home in
your regular ruffian's mood. 1t I'D seem
more like you.
He-Let's fan 1t over In the morning-I
mean at getting-up time. I'm all for the
hay now.
Sheen. there's nothing to talk over
nothing whatever. You know just how
things stand. I nave only to add that
you'll be numbering in here in this condi-
ton some morning only to find that you've
lost your home.
He-Sounds good TO ne. Bully way to flag
landlords on the 1st and 18th.
She-That's the liquor in you talking now
You'll be singing different tune when 1
leave you.
He-Don't make me taught don't want
to disturb the neighbors.
She-What's that that rolled our of your
trousers pocket? It's poker chip!
HEB jing, so 1t is-four bit chip, too,
that forgot to cash in.
She-Oh. you're very airy about it, aren't
you? And me wearing common, onnery
old three-dollar-an d-a-half sailor hat that
have smothered all over with a veil. it's
been so warped out of shape already by
the wet weather. It's all I'll get. though
| suppose, this year. And you out playing
poker and drinking with a lot of low-iiyed
rowdies till after 3 O'Clock in the morning
He-Poker isn't playing. It's working.
Shelf 1t was working you wouldn't oc-
cupy yourself with it. for of all the trifiing,
unambitiouS-
He-These feathers feel pretty good
Suppose We defer the rest of it till break
fast. hey?
she-We'r Go nothing of the sort Ike
to get acquainted with the sound of my
own voice once In white. and goodness
knows it sounds strange enough to me, l
have so little Use of it. with nobody around
to talk to. and don't wonder you don't
feel like talking after believing around
for five or six hours over poker table
with a pack of loafers. and
He-Loafers. hey? Well. your brother
Jim comes under that head. too, does he?
He was in the bunch. Lost the use of his
pipes. at that. saying That beats my two
pair"
She--Its your fault il my brother was
with the crowd OF brutcs. You are not con-
tent with making ne miserable, but you
are deliberately trying to ruin my young
est brother. and until he met you he was
one Of the incest boys that ever
Hello. no! Stop that kidding. Little
Jimmy could teach me things fer fourteen
years and then I'd only be in the kinder
garten compared to him.
She-I don't believe he ever touched q
card in his life until you taught him how
He-Well. never taught him to dish 'em
from the middle and underneath the pack.
that's pipe. and he'd have tried that stuff
tonight If We hadn't all been there with
the lamps on his moves.
She-I don't know what you mean by
your disgusting gambling terms. but do
know that I'm in tatters and rags. and I'm
a eli a IN 90 fn Yyaf In fba
morning. look much like buzZard, and
II YOU expect me to
He-pon't expect anything. Let's chop
and do the continued -in-our- next thing.
Sleepy.
she-Tve seen men going to the dogs. but
I never saw one going so deliberately as
you are. You haven't any more pride left
than grasshopper. You don't even brush
your clothes off any more. You look
dandruffy and sloppy. and you don't even
get your shoes polished nowadays. There
was time when you at least had enough
regard for me to-
He-What's the use of running after a
street car when you've caught 1t? I'm for
Morpheus. Let's cancel all dates for the
present and make 1t twenty minutes for a
new book. In the morningI mean at
breakfast-you can go as far as you like
and write your own ticket. But It's getting
on toward sun-up now. Forget It.
She-You used to shave or get shaved
every day. but now you go around looking
like one Of those unshaven tramps at the
vaudeville shows
He-Back to nature for mine. Going to
raise a Herr Most beard Say. let's declare
an armistice and pound ears. Awful
dopey.
She-I went down town TO go through the
stores this enthusiastically morning.
rather-and l met Mrs. Neatwad and she
treated me to lunch. and / didn't have a
penny in my pocketbook to treat her to ice
cream soda, and when We came home she
had to pay the car fares. too for only had
m yy.p 70 n,
never SO embarrassed and mortified in my
life. and she's just the kind of cat thatll
go around and tell everybody all about
He-Why don't you beat her to 1t and tell
everybody about it first? That's the system
Good night, baby-dol
She-Babydoll, l wish you wouldn't in
suit me. If you please. by your sarcasm.
He-Sarcasm nothing Mean it. Every
word of It. So long. angel-face
She-Its perfectly contemplate of you to
lie there and ridicule me after the way you
have
He-who's ridicullng? Nothing of the
sort. Let's dig up old man Nod. Bye-bye,
tweet.
She-Me going around with my feet all but
on the ground. and I've been just wild for a
pair of those patent russell OXfords with the
fiat bows and I saw pair in a window a
couple OF days ago for only six dollars and
l Just stood there gawking at them like a
1901, although / knew there wasn't a chance
on earth that I'd ever get pair. and
He-All kinds of things are liable to hap
pen II you'll only let me get some of this
sleep out of my system.
She-Oh. yes, there's a lot liable to hap-
pen. when my husband trots around with
lot OF roysterers that have eight or ten
times as much money to spend themselves
as he has, and then he thinks les got to
hold his end up as he calls it, and I should
think you'd have more dignity, ANYHOW
you, married man-than to fool away your
time with a lot of no-account bachelors that
can't get a decent girl to so much as look
at them. much less marry them, and,if /
were a man I'd
He-Didn't set me back any bundle to
hold my end up with the bunch of fatheads
tonight, as long you put it that way
Watch little Sunlock's smoke that's all
He gets hisn once in while.
She-Oh, l suppose what you call "break-
ing even" satisfies you. but it's not often
that you even do that. and If I didn't know
any more about cards than you do for all
your boasted knowledge. I'd try beanbag or
something that
He-Tut, tut. and then some tushes, but
IL you'll only give me chance to lay up
few lines OF slumber I'll
She-Very well, but I'm telling you now
that l simply must have eight dollars to-
morrow to get some things that We had set
aside. and /
He-Stop talking about chicken feed
eight doIlarsi That's the merest Junk