Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1914-01-16
LEONE AND OMELET
BY JUNE eAHAN.

In ancient pottery jars, portfolios
spilling their contents in dusty cor
ners, cabinets of curios from every
corner of the world and the melan-
choly assemblage Of Jims unsold pic
lures.
If poor Jm's bread and butter de
pended upon the sale of his pictures
the dear boy would have to sharpen
his teeth on crusts!" giggled Leone as
she picked up her ermine stole and
muff. 4 suppose he is dashing around
in that nerve-racking car while am
waiting here for probably for
gotten that he invited me to dine with
him. Heigh-ho. for the particular
form of lunacy some people call &c
centricities of genius.
She went to the front window and
looked down into the street The
limousine had disappeared Henri had
followed her instructions to return
home at once.
The room was rapidly growing dark,
and LEONE lighted lamp and sat
down at the table to write a few caus-
tic lines to her most forgetful brother.
"Therei" she murmured, as her lit
tie hand folded the paper You won't
forget that lecture very soon. Master
| JIM"
moment later she had extin-
| guished the lamp and was cropping to.
ward the door. 1t resisted all her eff
forts to open it. The knob simply re
fused to turn, She pounded on the
door In the vain hope of attracting the
attention of some other tenant of the
| building. She remembered with a
| tremor of fear that Jim had said the
other tenant of the top floor had gone
| abroad, that there was no telephone IN
the studio and it's position on the fifth
| floor of the old-fashioned building
made 1t impossible for her to summon
help without attracting undesirable at
tention
There was no fire escape and the
| great windows in the slant of the root
did not offer hope Of escape. There
was no possibility of Jim missing heI
for hours and he would only seek the
studio after he had been home and had
been reminded of the dinner engage
ment, This was the second time he
had forgotten her. 1t would be the
last.
He won't have another opportun
| ity," half sobbed Leone as she leaned
drearily against the window thai
looked out on the fiat roof of the build
ing next door. It was an older build
ing and Leone knew it as placs
| pigeon-holed with the tiny studios 81
impecunious painters and art students
Jim had started there, but had moved
| into the more pretentious building next
door when 1t was opened.
Il believe | could get down there.
The daring thought came to Leone as
she looked down at the roof below. II
was a drop of twelve feet. but Leone
CoIson was like a cat on her feet and
/ quite fearless.
She pushed the window wide open,
/ selected a sofa pillow from the heap
on the couch, tossed it to the roof be-
| low, gathered her trim skirts about her
little feet, sat on the sill, slipped to
the wide coping below, and from there
| jumped toward the light patch that
represented the pillow.
The moon peered over the roof OF
the taller building and saw Leone
/ struggle to her feet She was gasping
for breath and she felt bruised and
beaten as she picked up her scattered
| belongings-st and muff and hand.
bag, and as many OF her amber nat.
| pins as the moonlight revealed.
SILLY IDIOT" muttered Leone. limp
/ ing toward a skylight which showed a
/ yellow patch of light. How do know
whether anyone will let me into the
building? My story sounds incredible
-but-ahl She peered down into
the room beneath.
1t was a small room and meanly fur.
nished with the barest necessities A
chairs, bookcases, and some painting
paraphernalia. The canvasses were
turned face to the wall
A young man, gaunt OF frame. grin
/ of couEtenance. was cooking some
! thing over small gas stove. Present
/ ly he came and laid a table for one
person. 1t was a meager meal when il
was set forth-a pot of coffee, a hall
loaf of rather dry-looking bread. and a
most appetizing omelet hot from the
pan.
At that moment, when the young
man was about to sit down to the
meal-and somehow Leone knew that
| he was hungry for it-she arose with
| the intention of finding some stairway
that would lead into the building. The
sight of the appetizing meal had made
her hungry.
AS she turned away her heavy gold
mesh bag slipped from her careless
grasp. struck the glass skyIight and
disappeared from her startled sight.
From below came the sound Of a
crashing of china and a surprised
shout Two minutes later door burst