Evening star., 1915-06-13
In the Room Across
From His
FLORENCE RYERSON

she hailed a rainy Saturday as an excellent
opportunity for staying in bed and catch
ing up with her writing. She was working
upon a series of articles on practical psy-
chology, and they had been so successful
that the first six were already being issued
in book form. No, she would scarcely
come under the head of neglected genius
Letitia's only real difficulty was that
her obvious youngness and prettiness
made it impossible for her college classes
to take her quite seriously, even when she
screwed back her hair and wore horn
rimmed spectacles. This was continu-
Gus source of annoyance to her; for Le-
titia was wholly and entirely serious her.
self. To her well trained mind the world
was a problem that must be analysed
and catalogued as rapidly as possible.
She had habit of looking upon life as
though it were one great psychological
experiment Letitia was not emotional:
that part of her nature seemed to have
heen omitted. If Cupid himself had ap-
peared before her. she would probably
have taken him as an infant phenomenon,
and have gone about analyzing his mental
processes with unruffled composure.
The only thing left to explain is the
;ttic room, and that is very simple. Le-
titia was health crank, and she had looked
everywhere before she found room that
fulfilled her requirements for fresh air.
When Mrs. Jackson, fat and breathless,
toiled up three flights of stairs and showed
this garret room she saw at once the fresh
air possibilities of the skylight and en-
gagged it on the spot
A S she lay in bed this noon she looked
about her with little thrill of pride.
When she got her writing out of the way
and unpacked the boxes of household
goods that the green curtain was conceal
ing it would be quite charming. Her
prayer rug could go here, and the mahog-
any table with the rose droplight over by
the window.
She was filled with the pleasures Of an
ticipation when someone tripped in the
hallway outside and fell heavily against
her door with muffled expletive. The
door. as Fate would have it, was not
properly Iatched, and it flew open, pre-
cipitating young man into the center of
the room. Letitia dropped her papers and
rolled herself even more thoroughly in
ner cnfvSalS OF reu wrapper. ue SouHs
man rose from his knees, where the vio-
lence of his fall had thrown him, and
backed hurriedly out, red with embar-
rassment His cheeks were still hot as he
let himself into the room across the hall
and slammed the door
Letitia gathered up her papers and
started back to work. 1t had been en-
barrassing. of course; but no one was to
blame unless it was she herself for not
latching her door more carefully. And,
after ALL she reflected. it would not be
necessary for her to speak to the man
across the way if they met in the hall.
He was obviously a gentleman and would
not expect it. So far as she was concerned
the incident was closed. She went back
to her writing with calm composure.
MEANWHILE the artistic instinct was
working in the man across the hall.
The artistic instinct was indirectly respon-
sible for most of his troubles; but since
he depended upon it for his livelihood he
was scarcely in a position to dictate.
The young mans name was Charles
Henry Graves, and under the romantic