Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-08
AROUND THE CITY,

If you shut your eyes and turn around
three times you will come to a shoI
that calls itself a bazaar.
A woman customer. with man attach.
ed. had been caught by the glamourous
lure Of a vase-a simple thing in vel
low, coiled around by a purple snake
gobbling a blue frog with pink hind
legs. But when she asked the man II
it wasn't perfectly dear. he showed
himself to be SO utterly lacking in the
true spirit Of Monaghan art as to ad-
any price.
but look what marvellous work
dearest! And every bit Of it painted
by hand"
Dearest broke out in a rash Drag that
he could paint better with his feet. The
woman looked properly disguised, but
the deferential being who waited In the
background smiled with the serenity
Of one who knows a pocketbook even
before he sees 1t.
Don't try to be funny. dear. 1t isn't
your strong point. I don't know why
brought you with me-"
Il know" Bears interruption was
has experiences to go by.
''oh. do shut up! Mr. Wing Sing
Ling, I think I've decided on the vase.
How much. please"
foreground and in a low, sweet,
dreamy voice mentioned q sum that
made the man gasp An ancestor had
made that vase.
Did he die Of it?'
The woman laid a coaxing hand
white kid. as high as gloves are-on
the mans mouth and smiled in the
wheedling way that all imposition
husbands know about.
Now, dearest. you said I might pick
out my own anniversary gift"
But, doggone 1t. you soaked me for
bracelet yesterday"
you must think I'm a very selfish
woman to want wedding gift and not
give you one"
Hold on. Tn a patient man, but
you can't come that old dodge on me.
If you've got to own that memento of
ancestral jimjams. I'll have to shell
out. but don't wish it onto me-"
And when the two had gons-the
over bulges-Mr. Wing Sing Ling
dotted his deferential glide and padded
to the rear to deposit his yellow-back
bill in an iron safe lacquered to look
like a tea box.
Then he padded over to another Gus
toner who had been waiting and wait
ing to buy "sparklers"-price, one
dime.
Two women young enough to have
birthdays were confabbing in a car.
One held a lace-swaddled infant. The
other placed her heavier youngster on
the seat beside her. and turning to her
companion left the baby to look out
for itself. And the baby did. 1t da-
daed, and cooed and kissed its free
hand regardlessly. and kicked its white
slippereG feet Then it started a fir
tation which proved. of course. that
the baby was a girl.
There was no shyness about her ad-
miration. She went for the man of her
choice with directness that caught the
astonished interest Of every passenger in
the car-except her mother. who was too
busy talking to notice the romance going
on behind her back
vacant seat between: He was a shah
by man with mud on his shoes and an
ail-over look Of being out of job.
He accepted the young persons adj
yances with a smile that seemed shy
Of asserting itself-Shakespeare for
got 10 say that bad luck as well as a
guilty conscience makes towards Of us
all-and when she had tugged at the
maternal hand untli sne coulo sloIe
across the vacant space and snuggle
up to him the man shrank away. The
baby snuggled closer and crowed jubi-
lation.
A prosperous citizen across leaned
over to cluck confldentially to Juliet
and to congratulate Romeo on his con-
quest. But the baby took no notice.
At that precise moment in her life
there was but one man in the world!
Perhaps the prosperous one recoe-
nized that there must be something
worth while in the hidden depths OF
man-never mind the muddy shoes
who could attract the confidence of a
baby, still wise with the fnscrutable
it had brought into the
world with 1t. For when the mother.
suddenly conscious OF offspring. ,Easped