The New York herald., 1922-09-17


which is life itself
But Damarilla is only vexed by them.
Apparently she can never look upon them
without observing in an icy tone that since
seem determined to keep the old junk
fthis is the way she refers to Them "old
junk" indeed!) will 1 have the goodness
to permit her to take them down and dust
them off occasionally? / confess do not
understand women.
Take Damarilla. for instance Excellent
soul that she is, there are times when she
seems to have but one aim in life, to burst
determination to dust something just at
the moment when one is dallying with a
particularly stubborn sentence, and to
send sentence and typewriter and papers
and all flying into pandemonium, all be-
cause of trifle of supposed dust. And
when / am again permitted to enter my
humble quarters she informs me loftily
that my sadly disordered workroom has at
last been reduced to order and am COM
PEELED TO spend the next two hours In re-
covering things which have been mislaid
in The newly restored order. AS for cigar
cite ASH a veritable reign of terror exists
in our humble flat 1t has come to such a
whiff of cigarette ash on ones own carpet.
1t has come to that. Thus far. however l
have succeeded in keeping her from my
hats. What would happen to them IL she
actually did succeed in laying hands on
them, shrink from contemplating.
All morning my hat and 1.-The hat
which was so soon to be graduated to the
well earned company of its seventeen
elders on my woriroom wall-walked up
and down Broadway gazing into the win
dows of Broadway's hat shops. And the
sight depressed us both. We didn't have
| the nerve to enter any Of them. We fooled
around until luncheon time and then turned
| sadly homeward. We unlocked the door
of the flat and paused as we heard voices
within. Damarilla's voice was easily recog-
| nized, but the other was a strange voice,
apparently a mans voice. They were quiet
voices which seemed to proceed from my
| workroom and there was a certain air of
stealth and hurry about them
I walked to my workroom door and
threw it open. surprising Damarilla and
| some rather unkempt looking stranger with
a folded newspaper in his hand, who ap-
peared to be surveying my hats on the
wall. He was apparently an old clo'es man
whom Damarilla had called up from the
street during my absence and who-the
situation now flashed across me in an in
stant!-was at that very moment in the
act Of offering a sum of money which he
described as 'fi' cents" for the lot of them.
declare even now am astonished by the
marvellous self-control which displayed
Five cents?" l repeated in the politest
and most casual tone 1 could muster. He
began some voluble babble which inter-
fested me not in the slightest.
"A nickel?" Really my restraint sur
prises me even yet
"A half diner" And then l fell upon
him. Selling him up bodily 1 hurled him
through our fourth floor window the glass
bursting with lord crash and the wooden
frame enveloping him. Leaping after him,
| sought to catch him as he bounced from
the pavement far below but he eluded me
and tore down Broadway like frightened
fawn. We passed Ninety-sixth street like
two shadows. Times Square flashed by
before we knew IT, Madison and Union
squares were blurred together, so rapidly
we flew. l assume that we passed City
Hall Park, but have no remembrance OF
it. At the Battery he leaped and shot
skimming down the harbor and through
the Narrows like bullet; remember how