A Damsel in Distress

ock. In Little Gooch Street all the children of all the small shopkeepers who support life in that backwater by selling each other vegetables and singing canaries were out and about

was bidding a silent farewell to a tomato which even he, though a dauntless optimist, had been compelled to recognize as having outlived its utility. On all these things the sun shone with a genial smile. Round the corner, in Shaf

not influenced by the success or failure of the productions which followed one another at the theatre throughout the year; but he felt, nevertheless, a sort of proprietary interest in these ventures, and was pleased when they secured the approval of the public. Last night's opening, a musical piece by an Americ

ung man of about twenty-seven, tall and well knit, with an agreeable, clean-cut face, of which a pair of good and hones

ing,

mornin

ing fo

said Mac, as if reassuring some doubting friend and suppor

sgustingly young. Theirs was joyous, exuberant youth which made a fellow feel at least sixty. Something was wrong with George today, for normally he was fond of children. Indeed, normally he was

iscontent due to the highly developed condition of his soul, or else he had a grouch. One of the two. Or it might have been the reaction from the

d, rowdy supper party where a number of tired people with over-strained nerves had seemed to feel it a duty to be artificially vivacious. It had lasted t

eappe

you ar

ank

order to use his leg as a serviette. George tickled it under the ear abstractedly. He was always

on. Mac became

piece was a hit

d to go v

ghts in the gallery. 'Ighly critical they are always. Specially if it's an American piece like this one. If they don't like it, they precious soon let you know. My missus ses they was a

t's

it a fine write-up. How w

en't seen the evening papers

d down th

sal this afternoon, I

e coming

. It seemed to go before her like a heartening breeze. She picked her way carefully through the children crawling on the side walk. She stopped for a moment and said

stood brooding on the mortality of tomatoes. And, though he replied "Rot

eady blue eyes. The latter were frequently employed by her in quelling admirers who were encouraged by the former to become too ardent. Billie's views on the opposite sex who forgot themselves were as rigid as those of Lord Marshmoreton concerning thrips. She li

rge. 'Morning,

see,

ter four-fifths l

, that the missus said she 'adn't s

. Well, George, how's the

nd pess

up till four in the mor

you look like Little Eva after a

I must be getting old, George. All-night parties seem to have lost their charm. I was ready t

xpected to find his present vie

f those with whom his profession brought him in contact, "how flat it all was. The show business I mean, and these

Dore

chance that comes along. It's funny about the show business. The way one drifts into it and sticks, I mean. Take me, for example. Nature had it all doped out for me to be th

u were fond of th

a rose nowadays, I shake its hand and say: 'Well, well, Cyril, how's everything with you? And how are Joe and Jack and Jimmy and all the rest of the boys at home?' Do you know how I used to put in my time the first few nights I

ought to have b

t Babe Sinclair showed up with towards the middle of the proceedings? You must have noticed h

roduced to a fat man of his own

this gink is giving her a raw deal. He tried to get hold of me about a week ago, but I turned him down hard; and I suppose he thinks Babe is easier. And it's no good talking to her; she thinks he's wonderful

apologetic, ca

n oversight I put

hese are mash notes. I got three between the first and second acts last night. Why the nobility and gentry of this burg should think that I'm their affinity just because

ers comfortably against the b

feeling very 'a

s certainly feeling be

t he was far fr

e, I suppose.

is. You've 'ad too much of the fat, you 'ave.

New York, and there are th

big a 'elping of success, you've 'ad." Mac wagged a head l

er mail, and crumpled the letters up in

hem any time you have a suspicion you may be a chump, and you'll have the comf

'aving a talk about '

blarzy,

Mac

rzy, miss?" demand

said Billie. "It

ping of success, and because 'e ain't a married man. Y

t. But I

ot 'old of a sure thing for the three o'clock race and picked up a couple of quid, the thrill of it didn't seem to linger somehow. But now, if some of the gentlemen that come '

ut when

l 'er," said

rstand the art of

of the right little woman, and 'aving a nice l

imbing up over the trees. Well, you're quite right. I'm all for the simple and domestic myself. If I could find the right man, and he didn't see me

papers and send off a cab

meet at

reating back till he

'e's got the pip the way 'e 'as, just after 'avin' a big s

ase and produced a puff with whic

that had a tune to it. The poor geek admitted they weren't very tuney, but said the thing about his music was that it had such a wonderfu

know him l

The money that boy makes is sinful, Mac. He wears thousand dollar bills next to his skin winter and summer. But he's just the same as he was when I first knew him, when he was just hanging around Broadway, lo

, nuzzling his ankles, bounding away and bounding back again, and behaving generally as east winds do when they discover a victim who has come out without his spring overcoat. It was plain to George now that the sun and the wind were a couple of confidence tricksters working together as a team. The sun had disarmed

d pointed out, he had everything to make him happy. Popular as he was in America, this was the first piece of his to

use he was lonely. Mac, that solid thinker, had been right. The solution of the problem of life was to get hold of the right girl and have a home to go back to at night. He was mildly surprised that he had tried in any o

y minute. Passing omnibuses creaked beneath the weight of happy couples. The very policeman across the Street had just grinned at a flitting shop girl, and she had smiled back at him. The only female in London

e-tinted romance about their two selves, when a cold reaction set in. Even as he paused to watch the girl threading her way through the crowd, the east wind jabbed an icy finger down the back of his neck, and the chill of it sobered him. After all, he reflected bitterly, this girl was only alone because she was on her way somewhere to meet some confounded man. Besides there was no earthly chance of gett

eturn for services rendered by the casual passer-by. But the twentieth century is a prosaic age, when girls are merely girls and have no troubles at all. Were he to stop this girl in brown and assure her that his aid and c

ust an early edition in his face. After all notices are notices, even when the heart is aching. George felt in his pocket for the necessary money, fou

one thing to be done, return to the hotel, retrieve his money, and try to forget the weight of the world and its

she would not have been more acceptable in George's sight. And now she was going out of his life for ever. With an overwhelming sense of pathos, for there is no pathos more bitter than that of parting from someon

standstill in a block of the traffic. "A dull, flat bore of a world, in which nothing

f the cab opened, and th

reathlessly, "but would yo