Joan Thursday

h surroundings were strange to his drowsy perceptions, and his transitory emotions on finding himself so curiously embedded mi

ll-power overcoming a tremendous disinclination to do anything but lie still and feel perfectly healthy, sound, and at peace

ved to be ha

have been uncommonly tir

e reme

to be daft," was the conclusion

she doesn't go pokin

n the case. None the less he forgot it entirely in another moment, and had bathed and dressed and was knotting

lf out of house and home for the sake of t

f her personality. She remained a shadow-a hunted, tearfu

his head

Must've been good-looki

out breakfast and his brief homeward walk: in his magnificent, pantoscopic, protean imagination he was busily e

n his guest entirely. He ran up the steps of Number 289, let himself in, trotted down the hall and burst unceremoniousl

r, quickly and deftly inserted a sheet of paper into the carriage and ... sat back at leisure, his gaze wand

drop his hand on the centre-table; after a few seconds his gropin

lighted it, sm

imperatively on the door. He recognized the knock; it was Madame

enance the austerity of whose severely classic mould was somewhat moderated by a delicate, dark little moustache on her upper lip. Her mien was regal and portentous, sitting well upon the per

ur, mon

our, m

light with whimsical intelligence at the face of the landlady. Madame possessed the gift (as it were an inheritance from the estate of her late husband) of creating

charged our chef? Is it that the third-floor front is behindhand with his rent? Or

d him coldly, "has to do only with

hias queri

th exasperation. "Is it that monsieur is not aware h

eyes. He smiled cheerfully. "But it was qu

r entering it and spent the night elsewhere? Did I not from my window see him running up the street with his handbag through the rain? But am I to figure as the

cle of expression: "I've got to hand it to you, Mada

same nature? Do you intend to make of my house a refuge for all the stray unfortunates of New York? Am I

kely to happen again ... and besides, the girl was a perfectly good, nice, respectable gir

ew the young

ly yes," Matthias

matches wherewith to relight his pipe, encountered a sheet of typewriter pa

h relief, "thank you-Yo

hes and used one

position on the part of her father-a bigot of a man!-that she was obliged to leave her home in order to retain her self-respect. Quite naturally she thought first of her only friend in the profession, Miss M

emed to endorse this reproof. She he

ared to vouch for

nance masking a creepy, crawly feeling that perhaps he

logies." Madame opened the

bothering to correct

mes of these

g, totally eclip

Joan's note into minute bits and, dropping them in a waste-bas

the typewriter wa

ly placing fresh paper in the machine and starting all over again. This time he worked more slowly, weighing carefully the value of lines already written before recasting and committing them to paper; but the third sheet was cov

eeply creased from temple to temple. Then in a sepulchral tone uttering the single word

ght, if the threadbare length of carpet were to be taken as a reliable witness. And there's no tellin

nd bidding Madame enter, he waited with hands thrust deep in his trouser-pockets and

w envelope. Placing this last upon the table, she announced

He found its import unusual in more than one respect: it was not a "day-letter," and it had been wri

"'Beast animal coward ingra

houghtfully: "If Helena's going in for this sort of thing, I really

you. I am disgusted with you and never want to see your face again. Return at onc

re was simp

But-damn it!-I don't want to get marri

n, he announced with invincible determination: "I won

travel like this-clothes all out of shape from

tch gave flat contradi

this thing started nicely!" T

in prematurely embittered accents detailed a suburban number to the inoffensive central operator. In the inevitable three

Matthias.... No-I say, no! Don't call Mrs. Tankerville. Haven't time.... Just tell her I'm coming