The Haunted Bookshop

aids th

y alcove when Helen and Titania returned from the movies. Bock, who had been

s the darlingest ma

rvel that his wagging muscles aren't

ger, "did you h

HEOLOGY and peered in amazement. One of these even went so far as to purchase the copy of Leigh Hunt's Wishing Cap Papers he had been munching through, in order to

s actually creating bus

d, "and he went to the movies with us. He says he's com

prising, aren't they? Think of sending a man over to attend to my f

a quiet evenin

said Roger. "One amusing thing happened, tho

cried

him it was supposed to be written by Colonel House. He insi

e really write it

tendency to believe that Mr. House is an able man. If he did write it, I de

e went down to the corner with Bock to mail his letter, and when he returned to the

down gently, and paves the way for slumber. I have often noticed that the most terrific philosophical agonies can be allayed by three cups of Mrs. Mifflin's cocoa. A man can saf

kes condensed milk in one of his factories, but I never dreamed of trying it.

ll you! Your father called up just after you had gone out

ed to hear I was at the movies, on the second day of

n your going with Mrs. Mifflin, be

is job. I've been practicing doing up parcels all afternoon, so as to learn how to tie the string nicely and not cut it until after the knot's tied. I found that when you cut i

ll to spend to-morrow out at your home. He wants to show us some books h

oks to read? Nonsense! I don't

s going to send Edwards round with the

d Helen. "It'll

rable bookshop to spend Sunday in Larchmont. Well,

the car be her

us to get out there as early as possible, as h

oger began hunting along his private shelves

fflin. "It's awfully embarrassing to be as

aid. He pulled down his copy of The House of Cobwebs. "I'm going to read you on

en o'clock, and I can see Titania's tired. Even Bock has left u

apman, you take the book up with you and read it i

ed a little

of reading in bed. I've been waiting to hear him work that word int

s any one do it? It never occurred to me. I'm sure when

said Roger. "Get your beauty

ass. He took down The Anatomy of Melancholy, that most delightful of all books for midnight browsing. Turning to one of his favourite passages-"A Consolatory Digression, Containing the Remedies of All Manner of Discontents"-he was happily lost to all ticking of the clock, retaining only such bodily consciousness as was needful to dump, fill, and relight his pipe from ti

e musty old pages, he came

ite the liver doth rest under the stomach, not molesting any way, but heating him as a fire doth a kettle, that is put to it. After the first sleep 'tis not amiss to lie on the

oked at his watch, and found it was half-past twelve. He switched off

f any one dish than a little of each; for the latter course is likely to diminish each item below the bulk at which it is still useful as a left-over. Roger, however, had the obstinate viciousness of all good husbands, and he knew the delights of cold provender by heart. Many a stewed prune, many a mess of string beans or naked cold boiled potato, many a chicken leg, half apple pie, or sector of rice pudding, had perished in these midnight festivals. He made it a point of honour never to eat quite all of the dish in question, but would pass with unabated zest from one to another. This habit he had ster

owed a comical realization of their shameful and furtive nature. Bock knew very well that Roger had no business at the ice-box, for the larger outlines of social law upon which every home depends are clearly understood by dogs. But Bock's face always sh

flicker of small blue flames that played above the ruddy mound of coals in the firebox-tenuous, airy little flames that were as blue as violets and hovered up and down in the ascending gases. Before blackening the fire with a stoking of coal he pulled up a wooden Bushmills box, turned off the electric bulb overhead

ases.... a virtuous herb, if it be well qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used; but as it is commonly abused by most men, which take it as tinker

cellar, in which two small iron-grated windows opened onto the sunken ar

said Roger placidly,

a curious note of protest in it. But

bon, old man, but don't bark about it. Incident o

ed the front end of the cellar, looking upward

rats, Bock. Come on, we'll stoke up the f