The Day of Days

was pretty well stage-broke; but I gotta hand it to Oti

it through it twicet. Say, I couldn't quit thinkin' what a grand young time I'd start in this old burg if I

do?" asked Molly

automobiles-and have a table reserved for me at the Knickerbocker for dinner every night-and....

demanded

omb at Charlie Murphy-or anythin' like that. No-oh! Not this infant. That's where your friend Hajj the Beggar's foot slipped o

candidly, "he had to. That was hi

to jump through, the author'd 've framed up som

strong enough to-night to stand any more of your dramatic cr

little party had paused, to the northwest corner of Broadway: their progress consisting in a series of frantic rushes broken by abrupt pauses to escape annihilation in the roaring after

uzzing-and her eyes were kind. Neither spoke; but for an instant he experienced a breathless sense of sympathetic isolation with her, there on that crowded

otten the fascination of those three fat old volumes of crabbed type, illuminated with their hundreds of cramped old wood-cuts?) had in a scant three hours been recreated for him by Knoblauch's fantastic drama with its splendid investment of scene and costume, i

ther than a Prince disguised as Calander esquiring a Princess dedicated to Fatal Enchantment-that Kismet was a quaint fallacy, one with that whimsical conceit of Orien

eating a favourable opening, the two scurried across and plunged into the comparative obscurity

hadows of Violet's conspicuously striped black-and-white t

ht catch up," sugge

he admitted, without of

ughed

y really

ed P. Sybarite, af

an she

ast, when one is a perfect thirty-eight and possesses a good

say-?" the g

marry well,

. Bross

anything serious comes of it he'll have to make good use of his Day of Days

t believe

thing is too incredible for me to believe to-night. I'm ready to play Hajj the Beggar

laughed quietly

Mr. Sybarite, tell me, what use y

aid I should prove a fatuous fool in George's esteem equally with old Hajj. I'm sure

t-w

to use my power to

he asked diffide

.... And perhaps another's, not so

u care for a

s fancy was leading him, he checked and weighed

temerity; "but I'd go far for a friend, somebody who had been kind to

searching; but her voice when she spoke was

en sure she-your fr

he wouldn't be where

ful; whether with him or at him, it was in

're not sure, are

d soberly, "of my futile, my

nt. He stole a side-long glance, troubled, wondering if perhaps he had ventured too impuden

tune her thoughts to sadness. He would have given worlds to undo that blunder; to show her that he had meant neither a rudeness nor a wish to desecrate her reticence, but only an indirect assurance of gratitude to her for suffering him

in humility and mortification of spirit until they were near the dooryard

they?" she as

, P. Sybarite discovered that she meant Vi

ut a little supper in her

r and badinage: our humble pleasures. You'll be

se! I counted

George to tote the wash-pitcher to the corner for the beer. And very likely, pen

te. "Then we needn't hurr

e too late to get the pitcher filled. This town shuts up tight at midnight, Saturdays-if you want to be

te, Mr. Sybarite

laughed. "As a matter of f

she begged. "I wa

conscious of a curious disturbance in his bosom, of a strange and not unpleasant sense of commingled

come," he said jerkil

said warmly. "But that wasn't

s climbed w

se, Miss

n letting me kno

ke off with a startled moveme

pausing, discharged a young man in a hurry; witness the facts that he had the door open when halfway

h was visibly shaking him. Tall, well-proportioned, impressively turned out in evening clothes, he

inside the fence, eyeing him w

. Sybarite bristle

snapped at

gloved in white abolished him completely-a

Lessing,

ith a malicious triumph that grated upon the ne

bundle this animal back into that taxi and direct the drive

other savagely-"unless you want him burie

ybarite with pleading e

"I'm afraid I must speak alone with this"-there was a barely percepti

ut speaking of microbes," he added incisively, "a word of advice: don't tease 'e

last word, he strutted back to the brownstone stoop, there

ngle of the fence. He seemed at once insistent, determined, and thoroughly angry; while she exhibited perfect composure with some evident contempt and imp

hat t

was as forcible as it was

t belie

't dare

n that he had won the day: an impression borne out by the evi

e said in a ton

'll

es

hrough the gate. But she hung bac

," she said: "I mus

sens

e lift of her chin. "I think

d indisti

im short coldly. "Wait for me."

vely she gave him her hand a second time; with a

nothing

know. I must go-it's imperati

ask," he asser

a whisper: "I must go," she repeated. "I ca

Sybarite nodded toward th

etain him long enough for me to get into

f P. Sybari

," he said with

ied the man

: "if you don't, he'll lose patienc

afraid

ol

for me: God's go

OL

sted P. Sybarite, no

started as

t?" he bark

hold your

op. "Do you know who you're talking to?" he demanded wrathfull

m, she moved behind the fello

admitted amiably; "bu

eature with an

y!" stormed the ot

nstructing the chauffeur.) "Why," he drawled, "I'm the guy th

neously the drone of the motor thickened to a rumble. The man wi

ed in surpri

contrary, it stretched out toward

uit. But P. Sybarite had not finished with him. Deftly plucking the man back by the tail of h

tested. "What'

and snatched at his cloak. But P. Syb

iscussing

k, threw its owner off his balance. Tripping awkwardly over the low curbing of the dooryard walk, he reeled and went a-s

at never came. The other picked himself up quickly, cast about for the taxicab, discovered it swiftly making off-al

etrieved the hat and f

the fast retreating fi

suer sprinting bravely a hundred feet to the rear, and as he watche

ider the state of his soul (which was vain-glorious) and the con