Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
To-night Miss Fink had come on at 10 P.M., which was just two hours later
than usual. She knew that she was to work until 6 A.M., which may have
accounted for the fact that she displayed very little of what the fans
call ginger as she removed her hat and coat and hung them on the hook
behind the desk. The prospect of that all-night, eight-hour stretch may
have accounted for it, I say. But privately, and entre nous, it didn't.
For here you must know of Heiny. Heiny, alas! now Henri.
Until two weeks ago Henri had been Heiny and Miss Fink had been Kid.
When Henri had been Heiny he had worked in the kitchen at many things,
but always with a loving eye on Miss Gussie Fink. Then one wild night
there had been a waiters' strike--wages or hours or tips or all three.
In the confusion that followed Heiny had been pressed into service and a
chopped coat. He had fitted into both with unbelievable nicety, proving
that waiters are born, not made. Those little tricks and foibles that
are characteristic of the genus waiter seemed to envelop him as though a
fairy garment had fallen upon his shoulders. The folded napkin under his
left arm seemed to have been placed there by nature, so perfectly did it
fit into place. The ghostly tread, the little whisking skip, the
half-simper, the deferential bend that had in it at the same time
something of insolence, all were there; the very "Yes, miss," and "Very
good, sir," rose automatically and correctly to his untrained lips.
Cinderella rising resplendent from her ash-strewn hearth was not more
completely transformed than Heiny in his role of Henri. And with the
transformation Miss Gussie Fink had been left behind her desk
disconsolate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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