"It's just dandy--so cozy and secluded and--shady. Why, it's a darling
place! Not a sound, is there? Gee, what a place to sleep!" She sped
from one to the other of the three rooms uttering shrieks of rapture.
Even the bath-room, which was much like any other, although as cramped
as a Chinese lady's foot, excited a burst of enthusiasm.
At last she ceased her inspection, quite out of breath, and declared:
"I'm enchanted. I tell you there's nothing like these inside
apartments, after all, you're so safe from burglars. But the RENT! My
dear, you stole this place. And to think it's all yours--why, I'm going
to live and die here."
"WILL you? I mean live--"
The dancer laughed. "No, no. If I did either they'd fire you out. But
I'll come often, and we'll have the dearest parties--just we two,
without any men. We'll let our hair down, and cook and--WILL you look
at that gas-stove? I could eat it."
It was impossible to resist such infectious spirits. Lorelei began to
see sunshine, and before she knew it she was laughing, in the best of
humor with herself and her surroundings. Adoree, clad now in a
nameless, formless garment which she had discovered in a closet, her
own modish belongings safely rolled up in a sheet, had covered her head
with a towel turban and incased her feet in an old pair of shoes. Thus
equipped, she fell upon the task of regeneration with fanatic zeal. She
became grimy; a smear of soot disfigured her face; her skirt dragged,
her shoe-tops flopped, and the heels clattered; but she was hilariously
happy.
Side by side the girls worked; they forgot their luncheon, then sent
the sad-faced footman in search of a delicatessen store, and ate
ravenously with a newspaper for table-cloth. By evening the place found
itself for once in its life clean and orderly, and the two occupants
dressed and went out to a near-by hotel for dinner. Returning, they put
the final touches to their task.
When Adoree left, late that night, she kissed her friend, saying:
"Thank you for the loveliest Sunday I ever had. It was splendid, and
I'll come again to-morrow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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