_Would_ he! "When can I call?"
She hesitated for a moment. Then: "I think it will be better if I call
on you. There are quite a number of people living in our--our house.
I'm afraid the quarters would be much too cramped for an artist like
yourself to concentrate."
Quidley glowed. Usually it required two or three days, and sometimes a
week, to reach the apartment phase. "Fine," he said. "When can I expect
you?"
She stood up and he got to his feet beside her. She was even taller
than he had thought. In fact, if he hadn't been wearing Cuban heels,
she'd have been taller than he was. "I'll be in town night after next,"
she said. "Will nine o'clock be convenient for you?"
"Perfectly."
"Good-by for now then, Mr. Quidley."
He was so elated that when he arrived at his apartment he actually
did try to write a profile. His own, of course. He sat down at his
custom-built chrome-trimmed desk, inserted a blank sheet of paper in
his custom-built typewriter and tried to arrange his thoughts. But as
usual his mind raced ahead of the moment, and he saw the title, _Self
Profile_, nestling noticeably on the contents page of one of the Better
Magazines, and presently he saw the piece itself in all its splendid
array of colorful rhetoric, sparkling imagery and scintillating wit,
occupying a two-page spread.
It was some time before he returned to reality, and when he did the
first thing that met his eyes was the uncompromisingly blank sheet of
paper. Hurriedly he typed out a letter to his father, requesting an
advance on his allowance, then, after a tall glass of vintage wine, he
went to bed.
* * * * *
In telling him that she would be in town two nights hence, Kay had
unwittingly apprised him that there would be no exchange of messages
until that time, so the next evening he skipped his vigil at the
library. The following evening, however, after readying his apartment
for the forthcoming assignation, he hied himself to his reading-table
post and took up _The Zeitgeist_ once again.
He had not thought it possible that there could be a third such woman.
And yet there she was, walking in the door, tall and blue-eyed and
graceful; dark of hair and noble of mien; browsing in the philosophy
section now, now the fiction section, now moving leisurely into the
literature aisle and toward the T's....
The camouflage had varied, but the message was typical enough:
_fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl;
Cai: Gind en snoll doper nckli! Wotnid antwaterer Fieu Dayol hid
jestig snoll doper ifedererer te. Dep gogensplo snoll dopers
ensing!--Gorka. fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl; fdsa jkl;_
Judging from the repeated use of the words, _snoll dopers_ were the
topic of the day. Annoyed, Quidley replaced the message and put the
book back on the shelf. Then he returned to his apartment to await Kay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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