I have a jolly evening with Old Sparrow Short in the Tom Strong Lunch Room. There with many others, friends of the halls, Short is quite frank over the issue of tomorrow and prattles away at the pessimists. He feels, for a certainty, all needed is that everyone there glow and enthuse. Coffee Kusuko owns most of the Yellow Halls, of course. That means he uses them any way Slick Slack Kopensky and Mayo Sims direct, at a crisis, and tonight the talk at the neighboring tables is all for the Yellow people and as loud as possible to be skillful. This is true in the Drug Stores of Smith as well, no doubt, for they are in the same combination. Then later in the evening we go together to take Avanel to the Hall of Velaska, somewhat to the astonishment of Short, who knows she hates him. But she wants to give him a chance at her approval, through his pictures. When the revellers sight my lady, the leers fade, and the boa constrictor dances of Singapore subside. And the gray head of Short puts them somewhat on their dignity, even if they merely regard Avanel with spite. But so many of them are sage and solemn with her and bow so carefully! “They are trying too hard,” says Avanel. Sparrow Short shows us the mottoes he has painted high on the walls: “Good Cheer Can Save the Soul.” “Let us Cultivate the Patience of Humor.” “Let us Seek the Humility of Humor and Laugh at Ourselves.” “The Touch of Humor is in all Successful Politics.” “No Man is Too Awkward to Dance.” (But he has never danced in his life!) Then he shows us the picture of Velaska, the mythical muse of the Hall. Velaska is expecting her lover. She is dressed in the heaviest and most pretentious of yellow silks; were it not for her veil, there would be no harmony. But it is iridescent, covers her from head to foot, blending and modifying all. She wears her yellow mask. Short says:—“Her lover will not see her face till the dawn, when she lays aside her veil also.” He is quite proud of his picture. Avanel is politely interested and no more. The picture gives me the headache, I am sure it is the poorest thing Short has done. He thinks it is the flag of liberty, almost equal to the Star Spangled Banner, and the Declaration of Independence, and Washington’s Farewell Address. Avanel dances with many loving and devoted boys. Avanel admires enthusiastically all the other pictures of Short and his decorations. But it is plain, when the evening is over, they still hate each other. Tuesday, June 17:—Today “Velaska” and her train are voted out “for good and all.” Blue-faced Surto Hurdenburg and a thousand like him have gone from house to house, talking incessantly. Morality is always keener in the followers than the leaders, and Hurdenburg and his kind worked among the sharp strong-minded semi-obscure people, just a little better than themselves, whose edge is not dulled by many successes or the paradoxes and mixed alliances that come about through the long possession of power.