Booksellers and bookselling -- Fiction; Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction; Mystery and detective stories
Curious magic of thought! The idea was still sparkling in his mind
when he saw Titania and Mrs. Mifflin emerge from the bookshop and pass
briskly in front of the lunchroom. They were talking and laughing
merrily. Titania's face, shining with young vitality, seemed to him
more "attention-compelling" than any ten-point Caslon type-arrangement
he had ever seen. He admired the layout of her face from the
standpoint of his cherished technique. "Just enough 'white space,'" he
thought, "to set off her eyes as the 'centre of interest.' Her features
aren't this modern bold-face stuff, set solid," he said to himself,
thinking typographically. "They're rather French old-style italic,
slightly leaded. Set on 22-point body, I guess. Old man Chapman's a
pretty good typefounder, you have to hand it to him."
He smiled at this conceit, seized hat and coat, and dashed out of the
lunchroom.
Mrs. Mifflin and Titania had halted a few yards up the street, and were
looking at some pert little bonnets in a window. Aubrey hurried across
the street, ran up to the next corner, recrossed, and walked down the
eastern pavement. In this way he would meet them as though he were
coming from the subway. He felt rather more excited than King Albert
re-entering Brussels. He saw them coming, chattering together in the
delightful fashion of women out on a spree. Helen seemed much younger
in the company of her companion. "A lining of pussy-willow taffeta and
an embroidered slip-on," she was saying.
Aubrey steered onto them with an admirable gesture of surprise.
"Well, I never!" said Mrs. Mifflin. "Here's Mr. Gilbert. Were you
coming to see Roger?" she added, rather enjoying the young man's
predicament.
Titania shook hands cordially. Aubrey, searching the old-style italics
with the desperate intensity of a proof-reader, saw no evidence of
chagrin at seeing him again so soon.
"Why," he said rather lamely, "I was coming to see you all. I--I
wondered how you were getting along."
Mrs. Mifflin had pity on him. "We've left Mr. Mifflin to look after
the shop," she said. "He's busy with some of his old crony customers.
Why don't you come with us to the movies?"
"Yes, do," said Titania. "It's Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew, you know how
adorable they are!"
No one needs to be told how quickly Aubrey assented. Pleasure
coincided with duty in that the outer wing of the party placed him next
to Titania.
"Well, how do you like bookselling?" he asked.
"Oh, it's the greatest fun!" she cried. "But it'll take me ever and
ever so long to learn about all the books. People ask such questions!
A woman came in this afternoon looking for a copy of Blase Tales. How
was I to know she wanted The Blazed Trail?"
"You'll get used to that," said Mrs. Mifflin. "Just a minute, people,
I want to stop in at the drug store."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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