New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
"Come in and I’ll show you," he said cordially.
His eyes meeting Cornelia’s again, the vanquished victor withdrew in
evident confusion to his retreat in number thirteen.
Robert looked at the card and turned it over to Cornelia. She recognized
with a smile the legend about Harry Kelly, the Harlem Gorilla and
Champion of the Mat.
*PART II*
*LOVE AMONG THE OUTLAWS*
*CHAPTER SEVEN*
*I*
When Janet awoke at eleven, it took her several moments to recollect
that she was in Cornelia’s apartment in Kips Bay, where Claude had left
her before dawn. She could hear Cornelia bustling about in the living
room, but she stayed in bed a little longer to luxuriate in memories of
the preceding night.
She got lightly out of bed and stood before the mirror over the
chiffonier. But she was less preoccupied with the image in the looking
glass than with mental pictures of the night before.
In the bright light of day, the glamour of some of these pictures took
on the effect of tinsel. But Janet could still thrill to the excitement
of the raid on the Lyceum, the pell-mell escape, the violent dispersal
of the mobs in Murray Hill and the hurried collection of a troop of
Outlaw refugees and their nocturnal march through Kips Bay streets under
the leadership of Claude Fontaine. It had been a very festive troop,
swelled by stragglers all the way to the Lorillard tenements, where the
party camped in Charlotte Beecher’s double flat.
Of the long merrymaking that followed, Janet cared to remember only the
occasions when Claude Fontaine was at her side and at her service. How
vividly she could picture him in the dashing part of Charles Surface,
his handsome face tinted with rich, young blood, and his eyes of such
brightness and depth that surely no infamy could ever dull them!
A knock cut this day dreaming short.
"How do you do, Araminta?" said Cornelia, entering melodramatically.
"And what does the Sleeping Beauty want for breakfast?"
"I’m hungry enough to eat sticks and stones and puppy-dog’s bones,"
replied Janet. "But I won’t murmur if you have gentler fare."
As Cornelia insisted that dressing should be deferred until after the
meal, Janet tripped to the breakfast table in her nightgown, her curly
hair hanging down to her shoulders. Cornelia, her figure lapped
precariously in a simple dress, which she had made and pinned together
at a cost of fifty cents all told, sat down opposite her young guest.
"This is a picnic!" exclaimed Janet. She was filled with glee at the
wrapping paper neatly spread out in place of a table cloth, at the cups,
saucers and dishes all made of agateware, and at the compressed paper
plates for the slices of bread.
"Well, it isn’t a Barmecide’s feast, by any means," said Cornelia, who
was amused at Janet’s artless joy. "The plates may be made of paper,
but they are fresh and so are the eggs and bacon."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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