Dear Enemy. Джин Уэбстер

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      On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined. He's gone.

      But those eight stars represent eight agonizing minutes spent in the dark of my library closet. The Hon. Cy received Jane's communication with the affable statement that he would sit down and wait. Whereupon he entered and sat. But did Jane leave me to languish in the closet? No; she enticed him to the nursery to see the AWFUL thing that Sadie Kate has done. The Hon. Cy loves to see awful things, particularly when done by Sadie Kate. I haven't an idea what scandal Jane is about to disclose; but no matter, he has gone.

      Where was I? Oh, yes; I had rung the doctor's bell.

      The door was opened by a large, husky person with her sleeves rolled up. She looked very businesslike, with a hawk's nose and cold gray eyes.

      "Well?" said she, her tone implying that I was a vacuum-cleaning agent.

      "Good morning." I smiled affably, and stepped inside. "Is this Mrs. McGurk?"

      "It is," said she. "An' ye'll be the new young woman in the orphan asylum?"

      "I am that," said I. "Is himself at home?"

      "He is not," said she.

      "But this is his office hour."

      "He don't keep it regular'."

      "He ought," said I, sternly. "Kindly tell him that Miss McBride called to consult him, and ask him to look in at the John Grier Home this afternoon."

      "Ump'!" grunted Mrs. McGurk, and closed the door so promptly that she shut in the hem of my skirt.

      When I told the doctor this afternoon, he shrugged his shoulders, and observed that that was Maggie's gracious way.

      "And why do you put up with Maggie?" said I.

      "And where would I find any one better?" said he. "Doing the work for a lone man who comes as irregularly to meals as a twenty-four-hour day will permit is no sinecure. She furnishes little sunshine in the home, but she does manage to produce a hot dinner at nine o'clock at night."

      Just the same, I am willing to wager that her hot dinners are neither delicious nor well served. She's an inefficient, lazy old termagant, and I know why she doesn't like me. She imagines that I want to steal away the doctor and oust her from a comfortable position, something of a joke, considering. But I am not undeceiving her; it will do the old thing good to worry a little. She may cook him better dinners, and fatten him up a trifle. I understand that fat men are good-natured.

      TEN O'CLOCK.

      I don't know what silly stuff I have been writing to you off and on all day, between interruptions. It has got to be night at last, and I am too tired to do so much as hold up my head. Your song tells the sad truth, "There is no joy in life but sleep."

      I bid you good night.

      S. McB.

      Isn't the English language absurd? Look at those forty monosyllables in a row!

      J. G. H.,

      April 1.

      Dear Judy:

      I have placed out Isador Gutschneider. His new mother is a Swedish woman, fat and smiling, with blue eyes and yellow hair. She chose him out of the whole nurseryful of children because he was the brunettest baby there. She has always loved brunettes, but in her most ambitious dreams has never hoped to have one of her own. His name is going to be changed to Oscar Carlson, after his new dead uncle.

      My first trustees' meeting is to occur next Wednesday. I confess that I am not looking forward to it with impatience—especially as an inaugural address by me will be its chief feature. I wish our president were here to back me up! But at least I am sure of one thing. I am never going to adopt the Uriah Heepish attitude toward trustees that characterized Mrs. Lippett's manners. I shall treat "first Wednesdays" as a pleasant social diversion, my day at home, when the friends of the asylum gather for discussion and relaxation; and I shall endeavor not to let our pleasures discommode the orphans. You see how I have taken to heart the СКАЧАТЬ