The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Albany Depot, by W. D. Howells

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Title: The Albany Depot
A Farce

Author: W. D. Howells

Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7364]
Posting Date: July 26, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ALBANY DEPOT ***

Produced by Eric Eldred

THE ALBANY DEPOT

A FARCE

By W. D. Howells

NEW YORK

HARPER AND BROTHERS

1892

Copyright, 1891, by HARPER & BROTHERS

(THE ACTION PASSES IN BOSTON)

I. _MR. AND MRS. EDWARD ROBERTS; THE CHOREWOMAN_

Mrs. Roberts, with many proofs of an afternoon's shopping in her hands
and arms, appears at the door of the ladies' room, opening from the
public hall, and studies the interior with a searching gaze, which
develops a few suburban shoppers scattered over the settees, with
their bags and packages, and two or three old ladies in the
rocking-chairs. The Chorewoman is going about with a Saturday
afternoon pail and mop, and profiting by the disoccupation of the
place in the hour between the departures of two great expresses, to
wipe up the floor. She passes near the door where Mrs. Roberts is
standing, and Mrs. Roberts appeals to her in the anxiety which her
failure to detect the object of her search has awakened: "Oh, I was
just looking for my husband. He was to meet me here at ten minutes
past three; but there don't seem to _be _any gentlemen."

The Chorewoman: "Mem?"

Mrs. Roberts: "I was just looking for my husband. He was to meet me
here at ten minutes past three; but there don't seem to be any
gentlemen. You haven't happened to notice--"

The Chorewoman: "There's a gentleman over there beyant, readin',
that's just come in. He seemed to be lukun' for somebody." She applies
the mop to the floor close to Mrs. Roberts's skirts.

Mrs. Roberts, bending to the right and to the left, and then, by
standing on tiptoe, catching sight of a hat round a pillar: "Then it's
Mr. Roberts, of course. I'll just go right over to him. Thank you ever
so much. Don't disturb yourself!" She picks her way round the area of
damp left by the mop, and approaches the hat from behind. "It _is_
you, Edward