n and hungry ones. But let some
student of human nature at the proper moment introduce just one fat day,
one feast, one revel--"

"Talk English," I said sharply.

"Don't break in on my flights of fancy," he objected. "If you want the
truth, Thoburn is going to have a party--a forbidden feast. He's going
to rouse again the sleeping dogs of appetite, and send them ravening
back to the Plaza, to Sherry's and Del's and the little Italian
restaurants on Sixth Avenue. He's going to take them up on a high
mountain and show them the wines and delicatessen of the earth, and
then ask them if they're going to be bullied into eating boiled beef and
cabbage."

"Then I don't care how soon he does it," I said despondently. "I'd
rather die quickly than by inches."

"Die!" he said. "Not a bit of it. Remember, our friend Pierce is also
a student of human nature. He's thinking it out now in the cold plunge,
and I miss my guess if Thoburn's sky-rocket hasn't got a stick that'll
come back and hit him on the head."

He had been playing with one of the chewing-gum jars, and when he had
gone I shoved it back into its place. It was by the merest chance that I
glanced at it, and I saw that he had slipped a small white box inside. I
knew I was being a silly old fool, but my heart beat fast when I took
it out and looked at it. On the lid was written "For a good girl," and
inside lay the red puffs from Mrs. Yost's window down in Finleyville.
Just under them was an envelope. I could scarcely see to open it.

"Dearest Minnie," the note inside said, "I had them matched to my own
thatch, and I think they'll match yours. And since, in the words of
the great Herbert Spencer, things that match the same thing match each
other--! What do you say?--Barnes."

"P. S.--I love you. I feel like a damn fool saying it, but heaven knows
it's true."

"P. P. S.--Still love you. It's easier the second time."

"N. B.--I love you--got the habit now and can't stop writing it.--B."

Well, I had to keep calm and attend to business, but I was seething
inside like a Seidlitz powder. Every few minutes I'd reread the letter
under the edge of the stand, and the more I read it the more excited
I got. When a woman's gone past thirty before she gets her first
love-letter, she isn't sure whether to thank providence or the man, but
she's pretty sure to make a fool of herself.

Thoburn came to the news stand on his way out with the ice-cutting gang
to the pond.

"L