my air of eager curiosity than at his own achievement.
"But it's absurdly easy, after all. He is a young man because his shoes
are in the very latest, extreme, not exclusive style. He is five feet
eight, because the size of his foot goes with that height of man, which,
by the way, is the height of nine out of ten men, any way. He doesn't
live in New York or he wouldn't be stopping at a hotel. Besides, he
would be down-town at this hour, attending to business."

"Unless he has freak business hours, as you and I do," I put in.

"Yes, that might be. But I still hold that he doesn't live in New York,
or he couldn't be staying at this Broadway hotel overnight, and sending
his shoes down to be shined at half-past nine in the morning. His
sweetheart is five feet nine, for that is the height of a tall girl.
I know she is tall, for she wears a long skirt. Short girls wear short
skirts, which make them look shorter still, and tall girls wear very
long skirts, which make them look taller."

"Why do they do that?" I inquired, greatly interested.

"I don't know. You'll have to ask that of some one wiser than I. But I
know it's a fact. A girl wouldn't be considered really tall if less than
five feet nine. So I know that's her height. She is his sweetheart, for
no man would go from New York to Brooklyn and bring a lady over here to
the theatre, and then take her home, and return to New York in the early
hours of the morning, if he were not in love with her. I know she lives
in Brooklyn, for the paper says there was a heavy shower there last
night, while I know no rain fell in New York. I know that they were out
in that rain, for her long skirt became muddy, and in turn muddied the
whole upper of his left shoe. The fact that only the left shoe is so
soiled proves that he walked only at her right side, showing that she
must be deaf in her left ear, or he would have walked part of the time
on that side. I know that they went to the theatre in New York, because
he is still sleeping at this hour, and has sent his boots down to be
cleaned, instead of coming down with them on his feet to be shined here.
If he had been merely calling on the girl in Brooklyn, he would have
been home early, for they do not sit up late in that borough. I know
they went to the theatre, instead of to the opera or a ball, for they
did not go in a cab, otherwise her skirt would not have become muddied.
This, too, shows that she wore a cloth skirt, and as his shoe