day the owner and the agents and their lawyer called, and we
discussed the matter. They were affable at first, but as the noise
from the Gottlieb apartment grew more boisterous, their suavity
departed, for they realized that our grievance was a substantial one,
yet they declared they could do nothing.

"But it is in the lease," we protested. Then they delivered themselves
of what they really had come to say.

"My dear sir," said the owner, "that lease and those rules can never be
enforced in this city. They simply don't hold--that's all."

"Very well," I said, triumphantly. "If the clauses upon which we took
the apartment do not hold, then neither does the clause regarding the
payment of the rent obtain."

They all three broke in together with hysterical eagerness:

"Ah, but that does hold. You must know that, madam."

"The rent clause is the only clause which the law backs up, is it? We
have no redress against your getting us here under false pretences?"

They looked at each other uneasily. Then their masculinity asserted
itself. What? To be thus browbeaten by a woman? They looked
commiseratingly at the Angel for being saddled with such a wife.

They stood up to go. I looked expectantly at Aubrey.

"Gentlemen," he said, quietly. "You have heard the noises from the
surrounding apartments to-day, and you have admitted that they were
extraordinary. I declare them not to be borne. If then, you cannot
mitigate the nuisance, this apartment will be at your disposal from the
first of February."

They smiled patronizingly. The lawyer even laid his hand on the
Angel's shoulder. He should have known better than that.

"My dear fellow," he said, benevolently. "You are liable for the whole
year's rent--until next October. You will see by your lease."

Aubrey shook his hand off haughtily.

"Provided the lease is signed," he said, quietly. "Will you gentlemen
have the goodness to find my signature on this lease? I haven't even
returned it to your office."

They examined it with dropped jaws. They had not even the strength to
hand it back to him. Between them it fell to the floor,--the lease
whose only binding clause was the one regarding the payment of the rent.

"From the first of February," repeated the Angel, politely.

"But my dear sir," protested the lawyer, recovering first. "Let us see
if we cannot adjust this little difficulty. You sign the lease, for we
cannot rent such an apartment