every room.

Then Aubrey looked up the law.

In all the bedrooms the mercury stayed at forty-nine until noon, then it
got to fifty-one. At seven that night it dropped to forty-five, and in
the morning all the windows were frosted again.

Aubrey's law partner was extremely interested in all our plans, for he
also lived in an apartment and wanted heat, but knew better than to ask
for it. Our lease was so worded that we were to have "heat when
necessary." Our rights hung upon when the agent, who was five miles
away, or the owner, who was in Florida, should agree upon how cold we
were to be allowed to grow before thawing us out. Then, carefully
planning the campaign, Aubrey wrote letters and had interviews with the
agent, in which he committed himself in the presence of witnesses and on
paper until, on the afternoon of the third day of our cold storage,
Aubrey wrote to the agent saying that if we did not have heat within
twenty-four hours, we should go to a hotel and stay until they chose to
give it to us, and take it out of the rent. This letter evidently
tickled one of the clerks in the agent's office to such an extent that he
called Aubrey up by telephone and said he had done the only thing
possible under the circumstances to bring the company to book. This
approval pleased Aubrey, and he asked the man's name. It was Brooks.

We all felt that Brooks was a gentleman.

"They will _never_ let us do _that_, Aubrey," I said.

"They will think we are bluffing!" said the Angel, with quiet conviction.

"Bluffing!" I cried. "Do they think we won't go if they don't give us
heat?"

"They little know _you_, do they?" said Aubrey, patting the sleeve of my
sealskin, for I wore it all day now. I put it on when I got up.

We waited the twenty-four hours, and then as no notice had been taken of
our letter we calmly packed a handbag, bade Mary good-bye,--she had the
gas range to keep warm by,--and much to her delight we went down to the
Waldorf. But not to our old luxurious quarters. We took a room and a
bath at five dollars a day. We were doing this from stern principle, and
we wanted a reasonable case.

I have never flattered myself privately that I am a particularly
agreeable woman, but I can truthfully say that we were extremely popular
at the Waldorf, for in some manner it had leaked out that we were making
a test case on the "heat before the 15th," and everybody we knew who
lived in apartments called to see if