Their only
Conception of a Happy Evening was to put the Buck in the Centre of the
Table, break a fresh Pack and go out for Blood.
Wifey found her most delirious Joy in putting passionate Shades on
all the Lamps, and sitting there in the Crimson Glow to discuss
Maeterlinck and Maarten Maartens and a few others that were New Ones
on the he-end of the Sketch.
When they had an Evening At Home up in the Flat, it was usually a
two-ring Affair. She would have the Cerebellums in the Front Room
looking at the New Books and eating Peppermint Wafers, while he and
the other Comanches would be out in the Dining-Room trying to make
their House Rent and tossing off that which made Scotland famous.
Sometimes it would take half the Night to get the Smoke out of the
House.
Although she feared that she had turned up the wrong Street while
searching for her Affinity, the Partnership Arrangement had to stand.
They came to the Conclusion that Married Life is a Series of
Compromises. If he did well while sitting in with some of his Friends,
he would divide up with her and she would take the Money and buy Art
Pastels.
He would spot the Afternoons on which the Ethical Researchers were due
at his Premises and he would go to a Dutch Restaurant.
She permitted him to have a Room and call it his Den, so that he and
his Friends could do the Escape in case somebody in the Parlor started
a Reading.
He put up the Coin to enable her to attend State Conventions, and when
she was elected Recording Secretary of the Society for trying to find
out what Browning was up to, he took her Picture around to all the
Newspapers and told every one that he had a little Woman up at the
House who was as Keen as a Hawk, as Swift as an Eagle, and Sharper
than Chained Lightning.
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