"The Liberry"

The Liberry
IAN HAY
WITH FRONTISPIECE BY KLEBER HALL
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1924
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1923 AND 1924, BY IAN HAY BEITH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
The Liberry

THE LIBERRY
I first met Mr. Baxter at the fourpenny box outside Mr. Timpenny's second-hand bookshop in High Street, and was attracted at once by the loving care with which he handled its contents. Dirty and dog's-eared as most of them were, he never snatched one up or threw it down, after the common fashion of patrons of inexpensive literature, but would gently extract a more than usually disreputable volume from its heap, blow the dust off, straighten the warped cover, and smooth out the wrinkled pages before dipping into the subject-matter. In fact, the last operation struck me as interesting him least of all.
Becoming aware of my presence, he moved aside with a courtly little bow. He was a dusty old gentleman, in a very shabby frock-coat. He looked as if he lived in the fourpenny box himself.