Two high-school students, at once: "Can I get 'The Merchant of Venice' in the Rolfe edition?"
Edgar (to Miss V.): "There's a man here that wants 'The Only Way.'"
Miss V.: "Perhaps he means 'A Tale of Two Cities,'—there's a dramatic version—"
A thin young man: "Your open-shelf department is a fine idea, fine! I have been able to select my own books; I like such a liberal policy; it shows—"
A man with a portfolio: "Look here, miss, here's the best chance you ever see in your life: the complete Speeches of William J. Bryan, bound in purple plush, for six dollars, but we can let you have two copies for nine seventy five, ev'ry lib'ry in the country's got it, and Andrew Carnegie ordered five—"
Edgar: "That man says he don't want the 'Tale of Two Cities,'—he thinks the book he's after is 'How To Get In' or something like that."
Miss V.: "He means 'One Way Out,'—see if there is a copy in, will you?"
A woman: "Just let me take that pencil of yours, a minute?"
A man (mopping his brow): "Say, what's this 'open-shelf' business,—d'ye have to find your own books? Well, that's the worst thing I ever saw,—why, at the Boston Public Library they get 'em for you!"