“And please don’t forget my evening papers or I shall have to requisition your book.... Or possibly share it with you on the upholstered sofa.... And I read very rapidly and don’t like being kept waiting for slower people to turn the page.... Mr. Shotwell?”

“Yes.”

“This is a wonderful floor. Could you bring some roller skates?”

“No,” he said, “but I’ll bring a music box and we’ll dance.”

“You’re not serious–––”

82

“I am. Wait and see.”

“Don’t do such a thing. My servants would think me crazy. I’m mortally afraid of them, too.”


He found a toy-shop on Third Avenue still open, and purchased a solemn little music-box that played ting-a-ling tunes.