Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Don-a-dreams.djvu/336

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324
DON-A-DREAMS

found that Don could not take the room at such a price, she let him have it for $2.50, on condition that he supplied his own towels and bedding.

"I'm givin' 't to yuh fer less than I w'u'd to any other livin' soul alive," she said. And Don thanked her with all the gratitude of innocence.

In an "express" waggon drawn by a broken-kneed white horse, he moved his trunk, his share of the bedding, a kitchen chair and some cooking utensils. He settled his accounts with Pittsey, who said nothing either in blame or regret. Then he went in peace to eat his luncheon in the "rest'runt" which Mrs. McGahn had recommended.

It was that little French resort of unsuccessful Bohemians which used to be known to New York by the significant name, "The Café of Failures," because of its clientele.

III

Fortified by a bowl of watery soup and a tasteless fricassee of chicken, he started out to call on Margaret, more hopeful of the success of his relations with her since he had solved his other problems of intercourse by the simple process of elimination; and as he walked, he dramatized a scene of apologies and explanations, in which he would plead that he could better help her now that he could give his whole time to her, and she—instead of criticising and accusing him—would discuss her situation in a friendly confidence that would be