Page:The Surakarta (1913).djvu/154

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138
THE SURAKARTA

restaurant in his own dining room and waited upon by his man. There he took dinner alone this evening. He refused the newspaper reporters who, in turn and en masse, demanded over the house telephone to see him; and half an hour later he sent his man to refuse to converse with the city editors over the city 'phone. He excused himself to the four or five of his friends and twice as many of his acquaintances, curious about it all, who dropped in or telephoned; but these interruptions made his dinner progress slowly, and he was not through until after eight o'clock.

He selected an after dinner cigar, lit his reading lamp, and from force of habit, took a book. He could not read, however.

Presently, stooping to a low shelf under his table, he pulled out a thick book of tough