She told me she had not the courage to
ask the clerk how many of the tickets he had sold out of those she had
left at the desk.
One morning, the third or fourth, as I was going in to breakfast with her,
the head-waiter stopped her as he opened the door, and asked modestly if
she could spare him a few tickets, for he thought he could sell some. To
my amazement the unprincipled creature said: "Why, certainly. How many?"
and instantly took a package out of her pocket, where she seemed always to
have them. He asked, Would twenty be more than she could spare? and she
answered: "Not at all. Here are twenty-five." and bestowed the whole
package upon him.
That afternoon Reuben Camp came lounging up toward us, where I sat with
her on the corner of the piazza, and said that if she would like to let
him try his luck with some tickets for the Talk he would see what he could
do.
"You can have all you want, Reuben," she said, "and I hope you'll have
better luck than I have. I'm perfectly disgusted with people."
She fished several packages out of her pocket this time, and he asked: "Do
you mean that I can have them all?"
"Every one, and a band of music into the bargain," she answered,
recklessly.
Pages:
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239