The Quiet Corner
THE QUIET CORNER / counsel thee, shut not thy heart nor thy library.—C. Lamb. Hereticus flung his brief-case wearily on the table, having emerged from the subway crumpled and a trifle faded. He...
...Never have my barefooted peons worked themselves into the frenzied postures, the insulting degradations, twistings, jumps, prostrations, wigglings, and contortions of your Broadway tango artists...
...their knees also seemed to batter in a sideway manner and to kick out at the partner's kneepans after the rigid manner of our marionettes...
...Aunt Eustasia is on the eighth day of her novena, and the family is properly on nervous tension...
...Senores Hereticus and Primus Criticus," began the grave Mexican father of the prodigals, "when my dear old friend, Angelicus, and I arrived at the table, we found young ladies pouring from coffee-pots something that seemed stronger than the brew from the Brazilian bean...
...asked Hereticus, always in search for special information...
...his haciendas are the pride of Tampico—" "Pardon, Angelicus," exclaimed the Mexican, "I had two sons, but alas...
...He was surpised to find Dr...
...the caballeros slapped them on their bare shoulder blades, and, in fact, the rougher they grew the more the damsels and old ladies seemed to like it...
...She is the daughter of Don Erasmo Grauss, the German mine-owner: golden as the noonday and a most excellent housekeeper...
...They could tell us nothing of the boys at the Purple Cat or the Pink Zebra," remarked Angelicus...
...Ay di mi...
...Between times they seized one another, without a word of request or permission, and sprang together in most unseemly postures upon the dancing floor, There seemed to be some strange ambition on the part of these terpsichoreans to catch each other on the back of the heels, to tumble and sustain each other from falling...
...The Mexican gentleman bowed with very fine grace, the heavy diamond on his shirt-front throwing a wicked gleam...
...ladies old and young smoked and smoked, scratching matches and scattering cigarette ashes everywhere...
...they have not appeared for their courses at the business college where they are supposed to be studying English...
...Doctor, some women are angels," he whispered, until Miss Anonymoncule pulled out a cigarette and said— "Haven't you a match, Doctor...
...Angelicus recovered himself to say: "Don Pompilio has had seventeen children, two sons and fifteen daughters...
...You saw them dance the tango, Don Pompilio...
...When I think of my boys, handsome little Juanito, my darkeyed Pepito, in the clutches of these vampires, I can only call upon the sainted memories of my father and mother, on the prayers of Aunt Eustasia, and the choirs of angels and saints...
...You don't think they could have gone to Palm Beach...
...Since childhood, senor—their grandmother, Dona Esperanca, arranged these love matches when they were in the cradle...
...Large gentlemen, suggesting the rumbling hippopotamuses, circled about with little gadflies clad only in beaded jerkins...
...We are fattening the calf for their return to Tampico, where their fiancees are patiently waiting for them to return...
...Whereupon a great trouble came into the eyes of Don Pompilio and the fine head bowed a little in confusion...
...You must find many changes here," said Hereticus...
...Don Pompilio will tell you what we saw last night...
...Everything is quite different and my slender friend, Angelicus, whom we used to call Fra Angelico on account of his svelte figure, is now the ponderous Doctor with the dome-like brows and the magisterial manner...
...asked Primus Criticus...
...Permit me to present my old school friend, Don Pompilio of Mexico...
...I am sure my sister Eustasia and the Senora would love her on sight...
...Senor Hereticus, where are they now...
...Miss Anonymoncule then entered the library, and was presented to Don Pompilio, who regarded her blonde beauty with evident admiration, and only relieved Doctor Angelicus when he turned and said: "Ah, if my Juanito and Pepito were here to meet her...
...Mary's, and this is Don Pompilio's first return to the United States in forty years...
...The Librarian...
...replied the Mexican raising his grave black eyes to heaven...
...Lolita, the fiancee of Juanito, is now eighteen years old and her hacienda of 10,000 acres adjoins our own land: the nuns in the convent have never known a more pious girl-—a little dark, perhaps, from her Indian great-grandmother, but a lily of purity and discretion...
...The cacophony of the orchestra, the odors of cooking, strange perfumes and exudations of perspiration made me yearn for the open winds of my hacienda...
...Angelicus, with a rather quizzical expression on his lips, in conversation with a swarthy gentleman, whose beautiful iron-gray hair was brushed back from his forehead under which a striking pair of piercing black eyes was intently studying the library...
...Dr...
...In Club Angeline they had been dancing two nights before and had departed in 'coon coats and a very heavy limousine...
...Never since I sent the boys my last draft for five thousand American dollars have we had a word or sign from them...
...I trust in heaven for their safety...
...Both the boys are engaged...
...asked Hereticus...
...They get their mail at the Consulate, but we found there the Christmas letters of the Senora Madre, of Aunt Eustasia, of Uncle Teofrasto, and Padre Don Scortizo...
...Don Pompilio is properly concerned for them...
...Hardly so many minutes from old Broadway," suggested Primus Criticus...
...we graduated together at St...
...Fortunately, my Pepito and Juanito are strong and active boys...
...And such a tango, senor...
...The Doctor and I have spent the entire night trying to trace them through Greenwich Village and the Broadway dancing clubs— but, alas, while we heard news of them through young persons named Polly, Dolly, and Molly, we could find out nothing about where they lived...
...They tell me many of them are paid to dance together—I should think the doctors and bone-setters must be kept very busy after these performances...
...As for Concha, Pepito's prometida, Our Lady of the Shell never had a lovelier godchild...
Vol. 3 • January 1926 • No. 12
