The Quiet Corner
THE QUIET CORNER / counsel thee, shut not thy heart nor thy library.—C. Lamb. It was a disheveled figure that appeared in the doorway following Tittivillus with the old-fashioned traveling...
...Pangloss served me with something like Caffee-Hag, and I missed my grapefruit terribly after the bacon and eggs of the evening before...
...We were roused by those sleeping-car porters at daybreak, screaming 'New York, New York,* before we were well out of Albany...
...Doctor Pangloss, evidently aware of the uncertain temper of his car, came down in an open cart, with an old dray horse, and in the freezing mountain air took me up to the Authors' House—a grim, rambling structure on the hillside...
...Should I ever weaken in my mind, Hereticus, and need to be sent away, remember an old man's wishes— my solemn curse be upon anybody who shall commit me to the Authors' House...
...You know, my friends, that when my old colleague, Doctor Pangloss, invited me for the week-end, I had some misgivings...
...Pangloss gave me a room on the first floor, saying: 'You will be more comfortable among the Mediaevalists one flight up, as many of them object to stair-climbing...
...Comfortable...
...blew out the Doctor, as he disentangled himself from ulster, mufflers, mittens, and monocle, and fell breathlessly into an armchair...
...You were among friends and sympathizers, were you not, dear Doctor...
...Of course, we have our sudden demises and our occasional suicides...
...I knew from reports that he was most popular with the residents in the House and the only head that they had retained for more than six months...
...The air of freedom and abandon about our life is the reward for our lack of luxuries and rigidities.' " 'Does nobody ever die here ?' I asked the Doctor-Director...
...Luncheon, will it ever come...
...Your week-end at the Authors' House has not been comfortable, I am afraid...
...When I had waited for nearly an hour, a Ford came up to the Cedarville station, gave a mighty groan, and refused to take us up the hill...
...Not often,' he replied...
...It was a disheveled figure that appeared in the doorway following Tittivillus with the old-fashioned traveling valise...
...Several well-known celebrities met me in the hallways: not any of them recognized me except one who came up to me earnestly to ask me if I had brought the butterflies...
...while the Aesthetes, as we call our poets, interior decorators, and tapestry workers, prefer the basement, which has its own furnace and private woodpile at the rear.' An army-cot, some unframed pictures torn from the Sunday editions, a mirror with several bullet-shots in the glass, took my mind back to war days when I glanced about my apartment...
...Doctor Pangloss has always been one of the most delightfully irresponsible of my associates, and as head, or dean, of a literary home, he seemed to present a problem...
...I had heard of the Authors' House in the mountains, given over to the cultivation of proper surroundings for literary workers, and the residence of some of the most famous of our contributors...
...You look somewhat baited, Doctor," said Hereticus...
...A general air of bustle and industry pervaded the establishment in spite of the odor of old pipes and deceased cigars and cigarettes...
...The hospital is about half an hour's ride from here, and the ambulance can be depended upon.' "By that time I was ready for my train home: the night had been horrible—authors snore so loudly...
...It is bachelors' hall,' explained Dr...
...The Librarian...
...asked the Doctor, snappishly...
...Dr...
...The Soviets and Laborites are happiest on the top floor...
...asked Miss Anonymoncule, ardently...
...The camp meetings, however, are supposed to close at two in the morning, and there is a general hushing of the typewriters about the same time...
...Everybody does as he pleases: there are no bed hours or meal times...
...The clinking of glasses, which I later found out to be only coffee cups, brightened me temporarily amid my gloomy forebodings...
...no rules for dress...
...The Editor threw a knowing look at Hereticus, and said: "Why, Angelicus, we hardly expected you before luncheon...
...Has anybody ever called Dante's Divine Comedy comfortable—especially the first part...
...As we drove through the gates he pointed nonchalantly at the fenced-in patches, saying: 'That is Professor Edgerly's salad garden!' or 'this is the hot-house for the poet Smith's roses and lilies-of-the-valley!' or 'these are the dog kennels of the novelist, Dona Tobasco, and this is where Herr Schmidlapp raises his red cabbages!' The house was freezing cold, with a strong smell of oil stoves: through the doors I caught sight of two or three well-known authorities on epigraphy and paleontology frying eggs on individual Sterno ranges...
...Fortunately, my hair is thin, for I could find no comb and brush...
...We are historians, poets, journalists, popular song writers, publicity men, and hermeneutic philosophers—for we have our Buddhists as well as Anabaptists, and Mohammedans as well as Methodists...
...When the bath tub was in order, there was cold water for everybody who would risk it...
...In the morning, Dr...
...I knew he was a symbolist by his blue eyes and the flutter of his long cloak...
...Pangloss...
...Do tell us all about it...
Vol. 3 • March 1926 • No. 19
