The Mordaunt Estate in person was painting the front wall. The design which he practiced was based less upon any previsioned concept of art than upon the purchase, at a price, of a rainbow-end job lot of colors.
The vanners descended, bent on negotiations. Progress was obviously unsatisfactory, the artist, after brief and chill consideration, reverting to his toil. Now, tact and discretion are essential in approaching the Mordaunt Estate, for he is a p.r.i.c.kly inst.i.tution. I was sure that the newcomers had taken the wrong tack with him.
Discomfiture was in their mien as they withdrew in my direction. I mused upon my bench, with a metaphysical expression which I have found useful in such cases. They conferred. They approached. They begged my pardon.
With an effort which can hardly have failed to be effective, I dragged myself back to the world of actualities and opened languid eyes upon them. It is possible that I opened them somewhat wider than the normal, for they fell at once upon the nearer and smaller of the pair, a b.u.t.terfly of the most vivid and delightful appearance.
"Is the house with the "To Let" sign on it really to let, do you know, sir?" she inquired, adding music to color with her voice.
"So I understand," said I, rising.
"And the party with the yellow nose, who is desecrating the front," put in the b.u.t.terfly"s companion. "Is he a lunatic or a designer of barber poles?"
"He is a proud and reserved ex-butcher, named Wagboom, now doing a limited but high-cla.s.s business in rentals as the Mordaunt Estate."
"He may be the butcher, but he talks more like the pig. All we could get out of him was a series of grunts when we addressed him by name."
"Ah, but you used the wrong name. For all business purposes he should be addressed as the Mordaunt Estate, his duly incorporated t.i.tle. Wagboom is an irritant to a haughty property-owner"s soul."
"Shall we go back and try a counter-irritant?" asked the young man of his companion.
"With a view to renting?" I inquired.
"Yes."
"Do you keep dogs?"
"No," said the young man.
"Or clocks by the hundred?"
"Certainly not," answered the b.u.t.terfly.
"Or bombs?"
Upon their combined and emphatic negative they looked at each other with a wild surmise which said plainly: "Are they _all_ crazy down here?"
"If you do," I explained kindly, "you might have trouble in dealing. The latest tenant of Number 37 was a fluffy poodle who pushed one of two hundred clocks into the front area so that it exploded and blew away the front wall." And I outlined the history of that canine clairvoyant, w.i.l.l.y Woolly. "The Mordaunt Estate is sensitive about his tenants, anyway. He rents, not on profits, but on prejudice. Perhaps it would be well for you to flatter him a little; admire his style of house painting."
Accepting this counsel with suitable expressions, they returned to the charge, addressed the proprietor of Number 37 by his official t.i.tle and delivered the most gratifying opinions regarding his artistry.
"That," said the Mordaunt Estate, wiping his painty hands on his knees with brilliant results, as he turned a fat and smiling face to them, "is after the R. Noovo style. I dunno who R. Noovo was, but he"s a bear for color. Are you artists?"
"We"re house-hunters," explained the young man.
"As for tenants," said the Mordaunt Estate, "I take "em or leave "em as I like "em or don"t. I like you folks. You got an eye for a tasty bit of colorin". Eight rooms, bath, and kitchen. By the week in case we don"t suit each other. Very choice and cla.s.sy for a young married couple.
Eight dollars, in advance. Prices for R. Noovo dwellings has riz."
"We"re not married," said the young man.
"Hey? Whaddye mean, not married?" demanded that highly respectable inst.i.tution, the Mordaunt Estate, severely. His expression mollified as he turned to the b.u.t.terfly. "Aimin" to be, I s"pose."
"We only met this morning; so we haven"t decided yet," answered the young man. "At least," he added blandly, as his companion seemed to be struggling for utterance, "she hasn"t informed me of her decision, if she has made it."
Bewilderment spread like a gray mist across the painty features of the Mordaunt Estate. "Nothin" doin"," he began, "until--"
"Don"t decide hastily," adjured the young man. "Take this coin." He forced a half-dollar into the reluctant hand of the decorator.
"Nothin" doin" on account, either. Pay as you enter."
"Only one of us is going to enter. The coin decides. Spin it. Your call," he said to the b.u.t.terfly.
"Heads," cried the b.u.t.terfly.
"Tails," proclaimed the arbiter, as the silver shivered into silence on the flagging.
"Then the house is yours," said the b.u.t.terfly. "Good luck go with it."
She smiled, gamely covering her disappointment.
"I don"t want it," returned the young man.
"Play fair," she exhorted him. "We both agreed solemnly to stand by the toss. Didn"t we?"
"What did we agree?"
"That the winner should have the choice."
"Very well. I won, didn"t I?"
"You certainly did."
"And I choose not to take the house," he declared triumphantly. "It"s a very nice house, but"--he shaded his eyes as he directed them upon the proud-pied facade, blinking significantly--"I"d have to wear smoked gla.s.ses if I lived in it, and they don"t suit my style of beauty."
"You"d not get it now, young feller, if you was to go down on your knees with a thousand dollars in each hand," a.s.serted the offended Estate.
"See!" said the young man to the b.u.t.terfly. "Fate decides for you."
"But what will you do?" she asked solicitously.
"Perhaps I can find some other place in the Square."
She held out her hand. "You"ve been very nice and helpful, but--I think not. Good-bye."
He regarded the hand blankly. "Not--what?"
"Not here in this Square, if you don"t mind."
"But where else is there?" he asked piteously. "You know yourself there are countless thousands of homeless drifters floating around on this teeming island in vans, with no place to land."
"Try Jersey. Or Brooklyn," was her hopeful suggestion.