Page:Christopher Morley--Tales from a rolltop desk.djvu/32

 her shift key and reversed the ribbon. He double-spaced, and they entered the restaurant together.

Lester felt an intellectual tremor as they sat down at a corner table. Never had his mind seemed so relentlessly clear, so keen to leap upon the problems of life and tessellate them. It was as though all his past experience had cumulated and led up to this peak of existence. "Now for a close analysis of Female Mind," was his secret thought as he settled in his chair. He felt almost sorry for this gay, defenceless little shred of humanity who had cast herself under his domineering gaze. A masculine awareness of size and power filled him. And yet—she seemed quite unterrified.

As they began on the antipasto he thought to himself: "I must start very gently. Women like men to veil their power." So he said:

"That was funny, my picking up your magazine the other night, wasn't it? You know I thought it was my copy."

"Oh, the dear old Oblique! Isn't it a scream? I read myself to sleep with it every night. We'll have to make the most of it while we can, because Mr. Arundel says it can't pay its paper bill much longer."

This irreverence rather startled Lester, who was