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SHE had invited me to tea. And then, just to prove that^she was eternally feminine, or, perhaps socially proper, she was terribly late. I was on time, and, when one of two people are late in keeping an engagement, one of the two is going to become impatient ; especially if the other one is kept waiting too long.
I was the other one. Punctuality had been a sort of religion with me ever since an old-maid school-teacher, in my home town, had escorted me before the entire class and used a ruler on me, very unfeelingly, for being tardy three times consecutively. I decided then and there I would try to keep all appointments with the school as punctually as possible. When I left school, I carried a similar resolution with my first position, and I've carted it around with me ever since.
When Mary Fuller phoned me, earlier in the day, she had particularly warned me against being late. I was to come to her hotel promptly at seven, and she would be awaiting me in the parlor, just to the right of the entrance. I had promised to obey her instructions, and had faithfully kept my prom
ise to be at the appointed spot at the appointed hour. In fact, I had been studying the golden designs in the expensive tapestry which stretched halfway across the wall of the room for the past fifteen minutes. I had been compelled to make such a close study of it that I began to picture the Japanese gentleman who had made it, and just what condition his nerves were in when he completed the delicate handiwork. It is only at such moments as these that one ever has the opportunity of studying tapestries, wall paper, curtains and ceiling effects, and I dare say that before the object of my visit arrived, I had made a scientific observation of everything within those four walls, from the frescoed ceiling to the wonderful Turkish rug which lay at my feet, and resembled an infuriated dish of chop suey.
Then she came. I knew it was she before I saw her, for there's something about some people which makes their presence felt before you see them. Mary Fuller is such an individual. I have only known two such persons, and the other is Theodore Roosevelt. Theosophists and psychologists call it