though I at once demanded the delivery of a verbatim
copy by messenger. Here it is:

"_At grand central safe so far new york lies roaring just beyond sister
and togo tarry with the stuff near cab stand while I send. Love Mrs.
Arthur snooped in vain now for it courage Susan whos afraid dont you be
alonsen fan._"

Phil, the scholar, interpreted the last two verbatim symbols: "_Allons,
enfants!_"

II

SUSAN TO ME

"Sister and I are at the nice old mid-Victorian Brevoort House for three
or four days. Sister is calmly and courageously hunting rooms for
us--or, if not rooms, a room. She hopes for the plural. We like this
quarter of town. It's near enough publishers and things for walking, and
it's not quite so New Yorky as some others. What Sister is trying to
avoid for us is slavery to the Subway, which is awful! But we may have
to fly up beyond Columbia, or even to the Bronx, before we're through.
The hotel objected to Togo, but I descended to hitherto untried depths
of feminine wheedle--and justified them by getting my way. Sister
blushed for me--and herself--but has since felt more confident about my
chances for success in this wickedly opportunist world.

"Better skip this part if you read extracts to Phil; he'll brood. But
perhaps you'd better begin disillusioning him at once, for I'm
discovering dreadful possibilities in my nature--now the Hillhouse
inhibitions seem remote. New York, one sees overnight, is no place for a
romantic idealist--Maltby's phrase, not mine, bless Phil's heart!--but
luckily I've never been one. Birch Street is going to stand me in good
stead down here. New York _is_ Birch Street on a slightly exaggerated
scale; Hillhouse Avenue is something entirely different. Finer too,
perhaps; but the world's future has its roots in New Birch Street. I
began to feel that yesterday during my first hunt for a paying job.

"I've plunged on shop equipment, since Jimmy says, other things being
equal, the factory with the best tools wins--that is, I've bought a
reliable typewriter, and I tackled my first two-finger exercises last
night. The results were dire--mostly interior capitals and extraneous
asterisks. I shan't have patience to take proper five-finger lessons.
Sister vows she's going to master the wretched thing too, so she can
help with copying now and then. There's a gleam in her eye,
dear--wonderful! This is to be her great adventure as well as mine.
'Susan, Sister & Co., Unlicensed Hacks--Pi