nybody who wasn't a suitable
companion for Aggie. There was also a pianola which gave the place a
tone.

There was fire and light in the dining-room at Blodgett's from seven to
nine always, and in the parlour with the pianola on Saturday evening
and all day Sunday. Sometimes, even on week days after supper, J.
Wilkinson would open the door into the darkened room, push away the
pianola and sing topical songs to his own accompaniment until his
stiffened fingers clattered on the keys. Other times he would give
imitations of popular stage celebrities until Blodgett's shouted with
laughter. At all times they appeared to have a great many engagements.
Peter was advised to join this or that organization, and to enter upon
social occasions that unfortunately presented themselves in the light of
occasions to spend money. Apparently there were no dragons tracking the
path of Blodgett's boarders. Miss Havens did better than any of them for
him. She explained to him how to get books from the circulating library,
and let him read hers until he could arrange for a card. She said it was
a pleasure to think there was going to be somebody in the house who was
congenial. It wasn't that she had anything against Miss Thatcher and the
rest of them--they just didn't have the same tastes. She thought a
person ought to spend some of the time improving their minds. Although
the expression was ambiguous, it served as a sort of sedative to the
aching vacuity of the hours which Peter spent away from Siegel Brothers.
He found himself spending as many as possible of them with Miss Havens.
She had a way of making the frivolling talk of the supper table appear a
warrantable substitute for the things that Peter knew, even while he
echoed her phrases, that he wasn't getting. He found himself skidding on
the paths of self-improvement and the obligations of seeing life, along
the edges of desolation. He immersed himself as far as possible in the
atmosphere of Blodgett's in order that he needn't have any time left in
which to consider how far it fell short of what he had come to find. For
this reason he was usually the last at the supper table, but there were
occasions when he found it discreet to slip away as early and quietly as
possible.

It was one evening about two months after his instalment at Blodgett's.
Peter was sitting in his room when he heard them yammering at his door
with so much hilarious insistence that he found himself getting up to
ope