BITS OF LIFE. 
janitor for the privilege of living in a flat 
with your Art and your Delia. 
Flat-dwellers shall endorse my dictum that 
theirs is the only true happiness. If a home 
is happy, it cannot fit too close. Let the 
dresser collapse and become a billiard-table ; 
let the mantel turn to a rowing machine, 
the escritoire to a spare bedchamber, the 
washstand to an upright piano ; let the four 
walls come together, if they will, so you and 
your Delia are between. But if home be 
the other kind, let it be wide and long ; enter 
you at the Golden Gate, hang your hat on 
very soon of turning out pictures that old 
gentlemen with thin side-whiskers and thick 
pocket-books would sandbag one another in 
his studio for the privilege of buying. Delia 
was to become familiar and then contemp- 
tuous with music, so that when she saw the 
orchestra scats and boxes unsold she could 
have sore throat and lobster in a private 
dining-room and refuse to go on the stage. 
But the best, in my opinion, was the home 
life in the little flat — the ardent, voluble 
chats after the day’s study ; the cosy dinners 
and fresh, light breakfasts ; the interchange 
Hatteras, your cape on Cape Horn, and go out 
by the Labrador. 
Joe was painting in the* class of the great 
M agister - you know his fame. His fees arc 
high, his lessons are light — his high-lights 
have brought him renown. Delia was study- 
ing under Rosenstock — you know his repute 
as .a disturber of the piano keys. 
They were mighty happy as long as their 
money lasted. So is every — but I will 
not be cynical. Their aims were very clear 
and defined Joe was to become capable 
of ambitions — ambitions interwoven each with 
the other's or else inconsiderable — the mutual 
help and inspiration ; and — overlook my 
artlessness — stuffed olives and cheese sand- 
wiches at eleven p.m. 
But after a while Art flagged. It some- 
times does, even if some switchman doesn’t 
flag it. Everything going out and nothing 
coming in, as the vulgarians say. Money was 
lacking to pay Mr. Magister and Herr Rosen- 
stock their prices. When one loves one’s 
Art no service seems too hard. So Delia 
