"What I didn't hear of it myself, Emily told me afterward, for we are
very confidential.
"The whole house was intensely interested in the denouement. Rodney
sat stolidly at his table, crunching his food, gazing reproachfully and
adoringly at Emily's proudly lifted head. Emily, for all her
unconsciousness of physical necessity, lost her appetite, and grew
pale. The mental and physical may have nothing in harmony, as she
says, but certainly her mental upheaval resulting from the lack of
Rodney's demonstrations of love, affected her physical appetite as well
as her complexion.
"When Rodney met Emily in the halls, he made her life miserable.
"'Good morning, Long Sin Coo.' 'Hello, Ghostie.' 'Hey, Spirit, may I
borrow a nip of brandy to make an ethereal cocktail for my imaginary
nightcap?'
"And he opened his transom and took to talking to himself out loud. So
Emily decided to close her transom. It stuck. She asked my
assistance, and we balanced a chair on a box and I held it steady while
she got up to oil the transom. But first she would lose her balance,
then she would drop the oil can, then the box would slip. She couldn't
reach the joints, or whatever you call them, and when she stood on
tiptoe she lost her balance.
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