The Albany Depot

The Albany Depot

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Title: The Albany Depot A Farce
Author: W. D. Howells
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7364] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 21,
2003]
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ALBANY DEPOT ***

Produced by Eric Eldred

THE ALBANY DEPOT
A FARCE
BY
W. D. HOWELLS
NEW YORK
HARPER AND BROTHERS
1892
Copyright, 1891, by HARPER & BROTHERS

(THE ACTION PASSES IN BOSTON)
_MR. AND MRS. EDWARD ROBERTS; THE CHOREWOMAN_
Mrs. Roberts, with many proofs of an afternoon's shopping in her hands
and arms, appears at the door of the ladies' room, opening from the
public hall, and studies the interior with a searching gaze, which
develops a few suburban shoppers scattered over the settees, with their
bags and packages, and two or three old ladies in the rocking-chairs.
The Chorewoman is going about with a Saturday afternoon pail and
mop, and profiting by the disoccupation of the place in the hour
between the departures of two great expresses, to wipe up the floor. She
passes near the door where Mrs. Roberts is standing, and Mrs. Roberts
appeals to her in the anxiety which her failure to detect the object of her
search has awakened: "Oh, I was just looking for my husband. He was
to meet me here at ten minutes past three; but there don't seem to _be
_any gentlemen."
The Chorewoman: "Mem?"
Mrs. Roberts: "I was just looking for my husband. He was to meet me
here at ten minutes past three; but there don't seem to be any gentlemen.

You haven't happened to notice--"
The Chorewoman: "There's a gentleman over there beyant, readin',
that's just come in. He seemed to be lukun' for somebody." She applies
the mop to the floor close to Mrs. Roberts's skirts.
Mrs. Roberts, bending to the right and to the left, and then, by standing
on tiptoe, catching sight of a hat round a pillar: "Then it's Mr. Roberts,
of course. I'll just go right over to him. Thank you ever so much. Don't
disturb yourself!" She picks her way round the area of damp left by the
mop, and approaches the hat from behind. "It is you, Edward! What a
horrid idea I had! I was just going to touch your hat from behind, for
fun; but I kept myself from it in time."
Roberts, looking up with a dazed air from the magazine in his hand:
"Why, what would have happened?"
Mrs. Roberts: "Oh, you know it mightn't have been you."
Roberts: "But it was I."
Mrs. Roberts: "Yes, I know; and I was perfectly sure of it; you're
always so prompt, and I always wonder at it, such an absent-minded
creature as you are. But you came near spoiling everything by getting
here behind this pillar, and burying yourself in your book that way. If it
hadn't been for my principle of always asking questions, I never should
have found you in the world. But just as I was really beginning to
despair, the Chorewoman came by, and I asked her if she had seen any
gentleman here lately; and she said there was one now, over here, and I
stretched up and saw you. I had such a fright for a moment, not seeing
you; for I left my little plush bag with my purse in it at Stearns's, and
I've got to hurry right back; though I'm afraid they'll be shut when I get
there, Saturday afternoon, this way; but I'm going to rattle at the front
door, and perhaps they'll come--they always stay, some of them, to put
the goods away; and I can tell them I don't want to buy anything, but I
left my