Page:Buttered Side Down.djvu/95

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

BUTTERED SIDE DOWN

dreamed of refusing to allow Gussie to borrow her chamois for a second.

To-night Miss Fink had come on at 10 p.m., which was just two hours later than usual. She knew that she was to work until 6 a.m., which may have accounted for the fact that she displayed very little of what the fans call ginger as she removed her hat and coat and hung them on the hook behind the desk. The prospect of that all-night, eight-hour stretch may have accounted for it, I say. But privately, and entre nous, it didn't. For here you must know of Heiny. Heiny, alas! now Henri.

Until two weeks ago Henri had been Heiny and Miss Fink had been Kid. When Henri had been Heiny he had worked in the kitchen at many things, but always with a loving eye on Miss Gussie Fink. Then one wild night there had been a waiters' strike—wages or hours or tips or all three. In the confusion that followed Heiny had been pressed into service and a chopped coat. He had fitted into both with unbelievable nicety, proving that waiters are born, not made. Those little tricks and foibles that are characteristic of the genus waiter seemed to envelop him as though a fairy garment had fallen

[82]