The Man Was Victorious

"Madam," he said, "will you be good enough to do me a favor?" She sat stift and immovable. Perhaps she had not heard. "My dear madam," he repeated in a louder tone, "may I ask you to do me a favor?" Still there was no reply. The hero was at that moment on his knees before the proud Lady Claire, but the man didn't know it. "Madam," he said again. "Madam!" No response. Then he tapped her on the shoulder gently, calmly. She nevei moved. "Madam," he exclaiined in despair, "are you aware that your hat prevenís me f rom seeing anything on the stage í It is a beautiful hat. I admit. It must have cost as much as twenty,dollars. But it obstructs my view. Don't you know that?" This was uttered in so plaintive a voice that the sphynx would have melted at it. But the woman was dumb and unrufiled. "Those ostrich tips," he pursued, speaking in her very ear, "are magniflcent. I can't blame you for desiring to exhibit them; but I would rathei look at them later on. Jast now I yearn for a glimpse at that scène on the stage. I can hear the pa.ssioaa.te words of the ardent lover, but for the Ufe of me I can't teil whether he is handsome or not. I catch the sound of the throbbing heart of Lady Claire, but I don't even know whether or not her cheeks are rouged. For heaven's sake, madam, have pity on me !" Everybody in the neighborhood heard this touching appeal and was interested in the result. But there was no result. "Madam," he said again, in the tone of one who has taken an irrevocable resolution, "I now, for the last time, politely but flrmly request you to remove your hat. I have paid $1.50 for this seat, and I am guaranteed by the management of this theater a view 'of the performance. There was nothing in the contract, espressed or implied, about the spectacle of a 6 by 9 hat, with ostrich feather trimmings. Once more - I shall not say it again - wil] you take off that infernal hat?" 8he gave no sign that she had heard. "Then madam," he said, "very well. Like your hat, the consequences be on your own head!" He reached under the seat, brought forth a tall silk tile and put it on. Immediately sonie one behind him roared in a voice of thunder: "Take off that hatl" The cry was heard throughout the great auditorium. People jumped in theh seats, turned to see whence the noise came, and then as one man and one woman the entire audience screamed: "Take off that hat!" The woman, she who was the remóte cause of all this uproar, turned pale. To her guilty conscience it seemed that she was the vietim of a conspiracy, the unhappy but the rightful vietim. Her throat contracted, great beads of perspiration stood out upon her forehead, there was a treinbling ha her knees. She feit that a crisis was at hand. Still the audience was howling hke wild beasts and the performance on the stage was quite suspended. Her heart sank. She yielded. She was crushed. Did she take ofï the hat? Not by a jugfuL She left the theater.