THE SLAP FEMININE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2866, 2 September 1916, Page 10

THE SLAP FEMININE

' A COMEDY OF MYSTERY. I shall bold no moro swing doors open for strange ladies.' f have lost my nerve. Yesterday afternoon, in ' tho company of another young man, I entered >an afternoon tea shop—a wellknown and much-frequcnted place. My companion preceded me, and while he proceeded up the room to look for a table', I held the swing door till a lady, accompanied' by a gentleman, had passed out. ' The gentleman went, through first, which was very wrong of him—but that-is a detail. Then came tho lady. She fiad just reached the door when'l observed another lady rise hurriedly -from a table a' little ,w - ay up the room, and come quickly down the aisle.! I. wondered, idly, whether Lady . No. -1 had forgotten her purse, or a parcel, or. something, and as I could not let tho door swing to.- I philosophically hung on. ■-- '■ - .. -

All at once something happened— something so dramatic, so unexpected, that the electricity in the air fairly crackled.-; Lady No. 2 shot out a small and unerring .hand, , and slapped Lady No. 1 on. the face—a sharp, ringing, staccato slap.' , . •; . '

"Don't you. DARE put out .your tonguo at me likfl that!" she exclaimed.

; I would have fled if I could, but tho belligerents were standing right in tbe doorway, and had I released the door, the slaps. I reflected 1 , might have been multiplied. So I hung on, conscious of a gentle perspiration all over, and held my breath for the 1 counter-stroke.

Lady N0.,1 was plainly flabbergasted. Sho was .breathless. It was eminently an occasion for smelling-salts, but lack 7 nig this sheet- anchor of flabbergasted femininity, Lady No. 1 turned to her male escort, who , had returned to tho doorway. '•' .

;"Say something to her," she gasped. 'Alas for Sir Galahad! Ho looked at Lady No. 2, considered the situation, and then, grasping Lady No. 1 by tho arm, evacuated the position'. Lady No. 2 walked briskly back to her table, I, released the door, and the incident was over. - - •

Now, did/'you eyer? The whole incident lasted but a few seconds, and perhaps the only person who-witnessed it was the: luckless wight who, was hanging on.-to the door, and who will spend the rest of his life puzzling over the why and wherefore of that slap. A fearful and terrifying thing is the female vendetta. -

Is all this true? Oh yes, ■every word of it. Date?. August 31. Time? 4.45 p.m. Place? No—that wouldn't ibe fair.—"Wi." >