THE DOUBLE MIRRORS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3188, 12 September 1917, Page 8

THE DOUBLE MIRRORS

OR THE CIRCUMVENTION OF PA t< E (By "Wi,") ii Tho institution of Papa resembles an. Act of Parliament in that it is in tho ii nature of things human to devise ways a and means of flouting, evading, and circumventing tho same. If you ask 0 eighteen-year-old Betty whether this h aiphoriam be true of her male parent, alie a will reply—l'm willing to bot on it—in a the affirmative, and her brother Tom, a aged twenty-one, will tell you that no r sooner was the Anti-Shouting Law a thing of binding force and fearsome penalties than ho shamelessly-broke it, in 1 company with. other k'nuts. Mind, I don't recommend eighteen-year-old daugli- t ters to lout their male parents, o£F r twenty-one-year-old scions of the jeunesso t doree to trample the laws of their coun- < try in this barefaced manner. l? im - ! ply affirm that the itch to do these tilings ] is a human itch, dating back to Adam and Eve. I've got as much right to give ( utftrauco to this profound truth as somo- i body else—l forget whom—once was per- < initted to say: "To err is human; to lor- : give divine." You'll seo it m tho school copybooks. I once had to write that wretched text out live hundred times for putting a piece of orange-peel —— But that is another story. This, stoiy is eminently proper, and has nothing to <10 with orange-poel. Billy had no sooner fallen head oars in love with Betty, and she v.ith him, than they discovered that the man who vrrote something about the course or true love being full of rapids and snags . and twenty-feet drops had been thera 1 himself. The rapids and snags and tiventy-feet drops in the case of tins devoted couple were concentrated, emphasised/intensified, enlarged, and extended I to an. outrageous degree in tho person of f Betty's Pa, a joyless individual who had I forgotten his youth. Ho believed, with ( the sanctimonious conviction ot on® "wao t 'has teen "saved," that children wero born in Sin, but that was no reason why 1 they should be allowed to grow \ip in it, < or die wallowing in it. His wife was a (pa- , tiont anonymity, upon whom long years [ of repression and suppression had set < their mark, but as she doesn.t come into ( the story wo will leavo her in peace, j Pa's life and habits were so regulai ( that the neighbours used to set their ] clocks by his goings and comings, so , you call imagine what the air vas like £ when he turned the corner of his home street ona day an hour earlier, than he should have done, and surprised his , daughter iu the act of kissing a young , """Betty!" he commanded, after glowerin" at the culprits till the narrow in their spines began to freeze, fao home ( "daughter fled asi fast as her wilt ; ing legs would carry her without sacri lice of dignity* ** ' Then he turned to Billy. _ Boj, J® . said, thereby offering an inera,^ b ® ] insult to Twenty-one, "I forbid jcu to speak to my daughter again. • ..And . Pa terminated the proceedings by toning. his heel and ( stamping oft dtter his er '"ofd fooU" C 6aid Billy to himself, as he watched Pa's broaddoft. ear through his gate. Silly old ass. Bettv spent the remainder of the even in" in her room, while below, by the domestic hearth, a m ®B o£ saps o observjs scopo to open a y ift SS A* ?Tare in the habitprogenitors aveiy that -another season-are. apt to lorgei m "atter ' balmed on the minutes afl*3 w l 1 room within aS . » Kiorcle lamp. i?rriif about the size on a Dicyue in litrht came and went in a series 0 ; irregular flashes, to the accompaniment : °!vas'"till° craning his. neck in b&- ; — sire's*''%>« S Pa "Cbo(i-night," said the policeman, and ■ W "Here? D i say!" called Pa, m an agi--1 tated whisper. ~ , i The policeman -retracisd his st»*. - , "What do you make of ttatligM wp there," said Pa, indicating the upper f •window., , said Pa, with extreme i annoyance. „ "How do you mean by > e re's° somebody up tl.«e siting ' up the street..and beheld anhave a trv," said the policeman, minutes, turning first to tue _ ?r ! L£r a *i ter's window.' , ' "Oh!" said thepolicema'n. < Kir 1 ? i • °°" What do you think it was?" persisted \e P S a said Pa, I h °™ P e \\/' IS said the policeman "if you save it, it was something she conld- • make out, and the other >' VceniDg on repeating. i "Yes yes," said Pn, eagerly. i "It was this," said tlie policeman, Ted luotantly: " 'Clear—out—the—old—fox is r Pa?'maiing a dive for his. o „to- "Tho old fox, was itP_ Ha! " m-mhe said, ns ho went up +im "Tho old fox! 3 "Ha 1 " 1"> sai<l ' ns 1,6 strode into 0 daughter's room and marched over to f fhe window. "So tho old fox was look--0 in" at yon, was he? He-was. TMiat 1 were you doing at the window? ho do--0 ra .^vlx—nothing," stammered his " daughter. 1 . . . , , "Whom wbre you signalling to? b "T—X— n-n-nobody," she gasped. "Humph!" ho grunted. 111 take this in the meantime. And he picked 1 up the lamp, took it downstairs, and " lock»d it up. , Further up tho street a young man In another upper story room kicked a bir cvclc lamp under the table, sat down on r the edge of.his bed, and said softly to ' himself :■ "Damn!" c . ' I was privileged to witness the final 3 and complete circumvention ot ra. 1c happened in a tea-shop. In this teashop is a double row of mirrors. Bill} and I went into this tea-shop for morning tea. and sat down at one of the - tables. Ho sat facing the mirror ndja--2 cent to our table, and I sat facing oppo- ■ site. At the table across tho way was . a party of three, father, mother, and. 3 daughter. The daughter had her back to lis, faoing tho mirror' opposite ouis.

Now, these mirrors are so arranged that two people sitting back to back at opposite tables can look at eacli other as if they ware sitting face to face. I had asked Billy twice whether he would take two lumps or one. "You deaf!" I said shortly, looking up.. Billy was grinning into his mirror. "What is it?" lie snapped irritably. "Two lumps or one?" I repeated, staring at him. "What the " "Shut up," he hissed. "I can see her in my mirror. Go on' <iud leave me> alone, can't you." ' . , "You're quite batty, I said, and went on with my tea, Billy placed his elbow on the table, raised his forefinger, and wagged his ami to and fro in dots and dashes. Then he stopped. Looking: across at the other table I saw similar movements at the other table. "What's the game?" I whispered. "Shut up," ho hissed. '11l tell yott later on." ■ , The signals were resumed. Presently the party at the other table rose, and 1 , as they manoeuvred to pass between the* tables the girl pressed cfee up to Billy'schair. X saw the flash of .a white paperas it disappeared into a slflall clenched palm, and the incident closed. / That's about all. Tho paper merely contained certain specific instructions with regard to time and place, )vluch were c_o excellently carried out that Pa wasn't able to be present at the weiring. I was.