THALIA SELZ
381
galow for coffee and
ghalaktombouriko
and that she'd better in–
vite him soon because no telling when his
patera,
who had
grown too arthritic and sad to twirl his Will Rogers lassoo with
the requisite speed and elan, might be fired and have to move on
to one of the lesser towns on the vaudeville circuit.
Accordingly, Hartford found himself one Sunday afternoon
about three sitting in a tiny parlor, perhaps eight by ten, fur–
nished with: a small organ in an oak case, a Turkish leather
couch and rocker, a glass bordeau lamp decorated with drooping
pyramids of chartreuse grapes, a deluxe talking machine with a
horn as big, Hartford thought, as the open mouth of a hippo–
potamus, a flowered Persian carpet from Sears, and an imported
palm plant, also from Sears. There were other odds and ends to
engage his eyes and his already cramped limbs such as a rope
portieFe, a stereoscope with a set of slides, a fan, several velvet
cushions, and a large framed photograph of Mrs. Nausicaa and
the late Mr. Paleologos on their wedding day. Hartford balanced
a plate of
ghalaktombouriko
on his lap and wondered how to eat
the dense pastry without getting the flaky
fillo
stuck to his nose.
He had already learned several hundred modern Greek words
from Mrs. Nausicaa, however, as though by osmosis, and he fig–
ured he could learn to eat
ghalaktombouriko
almost as easily.
(Chuckle, chuckle) chuckled Mrs. Nausicaa, divining the
question in his mind, and with a lacy napkin embroidered by
herself for the dowry she had brought Mr. Paleologos, she boldly
wiped the tip of Hartford 's adorable neat little Anglo-Saxon
nose, so different from the impress ive and frequently scimitar-
shaped noses of her countrymen.
.
To flick the
fillo
off his nose she had been forced to move
right up next to him on the Turkish leather couch. "'Artford,"
gurgled Mrs. Nausicaa, "you have the sweet nose. I kiss."
Hartford, who was holding the plate of
ghalaktombouriko
with one hand and the handle of the stereoscope with the other,
impulsively dropped the stereoscope upon the Persian carpet
and grabbed a pillow of painted purple velvet bearing a scene of
the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The stereoscope tinkled multi–
tudinously with the sound of its breaking glass intestines.
"Oh my gracious," gasped Hartford, "and I wanted to see
those slides of the Acropolis, too! "
" Ochee!"
commanded Mrs. Nausicaa, her voice becoming
