The Green Hat MICHAEL ARLEN
The Green Hat MICHAEL ARLEN
The Green Hat
by Michael Arlen NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Copyright, 1924, By George H. Doran Company THE GREEN HAT —B— PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA To F. M. ATKINSON, Esquire
CONTENTS
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THE GREEN HAT
Chapter One: THE GREEN HAT
Chapter One
I
IT has occurred to the writer to call this unimportant history The Green Hat because a green hat was the first thing about her that he saw: as also it was, in a way, the last thing about her that he saw. It was bright green, of a sort of felt, and bravely worn: being, no doubt, one of those that women who have many hats affect pour le sport.
I
I saw it for the first time (writes the Author) on the eve of my removal from one residence in London to another; although when I say residence I mean that I was, by the grace of God and at the impulse of my own temerity, removing to somewhat more habitable premises nearby from two rooms and a bathroom above a mean lane in a place called Shepherd’s Market. Not that our lane hadn’t attractions of its own to offer. Our lane was one in which many improbable things were wont to happen, but it somehow seemed inevitable that such things should happen there. But maybe I had better select a few of these things, that you may know the sort of lane ours{12} was. I have seen men arrested there, and I have seen a heavy constable worsted in a fight with a little Jew pickpocket, who was for some time responsible for a rag-shop in our lane. I have seen two butlers fighting in our lane. I have seen a very old
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