88
�isn�t this a fat B?�
  Gun�s mistress �Adelle St. Orme� as she
styles herself (after the nomenclature of most of
her class) appears a much cheaper-constructed
and trashier-souled person.  She punctuates
only with dots, spells badly, misuses fine words
(as �preamble� for letter!)  deals in flashy-novel-
like protestations of exaggerated passion alter-
nated with stormy recriminations, sometimes
writing palpably under the influence of liquor.
She is ridiculously ironic about Arnold (George).
She tells Gun that she is �certainly encient�;
that she loves him �better than her life, her mother
or her God,� with much dreary bosh of the same
sort.   She wants cigars, perfume, soap, a bonnet,
a dress, $50, port-wine, �something nice� in
the edible way, an old �pair of pants� for a
poor boy.     She deals in endless mock-humilities
about �the humble writer;� threats of exposure;
of meeting him on Broadway, with exaggerated
�running-shriek� of feminine shrillness pervading
everything.     Her drunken letters are written all
awry, in large, scrawling, highly suggestive style.
Here�s a brothel picture. to conclude. �I am sitting
prop up in bed, with my neck wrap up in hops
and whiskey and my face in meal and whis-
key.�!!!!        Her dressmaker wants to pledge
her dress.    She wants $25 to send to her mother.