It's Writing Day Again!

And I have what I think might be an interesting activity for us tonight. I'm looking forward to it.

February 5--French Photographer, Portrait of a Photographer in the Studio of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. The dusty wood showed its age sitting squat in the corner of the cluttered shop. David had already passed it but Nell stopped to look at the curious piece of furniture. She bent to try to figure out what it was. There was a bracket on the wooden back and a hole cut in the top of the lower cabinet. "Madame has a good eye," said a voice behind her. She jumped a bit and turned smiling to see who had spoken, thinking it was David teasing her, but it was the tiny old man in a frayed gray sweater who had nodded at them when they entered. "Oh? I was trying to decide what it is." He excused himself and shuffled past her, then he lifted a dusty bottle out of a cardboard box on a chair and fitted it into the bracket. Now Nell could see that the bottle had a spigot on it. The old man settled a stopper with an eagle on it into the opening and slid a copper basin into the hole in the cabinet top. "It is a cabinet a salle de bains, Madame, popular in Paris in the late 19th century." Nell didn't know what to say. "Ah." The old man opened the lower cupboard door. "And here one finds a porcelain receptacle for nighttime emergencies." Nell saw his eyes twinkle in the shaft of dusty sunlight that made its way into their dim corner. "Handy," she said. "It is marked eight hundred dollars," he said, "I could let it go for five." She did like it, Nell thought. "It's not very practical," she said, turning away. "Four fifty?" he said. Nell shook her head. She said, "My husband is a very practical man and this piece has such limited use. Three hundred?" The proprietor sank onto the chair and put his hand on his heart. "You wound me. One exactly like it stood in the studio of Toulouse-Lautrec. I have seen photos." Nell shrugged, shook her head again, and turned to walk away. "You force me into it," the old man said, "three hundred, but you must take it today." Nell slid her hand in her pocket and pulled out three crisp hundred dollar bills. "I'll need a receipt."

Gotta run or I'll be late for work. See you later.
--Barbara