be! Unconsciously, you know that the atmosphere is distinctive; that
things are different; so many interesting personalities grouped into
such a small place is something most unusual.

Over in the corner is a New York banker; his strong, handsome face
marked with character lines and crowned with white hair: the stamp of
long years of struggle in the financial world. See, he is smiling
across the table at his companion, and his face is almost boyish as he
chats and laughs. Such a companion! I wonder what fate has sent her to
cheer the desert city; a modern Cleopatra, even more beautiful than
she of Egypt: a radiant beauty, this dark-eyed queen of the Orient;
ruby lips and teeth of matched pearls; hair black as midnight, and
fires smoldering in dreamy eyes as if in pools of mystery... Bored in
Reno? How could one be?

This is only a cafe such as you might visit in any other city. One
might see the same banker and the same Oriental beauty in a New York
cafe. But there they would not be nearly so interesting; for such
people to be in Reno means either a domestic comedy, tragedy or
romance. Each one is a puzzle, and one finds oneself intent upon
divining the mystery embodied in these personalities, as they come and
go like shadows on a screen.

Now the waiter comes: there is something unusual about him also; one
can't help noticing his big, powerful form as he bends over the table
to take the order; he is a New York chauffeur working his way free
from a nagging wife, so that he may marry a popular society belle. You
can forgive her, can't you, for admiring his handsome physique; a
Greek god he is in spite of his Irish brogue and bad ear for
grammar.... But then she probably does not hear much of that, and