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8

Am already convinced after three days of life in "bachelors quarters" that there's no place like home and no folks like the home folks.  I'm satisfied and the family can't come home too soon to suit me.  Perk and I get along all right, but it's one thing to know a man casually and another to live with him; I'd hate to be Perk's wife, to be perfectly honest with myself.  His good qualities are by far in the majority and I admire them and can learn a lot from Perk, but occasionally he puts on a sort of conceited attitude that does rub me the wrong way.  I think I now appreciate what Johnnie (Walker) once said about Perk being narrow in certain ways--I don't think he's tolerant or broadminded.  But no mistake, he has so many excellent qualities, I don't want to deplore the others.  One should see the best and overlook the worst, and a gentleman lives that way; it's the only way because, goodness knows, we're all so far from perfection in one way or another, it isn't even funny.  So here's to Bachelor Hall and I'm going to do my best to enjoy it and Perk.  May he overlook my faults too!

A couple of days after writing the above, I returned home temporarily to put on a "dinner-poker" I'd had in mind for some time.  Also, it provided a good excuse for leaving Bachelors Hall for a couple of days.  I invited Perk, Gerry Hoddy and Bob Walsh for dinner; Willis Davis, Fred Bauschard and A.E. Smith came in later for poker.  I'd never been much of a cook and most of this dinner came out of a can but I was surprised how good it really was.  As I recall, the main dish was none other than good, old, reliable canned chicken a la king which I fancied up with mushrooms and hardboiled eggs, and it went over big.  Bob Walsh had located some gin and we had some highballs but they didn't seem to quite ring the bell--maybe gin highballs aren't too great a concoction but in Prohibition we weren't inclined to be too choosey.  I lost $2.92 at poker which doesn't sound like much but at that time, was more than I could afford and particularly after dining the boys.  After the party was over, I was a bit disgusted, a big poker session often leaving me that way, particularly after drinking although I'd had only two highballs.  I spent the night at home and it was great to be there if only for a short period.  And although I'd given a lot to have had Willie and Bab returning immediately, I had to face the bitter truth that they'd be away for another three weeks.  The next morning, Sunday, I cleaned up the house, met Perk and Hoddy for dinner downtown, after which we attended the Erie Philharmonic concert, and after that went to the movies--Frederic March in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," according to my diary, "a picture to make one think."  Perk and Hoddy wound up the day by going to dinner at the Macloskies and I guess I had a lonely light supper somewhere in town.  I was well fed up with the Bachelor Life and wondered how in hell I was going to stand it for three weeks more.