Our Heroine and Mr. Round Roundly

On top of her head sat a small cap. It was brown with a faint yellow bow. Underneath the cap, at the peak of the lining, was a pink button. Nobody but her knew about this button, though, because she never took off her cap. She didn’t take her cap off because, as she said, she didn’t feel inclined to do so. People, curious creatures that they are, would often ask her if there was anything they could do that might incline her to remove the cap. No, she would reply, absolutely not. And she meant this. There wasn’t anything anybody could do to make her feel inclined to take off her cap. Or this was what she thought, anyway, prior to meeting Mr. Round Roundly.

Mr. Round Roundly was a proud young literary man. He had brown hair and square, solid teeth. He spoke in clipped but elegant sentences, and was considered to be a very amiable young man.

One day Mr. Round Roundly saw our heroine sitting alone in the middle of the street, atop a stool, wearing, naturally, her brown cap. Thinking it odd that a woman should be sitting atop a stool in the middle of the street, Mr. Round Roundly approached her. Cars buzzed by the two as they sat conversing in the middle of the street, and though many onlookers strained to hear what was being said, nobody could make out much above the roar of the automobiles. The only thing about this interaction that anyone can be certain of is that, after several moments of what seemed like pleasant enough conversation, our heroine removed her cap and stuck it smilingly atop the head of Mr. Round Roundly. A great gasp could be heard above the roar of the cars, and all eye were fixed on the couple. Finally, our heroine hopped down from her stool and locked arms with Mr. Round Roundly, and the two walked carelessly through the traffic and out of the street. They left the stool behind them, and to this day it remains in the middle of the street, a symbol of this inscrutable event.