Tarquin of Cheapside

Tarquin of Cheapside - one of the stories, which entered in a collection of eleven short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald "Tales of the Jazz Age" (1922).

This short story is told in narrative style. As the story opens the invisible narrator and reader are in the home of Wessel Caster. Wessel is reading The Faerie Queen when he is suddenly disturbed by frantic pounding at his front door. When Wessel opens the door he finds a man exhausted and frightened. The man, called "Soft shoes" by the narrator, quickly explains he is running for his life and needs a place to hide. Although Wessel has his concerns he decides to help Soft shoes into hiding and awaits the pursuers... All the while wondering what has caused this man to flee. Once the pursuers are gone the man demands the stranger explain, which he does in written form that Wessel begins to read aloud as the story comes to a close.