get cards to Mrs. Van Derpent's afternoons.
O. B.
But won't the young man get over his fright?
G.
Yes; by-and-by he will meet a girl who will talk to him about architecture—he is an architect—and then he will forget that he is in Society, and will talk with a fluency and a lucidity that will charm the girl who has a soul above five o'clock teas. But do not think that his torture is at an end. Just as he is quoting something from Ruskin, and the girl is drinking it in, Mrs. Van Derpent will drag him off and present him to a giddy young thing who will ask him if he doesn't think golf, Dooley and Harding Davis perfectly lovely, and the young man will again be knocked silly because he has learned none of these games.
O. B.
But is there no escape?
G.
Oh, yes; as soon as he can get his cousin away from the bevy that he is entertaining with infinitesimally small talk he will make his escape, and he will run to a side street and whoop for joy that he is delivered from his thraldom.
O. B.
And will he go there again?
G.
He? Of course not. He has been plunged into Society without being drowned, and he will not go near the water—or tea—again.
(
symbol characters)
IN CENTRAL PARK
IN Central Park, in softened guise
The children's happy, gladsome cries
Blew o'er the meadow's verdant sheen.
High midst the branches all unseen
The squirrel chattered o'er his prize.
In glinting lake and tender skies
I found the color of your eyes,
And took new pleasure of the scene
In Central Park.
And you, my love, all nature-wise,
Found fresh delight and new surprise
In every leaf and blade of green;
And never knew, nor cared, I ween,
That I that day found Paradise
In Central Park!
(symbol characters)
ALWAYS THE SAME
MAUDE—Chappie always looks fresh.
Belle—Yes; Chappie is no hypocrite.
