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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Teacup Club
-
-Author: Eliza Armstrong
-
-Release Date: December 23, 2015 [EBook #50751]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEACUP CLUB ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Emmy, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-_The_ Teacup Club
-
-    BY
-    ELIZA ARMSTRONG
-
-[Illustration]
-
-    _CHICAGO_
-    WAY AND WILLIAMS
-    1897
-
-
-
-
-    COPYRIGHT
-    WAY AND WILLIAMS
-    1897
-
-
-
-
-NOTE
-
-
-A portion of the matter in this little book originally appeared in _The
-New York Journal_, and is used by the courtesy of W. R. Hearst, Esq.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-    CHAPTER                                                PAGE
-       I THE TEACUP CLUB IS FORMED                            9
-      II THE CLUB DISCUSSES WOMAN IN POLITICS                39
-     III MAN’S REAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN    65
-      IV CONCERNING THE HEROINE OF TO-DAY                    89
-       V THE CLUB SETTLES SOME CURRENCY PROBLEMS            112
-      VI THE PIONEER NEW WOMAN                              136
-     VII WOMAN IN LEGISLATION                               159
-    VIII AN EXECUTIVE MEETING                               185
-      IX ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF POLITICAL POWER            210
-       X WOMAN AS A PARLIAMENTARIAN                         236
-      XI THE CLUB INVESTIGATES THEOSOPHY                    261
-     XII A DISCUSSION AND A SURPRISE                        285
-
-
-
-
-Chapter I
-
-The Teacup Club is Formed
-
-
-“You can never be sure of pleasing a man,” sighed the blue-eyed girl,
-who was calling on her dearest friend; “that is, if you try to please
-him,” she added reflectively.
-
-“I suppose not,” replied the girl with the dimple in her chin, “unless
-you succeed in concealing from him the fact that you are trying to
-please him.”
-
-“H’m; yes, I suppose there is something in that. However, we ought not
-to be hard on the poor things. The whole truth with the sterner sex is
-that they are never really practical. They—”
-
-“How clever you are!” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-admiringly. “Sometimes it does seem a pity that you are to marry Jack,
-instead of studying law, or—theosophy or something like that. Really,
-a very little study would fit you for the bar, but of course Jack—”
-
-“I don’t intend to marry Jack,” said the blue-eyed girl, calmly.
-
-“O, my goodness, does he know that?”
-
-“I don’t know whether he knows that or not; but he does know that I’ve
-broken my engagement with him. I sent back his ring, and—”
-
-“Dear, dear; that ring must have already cost its real value in
-messenger fees alone. Let me see, how many times have you sent—”
-
-“And you may know that I am in earnest when I tell you that I am to
-pour tea for Nell to-morrow, and everybody will comment on its absence.”
-
-“Do you want me to come over and stay with you to-night, dear?” queried
-the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“No, thank you, dear. I can just as well talk it over with you now. Of
-course it was Jack’s fault.”
-
-The girl with the dimple in her chin was silent.
-
-“Well, Emily Marshmallow, I did think that you, of all people, would
-sympathize with me, and—”
-
-“Look here, Dorothy; of course I sympathize with you, but you remember
-when you quarreled with Jack the last time I—”
-
-“I remember the last time that Jack quarreled with me,” replied the
-blue-eyed girl, with dignity.
-
-“Well, I sympathized violently with you, and the consequence was that
-you wouldn’t speak to me for a month after you made up with him!”
-
-“O, of course, if you really do sympathize with me, I—”
-
-“You might know that. But tell me all about it. Is it that you want a
-new ring which is too expensive for anything save a peace offering? Or
-is Edwin coming home on a visit? Or has—”
-
-“Nothing so frivolous, my dear; this is a serious matter. Jack—that is,
-Mr. Bittersweet, joined a new club without even letting me know that
-he meant to do it. I shouldn’t have minded if he had only told of it
-beforehand—”
-
-“Of course not, dear; for then you could have made him give it up!”
-
-“Exactly. Well, when I did find it out, I told him that I plainly saw
-he did not really love me, and that it was lucky I had discovered the
-fact before it was too late!”
-
-“How very original you are!” murmured the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “Go on, dear.”
-
-“Yes, it is all over and I never was so hap—happy in my life! Where is
-my hand—handkerchief? I—I got s—something in my eye on the way here,
-and—”
-
-“Here it is, dear, and let me draw down the window shade, so the light
-will not hurt your poor eye.”
-
-“You needn’t, dear. I saw them coming up the street a minute or two ago
-and all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet thinks he can make
-me jealous by parading up and down with a made-up thing like Frances,
-he is very much mistaken!”
-
-“I suppose you have coaxed Edwin’s sister to write and tell him that
-you have broken with Jack?” queried the girl with the dimple in her
-chin.
-
-“No, I haven’t. I did that last time and he was so unpleasant after we
-made up!”
-
-“Who was unpleasant? Jack?”
-
-“Of course not, goosie. A man is always nicer than usual just after
-making up. No, it was Edwin; he—men are so awfully selfish, you know!
-Just because I was nice to him while I was angry with Jack, he imagined
-I had treated him badly—did you ever hear of such a thing? How did
-he ever expect me to bring Jack to his senses in time for the opera
-season, without a little jealousy as an incentive?”
-
-“Well, you know, men are so awfully vain that he probably thought—”
-
-“That I really liked him? Perhaps he did. I never thought of that.
-Still, badly as he has behaved, I can’t help a kindly feeling for him.
-You see, I had such a lovely new gown for the opera and everybody knew
-that I expected to go often, so—”
-
-“You might even have had to give in and acknowledge that you were
-wrong, but for Edwin!”
-
-“No, dear,” replied the blue-eyed girl, with great dignity. “Never
-that. I really expected to marry Jack, you know, and it would never
-have done to establish such a precedent. How could I ever expect a
-happy married life, if I began it by acknowledging that I could ever be
-in the wrong?”
-
-“Very true, dear. By the way, do you think a peep at my lovely new
-waist would do you any good?”
-
-“You seem to have misunderstood me entirely,” retorted the blue-eyed
-girl, severely, “I am feeling quite happy. Indeed, I don’t know that I
-ever felt happier in my life, unless it was the day upon which I was
-mistaken for my younger sister!”
-
-“But what are you going to do in regard to Jack?”
-
-“Why, Emily Marshmallow, how stupid you are to-day! You seem to
-imagine that I want to be flattered, like a man, by being asked to
-explain things. I told you, didn’t I? that Jack and I quarreled about
-his membership in a new club. Very well, I too, have decided to join a
-club!”
-
-“Humph, that isn’t a bad idea. But what kind of a club? An Ibsen or a
-Browning one, I suppose. I notice that men dislike particularly to have
-us members of really intellectual clubs.”
-
-“Well, I did think of either an Ibsen or a Symphony club, but neither
-of them just seemed to suit me, so—well, the fact is that I’ve decided
-to found a club of my own.”
-
-“But even then you can’t always have it to suit you, because the other
-members—”
-
-“Oh, yes, I shall dear. You see, I’ll make all the—the by-laws and
-resolutions just as I want them, before I invite any one to join the
-club. I think I shall ask Evelyn to be the president, because she is
-married and accustomed already to making somebody do as she wishes.”
-
-“Dear, dear, I’m only afraid that you are too clever to—”
-
-“Succeed? Not quite so bad as that, I hope. Now, you see, the chief
-objection to Jack’s new club was that he wouldn’t tell me anything
-about it. Said he didn’t know just what its purpose was. As if a man
-would join a club without knowing—”
-
-“I begin to see now. You mean to keep the purpose of your own club a
-secret, too?”
-
-“That’s just it, and when Jack hears how nice it is, he’ll find out
-that we are a great deal cleverer than he thinks. I shall make the
-membership for life too, so—”
-
-“But you haven’t even told me the purpose of the club yet.”
-
-“The Advancement of Woman, dear. Jack hates advanced women and when I
-make up with him—”
-
-“But you said a moment ago that you would never—”
-
-“Good gracious, Emily,” cried the blue-eyed girl, hastily, “do stop
-talking a moment and let me get in a word edgewise: I’ve been trying
-for half an hour to get a chance to ask you where the new waist you
-offered to show me, is, and I can’t—”
-
-“Here it is in my wardrobe and isn’t it a dream? You may try it on, if
-you like.”
-
-“Thank you, dear; but no. I care so little for such frivolities, now
-that I have come to enjoy the real intellectual life. Did you ever see
-such darling sleeves? It does seem that a girl who could not be happy
-in them must—”
-
-“Have at least a boil on her chin! Yes, doesn’t it? But really,
-Dorothy, you make me ashamed of caring so much for such vanities. Why,
-those very sleeves cost me two whole nights’ rest!”
-
-“Never mind about that, dear; we can’t all be intellectual. Look here,
-Emily Marshmallow, if you’ll promise never to breathe it as long as you
-live, I’ll tell you the last mean thing that Frances—”
-
-“Oh, do! She has a new gown that would arouse the envy of Dr. Mary
-Walker. All chiffon, spangles, embroidery and—”
-
-“I know. My story has reference to that very gown. You know how very
-mysterious she always is about her new things!”
-
-“M’hm. As if anybody cared to know about them! Do tell me if her waist
-is made—”
-
-“Well, I—you see, it was this way: I knew she was having her new gown
-made at Madame’s, and I accidentally discovered that she was to be
-fitted on Friday at two.”
-
-“Oh, I see. Then, you called upon Frances at one o’clock, thinking that
-she’d take you along, rather than risk offending Madame by being late?”
-
-“No; Frances isn’t afraid of Madame—she doesn’t owe her anything.
-I just happened in at Madame’s at half-past two. They told me she
-was busy, but I said I knew she wouldn’t mind if I stepped into the
-fitting-room for a minute, as I had a letter from Paris and wanted to
-tell her all about the new skirts.”
-
-“Oh, you clever thing!”
-
-“Yes. So in I bounced, and there stood Frances, all in billowy waves of
-turquoise blue and—”
-
-“But I thought her new gown was green and white, with—”
-
-“And you should have seen how sweetly she smiled. So sweetly that I
-knew she was wild with rage!”
-
-“But did you make it right with the Madame? Did—”
-
-“Pretended that I must have left the Paris letter at home, and told her
-I’d fetch it the next day. Then, after a good, long look at Frances, I
-came away and—”
-
-“And ran in to tell all the other girls how her new gown was made?”
-
-“M’hm. Annie first: you know, she hasn’t a bit of originality and
-she said, at once, that she’d have her new one just like it. Then, I
-dropped in at Evelyn’s tea and—”
-
-“Told all the others, too. M’hm.”
-
-“Yes. But what do you think that cat, Frances, had done? She’d been
-there before me and told them all that I had come into the fitting-room
-out of sheer curiosity—I curious, the idea! And the gown she was trying
-on was not her own, after all, she said, but one about which Madame
-had asked her opinion and—”
-
-“Gracious, do you suppose that was the truth?”
-
-“Alas, I know it;” groaned the blue-eyed girl, “it belonged to Jack’s
-sister, Effie! Now, Effie detests Annie and when she sees her in a gown
-which is an exact reproduction of her own, she will—”
-
-“Won’t she, though? Well, my dear, Effie was an unknown quantity
-before, but now you may depend upon one thing—she will use any
-influence she may have with Jack against you.”
-
-“True. And all because of such a silly thing, too! But, then, people
-are so frivolous. Well, you will join my new club, won’t you?”
-
-“Mercy, yes. You had better invite Frances, too; she will tell Effie
-all about it, and the first time Effie is offended with Jack, she will
-tell him, thinking to annoy you both—”
-
-“I shall, though it is hardly necessary, either, for, once started,
-everybody will talk of nothing else. But, whatever you do, don’t tell
-Dick a word about it. Evelyn’s husband is sure to tell him, anyhow, and
-then he can’t say that women never keep secrets.”
-
-“What utter nonsense. Of course women can keep secrets! Why, I once
-knew a girl intimately for two whole years and in all that time she
-never told me that her curls were false. I wouldn’t have known it to
-this day, if I hadn’t walked into her room one day when she had washed
-them and hung them up to dry. I’ve told that story to a dozen men, and
-I’ve never yet found one of them magnanimous enough to acknowledge that
-it proved my point!”
-
-“You can’t prove anything to a man, dear, unless he wants it proved.
-Well, I must go. You’ll not fail me at the first meeting of the Teacup
-club, then?”
-
-“The Teacup club,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-disappointedly, “Why I thought it was to be a really intellectual club,
-and—”
-
-“So it is. But, you know, real merit is always modest. If a lot of men
-get up such a thing, they give it a six-syllabled name; but we wish to
-evade, rather than seek, notoriety and, besides, as I said before, once
-we get it started, the whole town will talk of nothing else!”
-
-It fell upon a bright sunshiny day, and the meeting for the
-organization of the Teacup club was well attended.
-
-“And all the girls are wearing their newest gowns, too,” whispered the
-blue-eyed girl to the girl with the dimple in her chin, “that shows
-that they appreciate the importance of the undertaking.”
-
-“And what an awfully becoming hat you are wearing,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin. “If I owned such a milliner’s dream I should
-not mind anything that could happen to me.”
-
-“Which means that you have something unpleasant to tell me,” said the
-blue-eyed girl. “You need not be uneasy,” she added, “I’ll not move a
-muscle, for Frances is looking this way.”
-
-“Well, then, I heard her tell Nell that Jack comes to her almost every
-day for sympathy and—”
-
-“Humph. When a man says ‘sympathy’ he means flattery! Is that all?”
-
-“All? Why I thought—”
-
-“Yes, dear. You see, I thought perhaps you had stronger proof than her
-own assertion. Why, Frances, dear, how well you are looking to-day! I
-have not seen you for such an age that I thought you must be out of
-town.”
-
-“Has it seemed so long to you, dear?” returned the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Now, to me the days go so swiftly that, as I sometimes tell Ja—Mr.
-Bittersweet, I mean—I often forget whether it is Saturday or Monday!”
-
-“So you have seen the poor fellow, have you?” returned the blue-eyed
-girl, with an angelic smile; “it is so good of you to console him. But,
-indeed, you are always good about such things and so modest about it,
-too, that but for the men themselves, we should never know how hard
-you work just to induce them to come and be comforted!”
-
-“I—why,—I—” stammered the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Yes, indeed, I was defending you only the other day. I was quite angry
-with Marion for saying that your house should be called ‘An Asylum for
-the Rejected.’ I was so indignant that I just told her that, for my
-part, I thought we all ought to be grateful to you for consoling the
-poor fellows and helping to keep them out of mischief when they are
-feeling so badly. I reminded her, too, that you must do it out of pure
-philanthropy—for you never seem to get anything out of it. Really, I
-never saw you looking quite so well; you have such a fine color and—oh,
-here is Evelyn, at last, and we can call the meeting to order!”
-
-“Why, Evelyn is wearing her old gown,” cried the girl with the classic
-profile, “I call that downright mean! I had thought I could get such a
-good chance to study the draping of it while she was on the platform.”
-
-“Perhaps, that is why she didn’t wear it,” returned the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “Mercy, is it me they are calling to order? Why, didn’t you
-tell me before; I—”
-
-“Dear me, girls,” the little woman on the platform was saying, “I don’t
-know that I ought to be president. It seems to me that we should have
-an election or something.”
-
-“That is not necessary,” said the blue-eyed girl, “don’t you remember?
-I asked you to be president, in the first place. But if you’d rather,
-I’ll move that you are to be the chief officer, and Emily, here, will
-second the motion, won’t you Emily?”
-
-“Why, yes of course,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“That does seem more regular,” said the little woman on the platform,
-in a relieved tone. “I wonder if I ought to make a speech of
-acceptance?”
-
-“Not unless you choose;” said the blue-eyed girl, “harmony is the
-chief study of this club, and—”
-
-“Oh, if it is to be a club for the study of harmony, I can’t join;”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses, “I don’t know a thing about music
-and—”
-
-“I’m afraid you have not been paying attention,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, severely. “The club is organized for the advancement of woman and
-I don’t know a girl anywhere who would be more benefited by it than
-yourself. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose we ought to assess dues, or
-something. I know that Ja—I mean a man I know—is always talking about
-dues at his clubs.”
-
-“Oh, but this is to be entirely different from a man’s club,” said the
-president, “and, then, what is the use of assessing dues, anyhow?”
-
-“We might give the money to charity,” suggested the girl with the
-classic profile.
-
-“Oh, well, if we did that, why not let each of us give what she wants
-to charity and be done with it?” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Yes, of course,” said the president; “dear me, I had no idea that
-it was so easy to organize a club, or I’d have done it long ago. It
-isn’t half as much trouble as giving a tea and you don’t run any risk
-of offending people by forgetting to invite them and then having to
-convince them that the card was lost in the mails.”
-
-“Talking of teas,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I—”
-
-“Pardon me,” said the president, gently, “but if this is a club for the
-advancement of woman, ought we to talk about teas?”
-
-“But you began it, yourself,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I
-only—”
-
-“I think I said merely that the club is ever so much nicer than a tea,”
-said the president.
-
-“And so it is,” said the blue-eyed girl, “though, by the way, Nell’s
-last one was lovely—there were enough men present to amuse us, whereas—”
-
-“There are usually so few that they have to be amused, lest they get
-lonesome,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh, girls, have you heard
-that Clarissa—”
-
-“Oughtn’t we to be attending to business,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “instead of talking about Clarissa? I saw her myself only an hour
-ago and if there was anything exciting to tell, she would have—”
-
-“But this _has_ a connection with the club,” insisted the brown-eyed
-blonde. “She wants to become a member!”
-
-“She just can’t be anything of the kind,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-“the idea! A girl whose reputation for intellectuality rests upon the
-careless combing of her hair and a habit of wearing hats six months
-behind the mode.”
-
-“But how can we get out of it, if she says she wants to join?” said the
-president, with an anxious air.
-
-“Tell her that one of the rules of the club is that no person over the
-age of twenty-two years can become a member,” suggested the girl with
-the dimple in her chin; “she celebrated her twenty-third birthday
-about a week ago, you remember.”
-
-“But it isn’t one of the rules,” objected the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Then, we can make it a rule, right now,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-calmly. “I know just how it would be if we let Clarissa into the
-club—she’d insist upon having everything her own way right along. I
-hate such selfishness myself, and—”
-
-“So do I,” said the president; “by the way, oughtn’t we to make a note
-of that rule, at once?”
-
-“What would be the use of that?” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, “we have all heard it. Oh, girls, I already see the benefit
-we are to derive from the influence of this club! Not a single soul
-has said a word in regard to Clarissa’s pretentions to being only
-twenty-three!”
-
-“Why, that’s true,” cried the president, “and very considerate of us it
-was, too, when we all know how ridiculous it is!”
-
-“Oh, girls, I must tell you something,” cried the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “I went with Clarissa to a reception given by her literary
-club the other evening and it was simply awful!”
-
-“Not a decent toilet in the room, of course,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde.
-
-“Oh, I didn’t expect that—I knew it was a culture club. It seems that
-there had been an awful time over the programme. Some of the members
-wanted to have an Ibsen evening, while others declared for Browning.
-Finally, they decided upon a mixed programme, selections from them
-both, you know. I did not know that when I went.”
-
-“I should think not,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “otherwise,
-you—”
-
-“Would gladly have accepted the invitation—and been suddenly taken ill
-on the appointed day, of course. Well, when the papers and selections
-were being read, I studied my programme to keep my eyes from those
-appalling coiffures, and when I saw the word ‘Music’ on it, I felt like
-a person who has found an oasis in a desert!”
-
-“And had you?” queried the president, who had left the platform and
-joined the group about the narrator.
-
-“No. They played something from Wagner!”
-
-“And you?” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Oh, I was in a comatose condition by that time. Nothing mattered.
-After the interminable programme they served refreshments.”
-
-“You felt better then?” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“No, I didn’t. They had tea and wafers! Tea and wafers after Ibsen,
-Browning and Wagner! And then Clarissa vanished and I couldn’t get
-away. The people present were all very distinguished; one of the
-members had written an epic poem which would have appeared in Harper’s
-if it had not been lost in the mails; one of them had invented a
-rational dress for men and another had once been asked to deliver a
-lecture upon ‘Thought Transference’ before a mothers’ meeting at an
-orphan asylum!”
-
-“My goodness, no wonder you wanted to go home!” cried the brown-eyed
-blonde.
-
-“I did—badly. By and by, while I was wandering about the rooms in
-search of Clarissa, I found a woman who looked as unhappy as I felt. I
-was afraid to speak to her, lest she be somebody very remarkable, but
-she asked me, timidly, if I was the lady who had actually worn a rainy
-day dress, in public. I assured her that I was not, and after that we
-got on famously.”
-
-“But who was she?” the president asked.
-
-“I don’t know her name, but after we had discussed Ibsen and Browning
-a little, I asked what she had done. She replied, modestly: ‘Oh, I am
-the person who always read the Woman’s page in the daily papers!’ After
-that, we talked just like ordinary people, and I didn’t see Clarissa
-when she came to look for me!”
-
-“My goodness, girls, we really ought not to laugh so,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose, “because this club is devoted to the advancement
-of woman, and—”
-
-“That is entirely different,” said the president. “Did Ibsen, Browning
-or Wagner ever do anything for the advancement of woman, I’d like to
-know?”
-
-“Of course not,” said the blue-eyed girl, promptly. “How very absurd!”
-
-“Besides, our club is laid out on entirely new lines,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Yes, isn’t it?” returned the president; “Oh, girls, I quite forgot to
-tell you that we shall have to pay rent for this room if we hold our
-meetings here, and we haven’t made any provision for paying it.”
-
-“But what is the use of making provision, when it isn’t due yet?” asked
-the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Why—er, that is very true,” said the president; “I only wish I was as
-good a business woman as you!”
-
-“Oh, I often feel that I have a great deal to learn yet,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, modestly. “By the way, Evelyn, what did your husband
-say when you told him that you had decided to join a club?”
-
-“He said—Oh, girls, I’m almost ashamed to tell you, but then Tom is
-only a man, after all. He said: ‘Then, may the Lord have mercy upon my
-wretched digestion!’”
-
-“As if women had nothing to do but cook and keep house! when lots of
-us know nothing about either of them,” said the girl with the classic
-profile, indignantly. “Girls, I wonder why it is that if a woman
-studies law or anything like that, somebody is sure to say that she is
-going outside of her sphere, while nobody thinks anything of the kind
-if a man becomes a chef or invents a food for infants?”
-
-“Oh, if you expect logic from a man!” said the president, shrugging her
-shoulders; “however, I expected it, too, before I was married. I know
-better now.”
-
-“Dear, dear, isn’t the Advancement of Woman delightful?” cried the
-girl with the eyeglasses. “After this, when we want to know anything,
-we needn’t go to the trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or the
-encyclopædia; we can just discuss it at the club, and—”
-
-“Why do you bother with those horrid books? I never do,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin. “They are so heavy and always dusty, too.
-Now, I just ask the nearest man what I want to know. If he happens to
-be wrong, I can always cite my authority and it gives the next man a
-double pleasure in setting me right.”
-
-“What a clever thing you are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “you
-always make me think of what somebody said about er—Juliet, I think:
-‘To know her is a liberal education.’”
-
-“Oh, that is nothing. Why, I know a Vassar girl who has studied Greek
-and all that sort of thing and she invariably misspells several simple
-words whenever she writes to a man, so he may think himself so much
-cleverer than her and—”
-
-“And I know a girl who asks every man, the first time she meets him, to
-explain the Australian ballot system. You see, it is a thing they all
-have to know, so they—”
-
-“Goodness me, I should think she would get awfully tired of the
-answer,” said the president.
-
-“She does. She told me not long ago that she really must invent a new
-stock question, for she could hardly keep from yawning now, while—”
-
-“Speaking of yawning,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde, “Teddy Crœsus
-doesn’t send Molly flowers or bonbons any more!”
-
-“I don’t see what that has to do with yawning,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose.
-
-“More than you may think, dear. You know Molly always asks a man if a
-premonition of danger has ever been the means of saving his life. She
-doesn’t ask it the first time they meet, but saves it for some special
-occasion. Well, one evening at a reception, Teddy seemed disposed to
-talk to Florence too much, and Molly asked him the question then,
-because she knew—”
-
-“That he would stay with her as long as she allowed him to talk about
-himself! Yes, of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“M’hm. Well, he was in the midst of a long story about how he once
-escaped from being in a railroad wreck by missing his train. Molly was
-listening with breathless interest when she saw Florence stop within
-two feet of her. She couldn’t resist one glance of triumph and that
-glance was her ruin.”
-
-“It was? Did he look up just then and remember Flo—”
-
-“No, dear. But just as Molly looked at her, she gave a mighty yawn.
-Well, you know, yawning is contagious and Molly had been at a ball the
-night before, so she yawned, too. Teddy’s eyes were on her and—”
-
-“And now Florence gets his violets and bonbons! Well, isn’t that a
-story without a moral?” cried the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“It certainly is,” groaned the president. “Well, girls, I fear we must
-adjourn, though it is hard to break up such an intellectual talk. For
-my part, I shall go back to the petty cares of life with renewed
-energy after a breath of air from a higher plane.”
-
-“I, too,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I feel now as if petty
-gossip and scandal could never interest me again.”
-
-The president and the blue-eyed girl had walked four blocks, when the
-former suddenly stopped.
-
-“There, I knew I had forgotten something,” she cried; “at first, I
-thought it was only to order dinner, but now I remember that I did not
-suggest a topic for discussion at our next meeting!”
-
-“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,” said the blue-eyed girl, “nobody
-would have had time to prepare anything for it, if you had; there is so
-much going on in our set this week, and—”
-
-“Very true,” replied the president, “and all the members are so much
-interested in intellectual topics, anyhow, that they are quite prepared
-to discuss them extemporaneously as we did to-day.”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter II
-
-The Club Discusses Woman in Politics
-
-
-The Teacup club was called to order fifteen minutes before the
-appointed time at its second meeting. “We are all here, you know, and
-there is no use in waiting,” observed the president, as she rapped for
-order with a jeweled hatpin.
-
-“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, who had been reading
-up in parliamentary usage.
-
-“I am so glad to see you all here,” said the president, “I was afraid
-that Effie’s luncheon might—”
-
-“Keep some of us away? Not from this club,” said the girl with the
-classic profile. “I believe she chose the day just on purpose to break
-up the meeting, so I declined her invitation.”
-
-“Did you?” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I didn’t. Effie is not
-popular enough to offer her guests badly cooked food, so I went and
-excused myself as soon as we rose from the table on the plea that I
-should be late for the club if I remained longer.”
-
-“I wish I might have seen Effie when you said that,” remarked the girl
-with the eyeglasses. “However, your turn came when the door closed
-after you.”
-
-“I think not, dear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, calmly, “Effie
-is not yet distinctly engaged to my cousin Clarence, so—”
-
-“She has to be on decent terms with his family! I might have thought of
-that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“If they had been married, now of course I shouldn’t have dared to do
-it, but—”
-
-“I should think not. Oh, girls, speaking of what happens after the door
-closes, makes me think of what happened to Effie herself once. It was
-just after the affair with Teddy Crœsus, you know.”
-
-“The time she thought to make people believe she was engaged to him,
-and took him to dine with her grandmother—”
-
-“And her grandmother failed to understand the situation and
-congratulated them! Indeed, I do,” cried the girl with the Roman nose,
-“although, on account of being her dearest friend, I failed to hear it
-until two days after everybody else had.”
-
-“Well, you know she went to a breakfast at Nell’s a few days after
-that,” went on the girl with the eyeglasses, “and left early. As she
-reached the corner, she remembered a message for Nell and went back to
-deliver it. She burst into the room unannounced and found all the girls
-talking at once.”
-
-“About her, of course! What did—”
-
-“Yes. Any other girl would have known that, but Effie said: ‘Oh, girls,
-do tell me all about it; what has happened?’”
-
-“Well?”
-
-“And it was so sudden that not one of them could think of a thing to
-say until she had flounced out in a rage!”
-
-“The moral is: Never go back after once saying good-by,” said the
-president.
-
-“True,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “by the way, Dorothy, why weren’t
-you at Effie’s to-day?”
-
-“I fancy my invitation was lost in the mail,” replied the blue-eyed
-girl. “I shall mention it to Effie as soon as I see her, so she will
-not feel that I’ve slighted her intentionally. Why, Frances, dear, did
-those mean things let you sit all through luncheon with the end of
-your, ah—detachable hair showing and a dab of powder on your nose? How
-mean and envious some people are!”
-
-“I—I think it is cooler over on the other side,” panted the brown-eyed
-blonde, “and besides I must see Emily a minute.”
-
-“Why, Dorothy, you must have just heard something awfully nice, you
-look so happy and smiling,” said the girl with the classic profile,
-“but really this delightful club is making us all amiable.”
-
-“Yes, isn’t it?” said the blue-eyed girl, “I couldn’t be really mean to
-anybody now, if I tried.”
-
-“Excuse me for interrupting you, girls,” said the president, “but I
-want to announce our topic for discussion, and if I don’t do it at once
-I may forget it. Suppose we choose “Woman as a Political Factor?” That
-is a broad enough field even for us, and—”
-
-“So it is,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Well, I know one
-thing—whenever a woman really knows what she wants in a political line,
-she gets it.”
-
-“She does—and has ever since Eve held that first caucus with the
-serpent in the garden,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose, who had been
-furtively consulting her book on parliamentary usage. “Oh, girls, have
-you heard that the man Nell expects to marry is a politician?”
-
-“No; but it seems a very suitable match,” said the president, “for I
-don’t know a girl anywhere who can shake hands as gracefully as she
-does.”
-
-“Dear me, Evelyn, how generous you are,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “I believe you could find something nice to say about
-everybody.”
-
-“I really believe I could,” said the president, modestly, “and, after
-all, it is easy enough, for if you don’t like the subject of your
-remarks, you can always say it in such a tone that it does more harm
-than good.”
-
-“You are so just,” sighed the girl with the classic profile, “and yet,
-men always declare there is no real fellowship among women!”
-
-“They confuse their own wish with the true state of affairs,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “They know that one woman is often
-more than a match for the whole male sex and when a number of women
-band together they—”
-
-“Usually get more than they want,” said the president. “I often wonder,
-though, why it is always so much easier to convince other men that you
-are in the right than it is to persuade the men of your own family?”
-
-“Perhaps we put it in a more flattering way to strangers,” suggested
-the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we just can’t help it, though,
-for we can’t always be—”
-
-“Looking up?” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Of course not—if we
-were our necks would grow so stiff that—”
-
-“We could never see our own boots; besides, we would be such frights
-that no man would look at us and so—”
-
-“It would do no good in the end,” finished the blue-eyed girl. “Still,
-I sometimes fancy, after all, that it might be well to be as nice to
-papa and the boys as I am to the men I dance with!”
-
-“My goodness,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we must be
-getting into metaphysics now! I’m not quite sure as to what metaphysics
-may be, so I always conclude that everything I don’t understand must—”
-
-“Be metaphysics? Do you? For my part, I always confuse metaphysics with
-hydraulics, though there is some difference between them I know,” said
-the brown-eyed blonde. “Let us ask Evelyn to explain them right now.
-She—”
-
-“Some other time, dear;” said the president, hastily. “You know we are
-discussing Woman in Politics to-day and—”
-
-“It would be unparliamentary to discuss anything else,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose.
-
-The president looked at her gratefully.
-
-“What a logical mind you have, dear,” she said. “I only wish you could
-be with me sometimes when Tom comes home late from his club. I know
-that there are all sorts of flaws in the stories he tells me, but
-somehow I never find them until after he has given me money and I’ve
-kissed him and made up.”
-
-“What a pity,” sighed the girl with the Roman nose, “for if you found
-out the real flimsiness of his stories sooner, you could get more
-money.”
-
-“Oh, dear, so I could,” wailed the president, “it is an awful thing to
-have a husband and not a logical mind!”
-
-“So it is,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “but, Evelyn, don’t
-tell anybody your opinion of me, for if you do, it may end in my having
-a logical mind and no husband, which is worse!”
-
-“Oh, isn’t this beautiful!” cried the girl with the eyeglasses,
-suddenly. “Really, girls, I am so stupid—that is not stupid as compared
-to a man, of course, but to the rest of you—that I wonder you allow me
-to belong to the club!” and there were tears in her eyes as she spoke.
-
-The president came down from the platform and kissed her.
-
-“Stupid! the idea of a girl with such a genius for hairdressing being
-stupid,” she cried.
-
-“And that girl a chafing-dish cook whose Welsh rarebits are sometimes
-successful, too!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Oh! speaking of chafing-dish cookery,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “You know that Annie used to be engaged to Eustace, don’t
-you?”
-
-“Yes. But what has that to do with chafing-dish cookery?” said the girl
-with the Roman nose. “Girls, I have the loveliest recipe for making—”
-
-“It has a great deal to do with it. When he married Claire, Annie just
-smiled and selected a chafing-dish as a wedding present. She knew that
-Eustace was a confirmed dyspeptic and that Claire’s hands are so pretty
-that she could not possibly resist an opportunity to display them, so
-she would cook all sorts of dishes and—”
-
-“By the way, I hear that they have agreed to separate,” said the
-president. “I met Claire on the way to the manicure the other day. I
-wonder where Eustace is?”
-
-“He is in a sanitarium,” replied the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-“the doctor thinks he will have to be taken into court on a stretcher
-when the divorce proceedings come up!”
-
-“And yet you told me the other day that Annie had no originality; I’ve
-learned this since then,” whispered the girl with the dimple in her
-chin to the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“I only meant in the matter of gowns, dear,” was the apologetic reply.
-“By the way, Frances seems not quite herself, to-day.”
-
-“I’ve noticed that. I fancied you might have said something to her
-which—”
-
-“Oh, never; why, I consider Frances one of my dearest friends—”
-
-“I know that, dear. But what is the use of a friend, if you can’t be
-disagreeable to her sometimes?”
-
-“True. I sometimes think it is one reason that married women keep their
-friends longer. They have husbands to—”
-
-“Act as lightning rods and carry off their displeasure! Yes; it must
-really be quite a convenience.”
-
-“Very likely. Don’t you feel, after all, that Jack—”
-
-“Jack? Oh, I suppose you mean Mr. Bittersweet! No, I don’t feel any
-such thing, Emily Marshmallow, and you are no friend of mine if you
-champion him after the way he has behaved to me!”
-
-“I—I was only going to mention that he had resigned from that new club.
-He told me so himself.”
-
-“Oh, he has, has he? Well, isn’t that just like a man? And after he had
-paid all his dues for a year in advance, too, and gotten nothing out of
-it!”
-
-“Perhaps he—he did it hoping to please you, dear.”
-
-“His actions are perfectly indifferent to me, I assure you. Besides, if
-I made up with him to-morrow, Frances would always think I was jealous.
-I jealous of her—the idea! And, oh, Emily, the way he—he flirts with
-that girl is enough to b—break my heart!”
-
-“If you two girls have anything interesting to say, I wish you would
-say it aloud,” broke in the president. “Of course I am not curious, but
-some of the others may—”
-
-“Nothing at all interesting,” said the blue-eyed girl, promptly; “I—I
-was just telling Emily that this club seems the one thing needed to
-fill my cup of happiness to overflowing!”
-
-“And mine!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “By the way, isn’t it
-too provoking that curls are coming in again, just as veils are going
-out!”
-
-“And just at the windiest season of the year, too,” wailed the
-brown-eyed blonde. “Really, I often think that the fashions are
-invented by men—they are so contrary!”
-
-“Pardon me,” said the president, “I did not quite catch what you were
-saying, because Emily and Marion were both talking at the same time.
-It seems to me that since I have been married, I can’t follow even two
-conversations simultaneously, as I used.”
-
-“Speaking of that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “who do you tell
-your secrets to now that you are married?”
-
-“Why, I’ve hit on a splendid plan,” cried the president, “when I feel
-that I must just tell a secret or die—and I often feel that way—I wait
-until Tom is asleep and repeat the whole story in his ear. It relieves
-my mind and does no harm.”
-
-“Don’t be too sure of that,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“My sister Helen doesn’t agree with you at all. You mentioned it to
-her the other day and she thought it clever, and resolved to emulate
-your wisdom, so she tried it on her husband, and he wasn’t asleep, only
-pretending.”
-
-“But I always test my husband with a question or two, first,” said the
-president.
-
-“So did Helen. She asked him if he could fail to see how much she
-needed a new bonnet and wanted to know how much his share of the alumni
-banquet amounted to. He only snored in reply, and of course she thought
-she was safe and repeated the secret.”
-
-“With the result?” queried the blue-eyed girl, who was listening,
-breathless.
-
-“That it was all over his club the next day,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “It would not have made any difference,” she added,
-soberly, “only the secret was a rather clever trick I had played on
-Dick a few days before—and he belongs to the same club!”
-
-“And yet they say a man can keep a secret!” said the girl with the
-Roman nose.
-
-“Who says so?” queried the girl with the eyeglasses. “Other men? Oh! I
-didn’t know but that you had heard some woman say so.”
-
-“Not unless a man was listening, dear, and that man a person whom—”
-
-“She wished to flatter immensely!”
-
-“Yes. Or who happened to know some of her own secrets! Girls, I’ve been
-wondering what on earth Annie sees in that horrid Fred Van Stupid? Now,
-I can understand the interest a girl takes in a brainless man who has a
-great deal of money, because then—”
-
-“He is exposed to so many temptations and her influence is sure to do
-him good,” finished the girl with the dimple in her chin, “for my part,
-I always let Ned Goldie come to see me oftener than usual during Lent.
-I feel that I am really doing some good and—”
-
-“Violets are an absolute necessity then and they are so dear that very
-few men can afford to present them in quantities.”
-
-“Oh, of course I let him bring me flowers if he wants to—it is so much
-better for him to spend his money in that way than to lose it at poker,
-that I feel quite a missionary.”
-
-“H’m; I don’t know about that, dear, though it’s very lovely of you to
-feel so,” sighed the president, “the fact is, that you are actually
-encroaching on what is really my violet money. Ned will play poker with
-my husband at the club at other seasons of the year, when he is not
-allowed to see much of you. He always loses and I make Tom divide his
-winnings with me, so—”
-
-There was a look of high resolve upon the face of the girl with the
-dimple in her chin.
-
-“After this, I shall make him bring me twice as many, so I can divide
-with you,” she said, sweetly. “Oh, no, don’t thank me; I do so love to
-feel that I am doing some good in the world and I do so disapprove of
-games of chance!”
-
-“You haven’t made up your mind as to whether you will accept him or
-not, have you?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Not yet, dear. His chances and Dick’s are about even, at present.
-Of course he doesn’t know that, though; I couldn’t exert such a good
-influence over him, if he was sure one way or the other.”
-
-“True,” sighed the president. “Oh, girls, I don’t know why men are so
-much more willing to be influenced for good before they are married
-than after. You may be sure of one thing though, Emily; he will say
-horrid things about you, if you finally do refuse him.”
-
-“No doubt,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “but when one
-tries to do good in this world, one can not begin to count the cost.”
-
-“Oh, Emily Marshmallow, what an angel you are!” cried the blue-eyed
-girl, kissing her. “You are always so busy doing good to others, that
-you never seem to give yourself a thought!”
-
-The brown-eyed blonde had by this time quite recovered her equanimity
-and was chatting, in low tones, with the girl who wore the eyeglasses.
-
-“Poor, dear Dorothy is looking rather ill, isn’t she?” she remarked,
-after a while.
-
-“Why, I hadn’t noticed it before, but now that you speak of it, she
-does. However, she can’t expect to look young always. By the way, I
-hear that she has quarreled with Jack Bittersweet again.”
-
-“Has she seen him lately? I didn’t know that she had,” returned the
-brown-eyed blonde, smiling affectionately into the mirror.
-
-“Your hair is looking lovely to-day,” returned the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “Look here, Frances, do, like a dear, tell me all about the
-quarrel. You know all about it, of course, and I’ll not tell a soul.
-You know how well I can keep a secret and, besides, you owe it to me,
-for you wouldn’t have known a thing about Fred and Clarissa but for me!”
-
-“But I hadn’t a thing to do about the quarrel, oh, really now I hadn’t.
-Of course, people think it was all on my account but—why, I was in
-Omaha when I heard of it.”
-
-“By the way you came back from Omaha earlier than you expected, didn’t
-you?”
-
-“I—no; that is only a week earlier. How well Jack looks, doesn’t he?
-And what a flow of spirits he has.”
-
-“Is it possible? Now, Effie says that he is as cross as a bear. But,
-then, Effie is his sister, so—”
-
-“What she says is of no consequence. Well, since you know so much
-already, I may as well tell you the rest. I fear that it is Dorothy’s
-insane jealousy of me which made the trouble. Of course I have not a
-spark of vanity, but I can’t help seeing—”
-
-“But I heard that the quarrel was over Jack’s membership in a new club.”
-
-“That might have been, dear, but people that are engaged don’t always
-quarrel over the real bone of contention. Of course, I only hope I
-really had nothing to do with it; I have so many such things on my
-conscience already that I don’t want any more,” and she sighed softly.
-
-“Yes, but tell me about the quarrel, do.”
-
-“Well—er—the fact is that Jack hasn’t said a word to me about it,
-which makes me quite sure that I am the cause of it, unwilling as I am
-to think it.”
-
-“Then, you really don’t know any of the facts?” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “Excuse me now, dear, I see Emily beckoning me; she wants
-to ask me about a new seamstress I’ve discovered. Frances doesn’t know
-a bit more than we do,” she whispered to the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “Jack hasn’t told her a thing, so he evidently still cares
-for Dorothy, and she—”
-
-“That’s just it,” wailed the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I’d
-have succeeded in making it up long ago, if they didn’t care quite so
-much!”
-
-“Oh, dear,” said the president, “I am afraid that I am awfully stupid
-to-day, but the fact is that—”
-
-“By the way, I heard that you slept at a hotel last night, Evelyn,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose, “how on earth did that happen?”
-
-“It was all Tom’s fault,” returned the president, in an aggrieved
-tone, “only he, being a man, will not admit the fact. You see, he
-didn’t want to go to the reception at all, so he—”
-
-“But, Nell said she met him in the street and gave him a verbal
-invitation, which he accepted with effusion.”
-
-“Pshaw, if Nell knew my husband as well as I do, she’d be aware that
-the more affably he accepts an invitation, the more determined he is to
-escape by some plausible excuse at the last moment. He says that people
-always accept your regrets as genuine under such circumstances.”
-
-“Thank you for telling me that,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “My great aunt gives whist parties sometimes and, as she has
-a lot of lovely old lace and china and nobody in particular to leave
-it to, I don’t like to hurt her feelings by refusing her invitations
-outright. On the other hand, if I accept and happen to be placed at the
-table with her, I know I shall not receive so much as a cracked saucer
-in her will!”
-
-“But you and Tom did go to the reception, I know, for I saw you
-there,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “how did you manage it?”
-
-“To make him go? Oh, that was easy enough. I merely said that he wasn’t
-very well and as I did not like to go out and leave him alone, I would
-ask mamma to come and stay with him.”
-
-“Oh, then he agreed to go, did he?”
-
-“Yes, dear—said he had meant to go all along. But after that everything
-went wrong: his razor refused to do its work and he actually pretended
-that it was all because I had sharpened a lead pencil with it the other
-day, as if that could have—”
-
-“But why did you tell him that you had sharpened your pencil with it?”
-asked the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Because I cut my finger on the old thing and thoughtfully warned him
-that it was too sharp. Then, I—well my own wardrobe was full and I had
-hung up a few things in his, and the skirt of my new tailor-made gown
-was hanging over his dress coat. He pretended that it was all wrinkled
-and creased by that. Then, I had borrowed his box of neckties and
-neglected to return them, and he made such a fuss over my forgetfulness
-that I determined to give him a lesson. I saw him lay his latch key on
-the chiffonier ready to put in his other pocket and I didn’t say a word
-when he turned out the gas and went off without it.”
-
-“But how did you expect to get into the house when you returned?”
-
-“Oh! I slipped back into the room in the dark after he had gone down,
-and put it in my own pocket.”
-
-“As an object lesson in remembering. Good, I’m glad you did it,” said
-the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“M’hm. I told the maid not to sit up for us, and I saw for myself that
-every door and window was fastened tight—for once Tom climbed in at the
-pantry window when he had forgotten his key and didn’t want me to know
-how late he stayed at the club.”
-
-“I suppose he complained next day because the window was open, too,”
-murmured the girl with the dimple in her chin, “men are so illogical!”
-
-“Well, no, dear; but he would have done so, only the clock happened to
-strike three as he came upstairs, and I counted the strokes aloud. Well
-Tom was cross at being kept waiting, but my gown fits so well that I
-felt at peace with all mankind.”
-
-“Even your own husband!” said the brown-eyed blonde. “It must indeed
-fit well.”
-
-“Yes. And I enjoyed the evening immensely, for I knew I had such a good
-joke on Tom when we got home.”
-
-“Yes, and what happened then?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Oh, it was great fun. He searched in all his pockets twice, rang the
-bell until he was tired, though the maids asleep in the third story
-might as well have been in Greenland for all the good that did. Then,
-he tried to force each door and window before he came back to the
-carriage to tell me that we were locked out!”
-
-“And then you—”
-
-“I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me before, dear? Luckily, there is one
-of us who remembers things.’ If you could only have seen his face as he
-took the key I gave him!”
-
-“Then why on earth did you sleep at the hotel?” queried the girl with
-the Roman nose, in a bewildered tone.
-
-“I—well, the fact is that I—in the dark, I had mistaken the key to his
-desk for the latch-key! And, oh, girls, if you had seen me driving home
-from the hotel at ten o’clock in the morning, in the gown I had worn at
-the reception!”
-
-“You poor, dear thing!” cried the blue-eyed girl, “no wonder you chose
-‘Woman in Politics’ for to-day’s discussion! If men are such tyrants as
-that, our only refuge will be equality in suffrage and—”
-
-“Latchkeys,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “though to be sure,
-we’d need pockets to keep them in, if we carried them. Sometimes, I
-suspect that the dressmakers are in league with the men to keep us from
-gaining our rights,” she added.
-
-“Perhaps they are,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a startled air, “the
-men pay the bills and so the dressmakers may be in league with them!”
-
-“You forget one thing, dear,” said the president, with a superior air.
-“It is the women who make the bills. You never heard of a man who
-ordered a dress for his wife did you?”
-
-“I hope not,” replied the girl with the Roman nose, “at least, if she
-was obliged to wear it.”
-
-“Well, dears,” said the president, “we really must adjourn, it is
-awfully late, but of course such a serious discussion could not be
-hurried. I think I must go and have a cup of bouillon to refresh me
-after making such serious demands upon the gray matter of my brain.”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter III
-
-Man’s Real Attitude Toward the Progress of Woman
-
-
-The Teacup club came to order with more than its usual reluctance
-at its next meeting and the president looked severe. “I wish you
-girls would stop talking about Helena and her affairs,” she said. “I
-detest gossip, and, besides, I want to hear all about her, too, and
-we can talk better after the meeting is over. The topic for to-day’s
-discussion will be, ‘Man’s Real Attitude Toward the Progress of Woman.’”
-
-“I’m glad to hear it,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Men are such
-queer creatures that by the time a girl gets to understand them really
-she is too old to attract their attention. Now, if we all put our heads
-together—”
-
-“We may attain wisdom without its accompanying wrinkles,” broke in the
-girl with the dimple in her chin; “that is a good idea, for—”
-
-“It is no real gain to know how to make them bring the proper kind of
-flowers and confectionery, if you have to spend the money thus saved on
-the beauty doctor; yes, that is true,” sighed the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Widowers, or men who have been engaged several times, are often nice,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Thank you,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I like to do
-my own training, if it is troublesome. You can’t persuade a widower
-that his late wife was not a type of all womanhood, and that is horrid,
-especially if she happens to have had a taste for domestic magazines
-and molasses candy! That is why a widower is so much less attractive
-than a widow; she—”
-
-“Has learned that men, save for a few leading traits, are all
-different,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Yes, matrimony
-always widens a woman’s views of the opposite sex, while it narrows
-those of a man.”
-
-“Oh, dear,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “I do wish men would not
-do one thing and say another. Now, they are always praising domesticity
-in women, as well as shrinking modesty, and yet—”
-
-“They always overlook the domestic kind of a girl when she does venture
-among people,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “I know it, and as for
-shyness and modesty, it is only the girl who is bold enough to call
-attention to those qualities in herself who receives a social reward
-for them.”
-
-“Oh, well,” said the president, “a man with a couple of sisters learns
-a great deal about the sex.”
-
-“Humph!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I don’t know why it
-is, but the more sisters a man has, the slower he is to enter into
-matrimony.”
-
-“I’ve noticed that myself,” said the girl with the classic profile;
-“while girls who have plenty of brothers usually marry before they are
-twenty.”
-
-“Pshaw! That is because the friends of their brothers get a chance to
-see them sew on buttons and make caramels,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose.
-
-“No, it isn’t,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “it is
-because such a girl has more than one person to oppose the man who
-wants to marry her. But talk about masculine inconsistency! It sets me
-wild to hear men talk about domesticity and modesty and all that, and
-then hang about Kate, a girl who doesn’t know a frying pan from a—a
-camera, and who had as lief ask for a thing she wants as to hint for
-it—so unfeminine!”
-
-“I know it,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Why, she never has
-to buy a flower, and as for candy, she has so much that she actually
-shares it with the other girls! I go to see her more frequently in
-Lent, because my conscience will not allow me to buy any then, and—”
-
-“And Kate has been engaged six times; she told me so herself,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses. “I declare, it is enough to make a girl—”
-
-“H’m!” said the president. “Don’t forget, my dears, that while she has
-been engaged six times, she has not been married once!”
-
-“Why—er—that is true,” cried the blue-eyed girl. “You dear, delightful,
-clever thing! I am so glad that I just made you be our president.”
-
-“Oh, well, of course I like it dear; still, as somebody once said, I’d
-rather be right than president.”
-
-“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Yes. But, oh, girls, Tom says that all the men in our set are talking
-about this club. He says that Jack Bittersweet asked him confidentially
-the other day if being intellectual made a woman less loveable.
-Luckily, I had just agreed to let him have a masculine dinner party and
-he assured Jack that it did not.”
-
-The blue-eyed girl arose softly from her seat and going over to where
-the brown-eyed blonde was sitting, kissed her. “You dear thing,” she
-said. “Come over any day you like and you shall see the new sleeve
-design I got from Paris yesterday.”
-
-The girl with the dimple in her chin exchanged glances with the girl
-with the eyeglasses.
-
-“What time in the year do you prefer for a wedding?” asked the latter,
-apropos of nothing.
-
-“Oh, speaking of weddings, that reminds me,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “I’d have prepared a paper on to-day’s topic, as you
-suggested, Evelyn, but Elizabeth asked me to help select her wedding
-dress and—well, you know, Elizabeth. It has taken her two days already
-and I don’t see any prospect yet of her making up her mind.”
-
-“And yet she required only five minutes in which to decide to accept
-Fred, when he asked her to marry him,” said the president, thoughtfully.
-
-“I know, dear, but then in this matter of selecting her dress, she had
-a choice,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“And I’m sure that Elizabeth’s father is delighted to buy her a wedding
-dress,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, Emily, pardon me—I
-quite forgot that Elizabeth is your cousin!”
-
-“Never mind, dear, though I rather like her, in spite of the
-relationship. Oh, girls, you have no idea of what an effect this club
-is having upon me. Why, I’ve turned my den into a library, cut all the
-leaves of my Carlisle and coaxed papa to buy me a handsome writing desk
-and do up the walls in forest greens because pink and blue seemed so
-frivolous. Now, I can sit in that room and write papers for the club in
-real comfort.”
-
-“You don’t know how pleased I am to hear it,” cried the president,
-warmly. “It is quite worth all the labor of selecting topics and
-leading the discussion, I assure you. Why, Marion, how late you are!
-Don’t you know that the really advanced woman is even ahead of the
-clock?”
-
-“Yes, I do,” panted the girl with the classic profile, “but, really,
-I’ve had the most awful time getting here at all! You know I’m always
-in trouble, but really this is the worst that—I’ll never go anywhere
-with Nell again, unless it’s to my own funeral, and I can’t help
-myself, then.”
-
-“What on earth has Nell done now?” queried the girl with the dimple in
-her chin, “don’t you know that you must not expect absolute sanity from
-an engaged girl? You said you were going with her to the south side to
-call upon some of the relatives of her affianced. Did she take you over
-there, and then discover that she didn’t know their exact address? Or
-did—”
-
-“The address was not forgotten. We hadn’t meant to do any shopping
-to-day, but we stopped in to buy some thread, and really the new silks
-were so cheap that—”
-
-“You arrived an hour late, and penniless! I know,” said the blue-eyed
-girl.
-
-“N—ot quite. I had ten cents left when we started for home, and we had
-to take two lines of cars. Nell and I couldn’t get seats together—in
-fact, we were at opposite ends of the car. However, I paid her fare and
-signaled the fact to her, receiving a nod in reply.”
-
-“Well?” said the president, “didn’t she want to pay your fare on the
-other line?”
-
-“She—well, the fact is that she had misunderstood the signal, and paid
-our fare again with her own last dime. And there we were three miles
-from home, without a penny in our pockets—and the street car company
-had a dime it hadn’t earned. But then Nell never had a grain of sense—I
-should think by this time she knew that herself.”
-
-“If she doesn’t, I’m sure you are not to blame, dear,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose. “However, for my part, I shall not blame you, even
-if you are as cross as a man who is wearing a frayed collar, for the
-rest of the afternoon.”
-
-“But, don’t let us interrupt the proceedings,” said the girl with the
-classic profile, “just tell me what to-day’s topic is, and I—”
-
-“Oh, it is a perfectly delightful one!” said the blue-eyed girl. “Man’s
-real attitude toward the Progress of Woman, and—”
-
-“His real attitude is that of flight,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “he—”
-
-“Don’t be flippant, dear, whatever you are,” said the president,
-gravely, “we have enough of that to endure from our masculine
-acquaintances. It seems to me that a man laughs at whatever he fails to
-understand, and then feels that he has replied to the argument.”
-
-“Perhaps that is the reason that men laugh at so many jokes in which I
-can see nothing funny,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“No doubt of it,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “but, girls, never
-attempt to imitate them. I did once, and Annie—you know how obtuse she
-is—kept asking loudly what I was laughing at, and I couldn’t tell her.
-When a man had just made the remark that he was glad to find a girl
-with a keen sense of the ridiculous, too!”
-
-“Just like Annie,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I sometimes wonder whether
-she is really obtuse or only malicious. You know how devoted Tommy
-Bonds is to music, don’t you? Well, Annie and I once accompanied him to
-a Thomas concert, and I wanted to make myself agreeable—”
-
-“I hope you didn’t do it by conversing while the orchestra was
-playing,” said the president.
-
-“Of course not, goosie. But I remembered that he always says a woman
-should be two things—sincere and fond of music. The soloist was a
-pianist, I can’t remember his name, but his hair was not at all
-remarkable. When he played an encore, Tommy leaned over to me, and
-said: ‘Isn’t it charming?’ and I replied, ‘Yes, I like it better every
-time I hear it; in fact, I often ask people to play it for me.’ I wish
-now that I hadn’t said that.”
-
-“Why so?” asked the president, “it seems to me just the right thing to
-say.”
-
-“But Annie leaned over asking, loudly, ‘What is the name of it?’ and,
-to my horror, Mr. Bonds said he didn’t know, and it was all so sudden
-that, to save my life, I couldn’t make up a name! In the silence which
-followed, some one in front of us was heard remarking that the encore
-was a composition by the pianist himself, and now played for the first
-time in public!”
-
-“And it was all Annie’s fault, too,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “By the way, did I ever tell you how it happened that Mr.
-Bonds gave up calling me a delightful conversationalist? No? Well, you
-see, he lived almost opposite to us, and he practiced on the ’cello
-until papa, who is very fond of De Quincey, said he no longer dared to
-read “Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts.” Suddenly he stopped
-practicing, and—”
-
-“Mercy on us, had anything happened to him?” gasped the president,
-turning pale.
-
-“Nothing ever happens to people who deserve it. As it happened,
-however, we were no better off, for some one, a new resident of the
-street, we supposed, began to practice on the violin seven hours a
-day!”
-
-“It may not have been a newcomer,” observed the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “It is a fact that one vigorous soprano is enough to
-demoralize a whole neighborhood, and I suppose—”
-
-“The ’cello is quite as bad? Possibly so, at any rate rents went down
-in the neighborhood and placards went up. One day I happened to meet
-Mr. Bonds, and as long as my father was not within hearing distance, I
-said: ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you have given up your delightful ’cello.’ If
-you could have seen the rapture on his face.”
-
-“I’d rather have seen his face than that of your guardian angel,”
-remarked the girl with the classic profile; “but go on; don’t stop.”
-
-“I wish I had stopped then, but I didn’t. I said, ‘By the way, who is
-it that scrapes the violin all day long? I never heard anything so
-awful in my life!’ Oh, girls, I—”
-
-“But I don’t see anything wrong in that,” said the president.
-
-“He did. You see, he had given up the ’cello and taken to the violin
-with the idea of astonishing the world with his genius!”
-
-“And you live to tell it,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“M—yes—you see, everything has its compensation. When papa heard what I
-had done, he gave me a hundred dollars and his blessing.”
-
-“What luck some people have,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “while
-others—oh, girls, I know something perfectly lovely, but I don’t know
-whether I ought to tell it to you or not. My conscience—”
-
-“Why, Frances,” said the president, “I shall be awfully hurt if you
-don’t tell us now. When a girl speaks of her conscience in that way, it
-simply means that she distrusts her audience. You might know by this
-time, that we never tell anything which transpires at a meeting of this
-club.”
-
-“Of course not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Why, Dick
-teased me vainly a whole evening to find out the line of argument
-advanced in favor of equal suffrage when we discussed ‘Woman in
-Politics’ the other day. The janitor must have told him the topic under
-discussion,” she added hastily.
-
-“Very likely,” said the president. “What was that you wished to tell
-us, Frances, dear?”
-
-“It was something that happened to Nell,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Her fiancé had told her a great deal of his friend, Mr. Thynker, of
-Boston, who is to be his best man, and whom she had never seen. He
-appeared suddenly at Mr. Dickenharry’s office the other day, just as
-the latter was starting for Milwaukee, and there was barely time for
-him to make arrangements with Mr. Thynker to call on Nell the following
-afternoon. As it happened, he knew the Vansmiths, and was asked to the
-luncheon they gave that day, and seated immediately opposite to Nell.
-Of course he didn’t catch her name when they were introduced, and there
-was no chance for explanations. Oh, girls, I wonder if I really ought
-to finish this?”
-
-“If you don’t, I shall ask Nell why you didn’t,” said the president.
-
-“Well, during a lull in the conversation, he leaned forward and, in
-loud, clear tones, asked Nell what kind of a girl his friend Tom
-Dickenharry had got himself engaged to _this_ time!”
-
-“M’hm,” said the president, after the laughter had subsided a little,
-“that settles one matter in advance, anyhow. It is easy to know upon
-whose side the victory will rest when they have their first quarrel
-after marriage.”
-
-“There is one question I would like to ask the members of this club,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses, “and it is one which nearly
-disrupted our little Shakespeare club: If you really want to please a
-man—any man—what is the best way to go about it?”
-
-“That is really such a simple question that there is only one answer
-possible,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“And that is—”
-
-“Be born rich.”
-
-“But, suppose you have neglected that qualification,” persisted the
-girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Learn to cook; but never let him taste the result of your cookery,”
-said the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Yes—or wear his college colors,” said the girl with the classic
-profile.
-
-“Let him do all the talking,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Praise the shape of his head—no matter what it may be,” said the
-president. “I wouldn’t tell anybody that,” she added, reflectively,
-“only that two fortune tellers and a palmist have assured me that my
-husband will outlive me.”
-
-“Mr. Bonds has a very well-shaped head,” observed the girl with the
-eyeglasses, “a little long perhaps, but—”
-
-“The rotundity of his pocketbook over-balances that,” broke in the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Clarissa says he is generous, too—a rare quality in a really wealthy
-man,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“M—I don’t know about his generosity,” said the president. “A marriage
-license is about as inexpensive a thing as a man can buy, and yet he
-has displayed no desire to invest in one.”
-
-“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “lots of girls nowadays don’t intend to marry, anyhow, so—”
-
-“I wonder why they never think to mention the fact publicly until after
-they are thirty,” mused the girl with the dimple in her chin; “oh,
-girls, shouldn’t you like really to do something wonderful?”
-
-“I once wore a pair of common-sense shoes a whole month,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, modestly.
-
-“H’m; who was the Englishman?” asked the brown-eyed blonde, “the one
-with whom you used to walk at that time, I mean,” she added, pleasantly.
-
-“It was the spring that Mr. Penny-Lesse was here, but I don’t see what
-that had to do with it,” said the blue-eyed girl, with great dignity.
-
-“Nothing at all of course,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “I only—”
-
-“You did not meet him, I believe; he was very particular about the
-people to whom he was introduced,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, sweetly. “I did rather an unusual thing myself once—I had five
-dollars in my pocketbook when my allowance came due!”
-
-“Yes, but you had left the pocketbook at my house ten days before, and
-thought it was lost,” said the girl with the classic profile, “don’t
-you remember, I only brought it over after the shops were closed the
-evening before?”
-
-“Oh, girls,” said the president, “I’ve recently met a woman who has
-traveled all through Asia, and—”
-
-“I suppose she did it in bloomers and one of those horrid, unbecoming,
-stiff caps, too,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Well, all I’ve got
-to say is that a woman who has the courage to make such a guy of
-herself, is brave enough to face all the tigers and mountain lions,
-and—er—boa constrictors in Asia.”
-
-“I don’t believe there are any boa constrictors and mountain lions in
-Asia,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “As for tigers—”
-
-“Mercy, how literal you are!” pettishly replied the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Well, buffalos then; how will that suit you? I’m equally afraid of all
-of them, myself.”
-
-“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, “Marion and I
-have just had such fun. We have been telling each other the most awful
-things that ever happened to us in our lives.”
-
-“Perhaps that is what made you late, too,” remarked the president, in a
-severe tone.
-
-“N-not exactly. You see, I knew there was something wrong about my
-watch, and I could not remember whether it was thirteen minutes fast or
-thirteen minutes slow, so—”
-
-“But do tell us what was the most awful thing that ever happened to
-you, Evelyn,” cried the girl with the classic profile. “The very worst
-thing that ever befell me was connected with a timepiece. It was last
-summer, and a man who—who had been very nice to me was going away early
-the next morning. Men were scarce at the seashore, as you know, and
-when a lot of the girls saw us sitting on the porch they came over and
-spent the evening with us. We just could not get a chance for a word
-alone.”
-
-“I know—I know,” groaned the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Yes. Well, his train was to go at 5:16 A.M., and he asked me in the
-most meaning tone if I cared sufficiently to hear something he had to
-say to get up early enough to see him off. I—I said I did.”
-
-“Well?” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“I set my watch by the hall clock in order to be sure of getting up
-in time; then I lay awake nearly all night so I would not oversleep
-myself. When I reached the station it was five minutes past six.”
-
-“Watch stopped?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“No; Harry had run down to spend that evening with Kate, and she had
-set the clock back. The man was married in October to one of the girls
-who had risen in time to see him off.”
-
-“Of course,” said the president. “Speaking of awful things—you all know
-how afraid I am of fire.”
-
-“We do,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I believe you could smell
-a burning match a block away.”
-
-“Well, the other day our fire insurance ran out, and Tom handed me the
-money and asked me to go down and renew it, as he was very busy. I
-forgot all about it until night; then I lay awake sniffing smoke until
-Tom thought I had influenza again. Next morning I got ready to go and
-attend to it at once. I wanted to look nice, too, because one of the
-men in that office once told Tom that he had an awfully pretty wife.”
-
-“How much money did he borrow from Tom that time?” asked the girl with
-the dimple in her chin.
-
-“I was curling my hair,” went on the president, unheeding, “when I
-smelled fire. I ran wildly all through the house, with a curl still
-wrapped about the iron, trying to locate it!”
-
-“And did you find any?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Yes; my own hair was burning,” said the president, with a groan.
-
-“How awful!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “That reminds me of
-what once happened to me. It was when I was wearing a single curl in
-the middle of my forehead. One day Frank was there, and he—he would
-twist it over his finger and quote poetry about it until he took all
-the curl out of it. Of course I discovered that I had no handkerchief
-and went up to get one.”
-
-“I don’t see anything so awful in that,” said the girl with the classic
-profile.
-
-“No, dear; but while I was curling it I dropped the hot iron down my
-back, and dared not even scream lest he find out what I was doing.”
-
-“The worst thing that ever happened to me,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, “was in connection with Lewis. As soon as it was
-settled, I went to tell Emmeline, so she would give up trying to get
-him. I said I was his first love, and she couldn’t imagine how jealous
-he was. ‘Oh, yes, dear, I can,’ said she; ‘he was always so when he was
-engaged to me!’”
-
-“I wondered why you broke with him,” said the president. “Well, we must
-adjourn now, and I must say that I have never heard a subject more
-logically discussed than the one to-day!”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter IV
-
-Concerning the Heroine of To-day
-
-
-“Are you ready to go to the meeting of the club?” asked the blue-eyed
-girl, as she bounced into the room. “Why, Dorothy, dear, what is the
-matter? has your father gotten himself a new bicycle instead of one for
-you, or—”
-
-The blue-eyed girl sat up on the couch. “I don’t care if I never ride a
-bicycle again as long as I live,” she replied, deliberately.
-
-The girl with the dimple in her chin turned pale. “I knew it was
-something awful when I saw you crying with the blinds all rolled up;
-but I hardly thought it was so bad as that. You—you haven’t any fever
-or queer feelings in your head, have you?”
-
-“If I had, it would not make any difference,” she sobbed. “I—oh, I’ll
-get even with Effie Bittersweet if it ruins my complexion and takes me
-all the rest of my natural life to do it!”
-
-“Oho, it’s Effie, is it? Well, you’ll have plenty of chances to get
-even with her, once you are her sister-in-law!”
-
-“I wouldn’t marry Jack now, to—to spite Effie, and I—I doubt if I shall
-have the chance, anyhow. And as for Frances, I—”
-
-“Never mind, dear; I know she has behaved abominably, but she is
-punished already. Her aunt has brought her a new hat from Paris, and it
-is geranium pink—fancy Frances in geranium, can you? She promised it to
-Frances when she went abroad last fall, and Frances has been talking
-about it ever since. She will have to wear it, too, because her aunt is
-to make them a long visit, and she is too wealthy to have her feelings
-hurt.”
-
-The blue-eyed girl shook her head, sadly. “It is very kind of you to
-try to cheer me,” she said, “but I am beyond rejoicing. I only hope it
-is a very deep geranium pink, that’s all. Oh, Emily, what a desert
-waste this life is! No, don’t put another cushion back of me—I want
-to be just as uncomfortable as possible. You know Effie was here this
-morning, don’t you?”
-
-“I suppose so—I noticed that you have two portraits of Edwin on the
-table.”
-
-“Yes. Well, she asked me to go shopping with her, and I must say I was
-pleased, because she hasn’t been here since—since—”
-
-“Not since you quar—pardon me, I mean since her brother quarreled with
-you.”
-
-“She said she’d ask me to lunch with her down-town, but she had spent
-almost all her allowance.”
-
-“The idea of hinting to you in that bare-faced way! Now, if you had
-been a man it—”
-
-“Would have been all right, of course. However, I know how confidential
-Effie always grows over a cup of tea, so I promptly invited her to
-lunch with me. After she had accepted, I found that I had only fifty
-cents to my name. Papa had gone down-town and, mamma had just borrowed
-a quarter from me!”
-
-“My goodness, did you tell Effie that your head ached so badly that you
-couldn’t go?”
-
-“And have her say that I was fretting myself ill over Jack? No, thank
-you. I excused myself a moment and went downstairs, for I had just
-remembered a habit Papa has of leaving money lying about on his desk.
-To my joy, I found a five-dollar bill in one of the drawers, and I took
-that, because I—”
-
-“But weren’t you afraid to take it?”
-
-“M—yes, but then one’s own people have to make up with one sometime or
-other. Well, we had a lovely time shopping, and I took Effie off to
-luncheon before she had had time to get cross matching samples. It was
-a lovely luncheon, and before we had finished Effie said she hoped I
-would visit her at Delavan in August!”
-
-“H’m; I suppose she didn’t mention the fact that Jack expects to be in
-Canada from the last week in July to the first one in September, did
-she?”
-
-“No; she didn’t. Oh, what a cat she is—and I asked her to take another
-ice on the strength of it! Well I paid the bill, tipped the waiter,
-and was just going out when the cashier came running after me, and oh,
-Emily, what do you think?”
-
-“You had left your umbrella, of course.”
-
-“No, I hadn’t. I—I, that five-dollar bill was a counterfeit which papa
-was keeping as an object lesson to mamma, who had gotten it in change!”
-
-“You might have known that no man with a wife and grown daughter would
-leave five good dollars in an unlocked drawer, dear. Did Effie—”
-
-“Loan it to me? She hadn’t quite enough, and I don’t know what I should
-have done if Frances had not happened to come in. Effie said that she
-did not mind borrowing from Frances, because she—she was quite like a
-sister to her! And now I shall have to make Papa angry by coaxing for
-money to pay for all those ices Effie ate on false pretenses, and
-w—worse yet, she and Frances will have the pleasure of laughing over it
-together!”
-
-“And telling Jack about it, too,” gasped the girl with the dimple in
-her chin, helplessly.
-
-“Of course I know they will do that,” sobbed the victim. “But I hardly
-thought that even an intimate friend would be unpleasant enough to
-remind me of it!” And she buried her face in the cushions and wept.
-
-“Then you are not going to the club this afternoon? Shall I tell them
-that you are busy with the dressmaker, or the dentist? They know that
-you can make everybody else wait.”
-
-“Tell them nothing. I shall go—and complain of a cold in the head,
-which will explain the pinkness of my nose and eyes.”
-
-“But will any of them believe you?”
-
-“All of them. You know those horrid quinine tablets Evelyn is always
-wanting people to try—well, I shall take one of them publicly. You
-don’t suppose that any one will suspect me of doing it unnecessarily,
-do you?”
-
-The girl with the dimple in her chin shuddered. “Impossible,” she said.
-
-The blue-eyed girl suddenly stopped curling her hair, and, facing her
-friend, remarked: “I can tell you one thing though—Jack Bittersweet
-shall pay dearly for this!”
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The president of the Teacup club rapped for order with the handle
-of her umbrella. “I am glad to see you all here to-day, in spite of
-the weather,” she remarked. “We have a very interesting topic for
-discussion. It is, ‘Woman in Her Character of Heroine.’”
-
-“Indeed, it is interesting,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I only
-wish you had thought to mention it to me and I should have prepared
-a paper on it. No, I couldn’t have done it, either, for my aunt from
-New Jersey was in town, and I had to take her sight-seeing. Oh, dear,
-aren’t people who live in the country painfully active? And what ideas
-they have! They seem to think Lincoln Park is in the back yard and the
-Statue of Columbus across the street.”
-
-“I know a girl who has had a much worse time than that,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde. “She had to take her future mother-in-law to see
-the sights. The old lady had read up in preparation for her visit, and
-knew more about the city than Marie herself. Now, while the poor girl
-is being massaged with arnica and things to get over the effects of her
-exertion, the old lady is busy telling her son that such an ignorant
-girl can never make a good wife!”
-
-“Speaking of the bravery of women,” said the girl with the classic
-profile, “I know a girl who early one morning heard a noise in a large
-closet next her room, in which she kept her furs and cloth gowns. She
-slipped out of bed and into the hall, and turned the key, which was
-fortunately on the outside, and there she had the burglar safe in that
-stifling atmosphere. Then she fainted.”
-
-“And no wonder,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I should have
-fainted first.”
-
-“It took them three-quarters of an hour to restore her and find out
-what was the matter, then they sent for the police, and what do you
-think they found?”
-
-“That the burglar was dead,” breathed the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“No. It wasn’t a burglar at all; it was her own father, who had risen
-early and gone into the closet to look for a file of papers which
-had been kept in the attic for twenty years. Oh, he said perfectly
-awful things when he got breath enough to speak! Unluckily, too, it
-happened just at the time when she needed a lot of new things. She said
-that nobody appreciated her bravery except a man who was paying her
-attention at the time, and he didn’t dare say a word before her father
-for fear of losing his good-will.”
-
-“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “it only goes to
-show that women are really more courageous than men.”
-
-“Of course they are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Why, only the
-other day I read of a girl who had a hole bored in one of her front
-teeth and a diamond inserted. Did you ever hear of a man who was brave
-enough to go to the dentist unless he really had to?”
-
-“No,” said the president. “Oh, girls, I once had my pocketbook snatched
-from me by a boy, and I just ran after him until he dropped it. I don’t
-know that I should have been so brave,” she added, “but for the fact
-that, beside my card, it contained several unpaid bills of which my
-husband knew nothing. If the police had caught the boy with it, they
-would have communicated the fact to him, and I never should have heard
-the last of those bills.
-
-“I hope he appreciated your bravery, anyhow,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses.
-
-“Of course not,” said the president; “his only comment was that it
-served me right for carrying my pocketbook in my hand. Oh, you can’t
-make a man understand that a woman fears nothing. By the way, I wish
-several of you would come home to dinner with me. I broke Tom’s lovely
-bit of old Venetian glass to-day, and I had rather not be alone with
-him when he finds it out.”
-
-“I’ll go with pleasure,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “is anybody
-else coming?”
-
-“Nobody but Mr. Troolygood,” said the president. “I always ask him in
-such an emergency, because he prophesied that Tom would break my heart
-within two years of our marriage. Tom knows that, and—well, I could
-dance on the graves of his ancestors if Mr. Troolygood was present, and
-Tom would encourage my efforts.”
-
-“Then, I don’t see why you ask us to-day,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “he ought to be—”
-
-“Sufficient? Yes, I suppose so; but—well, the truth is that he is
-rather hard to entertain, and Tom is so busy in his presence, being
-nice to me, that he is no help at all.”
-
-“I should be delighted to dine with you, also,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, “but really I have such a cold that I don’t dare to be out at all
-after nightfall.”
-
-“Have you a cold?” said the brown-eyed blonde, “why, I didn’t notice it
-when I met you in the restaurant this morning.”
-
-“Didn’t you, dear? But then you are not very observant. You had not
-even noticed that there was a wrinkle in the waist of your new gown,
-until I pointed it out to you. Evelyn, dear, mightn’t I take another
-of your quinine tablets now? I really think that I am feeling better
-already.”
-
-“Do not take too much of it, dear, if you value your peace of mind,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I’ve had such an awful cold this
-week. I don’t know how I ever caught it, unless it was sitting in that
-hot church on Sunday. Mamma would have me go, and I—”
-
-“Perhaps you caught it standing on your front steps Monday evening,”
-suggested the girl with the classic profile. “I saw you, as I passed,
-and wondered how long—”
-
-“Oh, it was only a moment. The parlor was full of people, and I just
-stepped out with Frank a moment to—to ask him how he expects to vote at
-the coming election.”
-
-“I thought you both looked as if you were discussing politics. Of
-course, he had to think well on the merits of the opposing candidates
-before he gave an opinion and—”
-
-“Oh, pshaw, it is impossible to know how one catches cold, and it does
-one no good to know, anyhow,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Unless it is some one else’s fault,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “I have a cold myself, and I don’t dare to mention the fact
-to my family. They are so unsympathetic that they—”
-
-“Would want you to wrap up and wear overshoes if it was July,” said the
-president.
-
-“They would, they would,” wailed the girl with the eyeglasses, “well, I
-just knew that I had to be well in time to go to Mrs. Brownsmith’s card
-party. The way that Marie tries to attract Frank’s attention is too
-dreadful, and I knew she would be there.”
-
-“If she had to unscrew her coffin lid to get out,” said the blue-eyed
-girl.
-
-“M’hm. They wanted me to take all sorts of horrid remedies at home.
-I wouldn’t do it, though; the very idea made me cross. Finally, on
-Wednesday, Frank dropped in to see if I was better and said I must
-take some quinine. Of course, I couldn’t refuse and hurt his feelings,
-especially as he remained all the afternoon and watched me take it. By
-his advice, I took a large dose of it that night, and when I woke up in
-the morning my cold was almost gone, but oh, I had the queerest buzzing
-in my ears!”
-
-“Oh, well, nobody could see that,” said the president, “so you—”
-
-“Kept on taking it all day, and was able to go to the card party, after
-all; though the quinine had made me as deaf as a statue. It made little
-difference at first, because Marie kept close at my elbow, and Frank
-and I were not alone a moment. I couldn’t get rid of her at all until,
-just as mamma said she would not wait another second Mrs. Brownsmith
-called Marie to her, and Frank—”
-
-“Improved the moment,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “What
-did he say?”
-
-“I—I don’t know,” sobbed the girl with the eyeglasses. “He whispered,
-and I couldn’t hear. And before I could ask him to repeat, Marie was
-at my side. As he put me into the carriage, he said: ‘You will let me
-have my answer by messenger to-morrow, won’t you?’ And I—I don’t know
-w-whether he ask-asked me to marry him, or only to go to the m-matinee!”
-
-“You poor, dear martyr,” cried the president. “Dorothy, dear, you had
-better not take any more of those tablets, because—”
-
-“But dear, Dorothy is in no danger of having to answer such an
-important question,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.
-
-“Very true, dear; I have answered it already—in the negative,” said the
-blue-eyed girl. “Ah, you can never know, Frances, how painful it is to
-be obliged to tell a man who loves you that there is no hope.”
-
-“Dear, dear,” said the president, hurriedly, “I’m afraid that, in spite
-of all my efforts, we have not discussed to-day’s topic as consistently
-as usual. It does seem to me sometimes that you girls talk as much as
-men. Of course you do not expect to be listened to as they do, still—”
-
-“I should think not,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “did I ever
-tell you of the time I went to make a round of calls with Ethel, and—”
-
-“Found she was leaving her sister’s cards by mistake?” said the girl
-with the classic profile. “Indeed you did. And wasn’t it funny that she
-left one for Maria, to whom her sister hadn’t spoken for a year? Just
-like Ethel, too.”
-
-“This was another time,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “You know
-how much Ethel talks? Well, we called on one woman I had never met
-before, and she asked Ethel subsequently if I was not deaf and dumb!”
-
-“Never mind, she knew better when she met you next time,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses; “but what is the topic for discussion to-day?”
-
-“‘The Heroine of To-day,’” said the president, “and I think—”
-
-“I suppose that is the bachelor girl,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Or the one who marries a foreigner,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “Talk about bravery! Why, I knew a girl who became engaged to
-a Russian before she could pronounce his name.”
-
-“Speaking of that,” said the girl with the classic profile, “isn’t it
-horrid of Elizabeth to send out her wedding cards so long ahead. No
-chance this time to say that we didn’t know it in time to select a
-present.”
-
-“I shall pretend that I never received my invitation at all,” said the
-president; “one must protect one’s self somehow.”
-
-“I do hate to go shopping with her nowadays,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, “if I don’t buy a lot of things myself I am
-miserable, and if I do her reproachful gaze seems to say, ‘I know the
-cost of this will come out of my present.’”
-
-“As if you wouldn’t ask your father for the money for that, anyhow!”
-said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“I shall do nothing of the kind, dear; it would make too much trouble.
-I don’t know why a man will cheerfully give a wedding present himself,
-but let—”
-
-“One of the women of the family ask for money for the same purpose and
-he feels that he is being robbed,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“I suppose it is on the same principle that makes a man insist upon
-treating every other man he meets and then grumble because his wife
-wants oysters after the play,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Just as he feeds a girl on candy before he marries her and then
-complains of dentists’ bills afterward,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin; “men are so illogical!”
-
-“Indeed they are,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “one of them will
-keep on telling a girl that she has a swan-like carriage, and then
-think her vain if he catches her watching her own movements in the
-glass.”
-
-“Why does she let him catch her at it?” queried the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “Oh, girls, you know that awful, dark green necktie
-that Dick has been wearing! Well, I endured it until I felt as if I
-should scream if I saw him wear it again, so I begged it from him; told
-him that I wanted it as a souvenir to hang beside his college cap and
-his football colors. As soon as he sent it to me I threw it into the
-fire.”
-
-“And he came in before it was reduced to ashes?” asked the president,
-in sympathetic tones.
-
-“No. He appeared with another just like it, the very next day—said he
-didn’t like it himself, but since I had admired it and he wanted to
-please me, he had matched it before he sent it to me!”
-
-“And that was your only reward for trying to save his feelings,” sighed
-the blue-eyed girl. “Really, Emily, I often think you are too good for
-this world.”
-
-“At any rate, I shall soon be out of it if so many sorrows are heaped
-upon my head. By the way, girls, I’ve been learning to ride my bicycle,
-and talking of heroism, I—”
-
-“How many times have you fallen?” exclaimed the girl with the classic
-profile. “I heard the other day of a girl who learned to ride in a
-single lesson, without falling once, and—”
-
-“Humph. I’ve often heard of that girl myself—but I’ve never seen her.
-I’ve fallen nineteen times; that is, not counting the time mamma called
-after me to be careful, and the time that Dick said I had ridden almost
-a half block since he let go of my belt—because you know, it was not my
-fault that I fell upon either of those occasions!”
-
-“Of course not,” said the president, “but, girls, we really must not
-talk about bicycling, because if we do we shall drift away from our
-discussion, and I can’t bear to depart, even momentarily, from the high
-standard of the club. We were speaking of Elizabeth a moment ago; has
-any one seen her lately?”
-
-“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I make a point of avoiding the girl
-who is about to be married, the mother of the cleverest baby in the
-world, and the woman who is designing her own house. Really, you know,
-I don’t mind letting someone else do all the talking, but I _do_ like a
-change of topic once in a while.”
-
-“I know I was just as sensible as any one could be while Tom and I were
-engaged,” said the president, “and yet, people did act so oddly. Why,
-they would go right away if I began to talk of him at all; they didn’t
-even stay long enough to see how sensible I was.”
-
-“By the way, I believe that Jane and Mr. Sooter are engaged,” said the
-girl with the classic profile; “Jane denies it but—”
-
-“Then I think you are mistaken,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
-know Jane, and she seldom understates a case. Why do you think they are
-engaged?”
-
-“He has given up sending her flowers and candy, and begun presenting
-bric-a-brac instead.”
-
-“Pshaw, that is nothing; he may once have been engaged to a girl who
-was a china maniac, and these may be the presents she returned.”
-
-“Possibly. By the way, Kate has grown so wary now that she only gives
-the man to whom she happens to be engaged presents which she can use
-after she breaks with him; never pipes and—”
-
-“Oh, by the way, I know how her last engagement came to be broken in
-so many pieces that it could never be mended,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin.
-
-“Do tell us all about it; we are all so intimate with Kate that we
-wouldn’t dare to tell anybody, because it would seem that we were
-betraying a confidence,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Well, when she was engaged to Mr. Yaleblue, she gave him a lovely
-meerchaum pipe, which of course came back with her other presents when
-the engagement was broken. By the next Christmas she was engaged to
-Dan, and it seemed such a waste to let it lie in the case, and she gave
-it to him, telling him a pretty little story of how she bought it
-when she was in Paris, and kept it hanging in her den ready for Prince
-Charming when he appeared. You wouldn’t think a little thing like that
-would have broken the engagement, would you?”
-
-“Why, of course not,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “how on earth
-did—”
-
-“Oh, he just asked how it came that it was so strong of tobacco!”
-
-“Dear me, girls,” said the president, “I am afraid that we really must
-adjourn, though there is still a great deal more to say on both sides
-of the discussion. But I have just remembered that I have invited a
-whole party of you to dinner, and neglected to mention the fact to the
-cook!”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter V
-
-The Club Settles Some Currency Problems
-
-
-“The topic for to-day’s discussion will be ‘Currency Problems of the
-Present Day,’” observed the president, after the club had come to
-order, “and I hope you are all prepared—”
-
-“There is only one currency problem in the present day—to my knowledge,
-at least,” broke in the girl with the classic profile, “and that is:
-how to make two dollars do the work of ten.”
-
-“Dear me, there is something actually masculine in your flippancy,”
-said the president, with ferocious gentleness. “The question before us
-is one of the deepest gravity, and—”
-
-“Nobody knows that better than myself,” said the girl with the classic
-profile, “don’t I lie awake night after night, wondering how to get my
-new things out of the money my father has allowed me for the purpose,
-or, better yet, how to coax more out of him without letting him realize
-the fact.”
-
-“Don’t talk about money, please; it makes me blue,” wailed the girl
-with the dimple in her chin. “What with never having enough for myself
-and constantly seeing other people with more than I like them to have,
-I—”
-
-“What I want to know is—and you ought to be able to tell me, girls—why
-a woman who looks all sweetness and gentleness should suddenly develop
-into a raging lioness, just because her own son wants to marry some
-nice girl,” sighed the girl with the eyeglasses, waking suddenly out of
-a reverie.
-
-“Humph,” returned the blue-eyed girl, “there are some things I don’t
-quite understand myself—such as the banking system, and the reason why
-your dressmaker tells you calmly that she must have two yards and a
-half more of your dress material, when you have plainly informed her
-that you bought a remnant. But as for your question, it is so simple
-that a man could answer it. No woman ever did, or ever will, like to
-play second fiddle to another one, and—”
-
-“Oh, nonsense,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “it is just a
-question of tact. Let a man make his mother believe that she has chosen
-his wife and she—”
-
-“Yes, and wouldn’t it be pleasant to have your mother-in-law tell you,
-every time she wanted you to discharge the cook or do without a new
-gown, that her son would never have married you but for her!” cried the
-girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Speaking of mothers-in-law,” said the girl with the classic profile,
-“Nell is to have a new woman in that capacity. I found her crying the
-other day because she had heard that Madame considered her too domestic
-to make her son a good wife!”
-
-“Yes, I know,” said the blue-eyed girl, “and did you hear of Alice’s
-woes? No? Well, you know, she and Morton fell in love at first sight,
-and became engaged two weeks later. After the engagement was announced,
-she was invited to visit his people in Iowa, and went in fear and
-trembling, for she did not know much about them, and Morton could not
-be there at the time.”
-
-“Hadn’t the courage, you mean,” murmured the girl with the dimple in
-her chin.
-
-“Very likely, dear. Well, his mother was as bad as Alice had feared.
-Her ideas were all in direct opposition to Morton’s, and the poor girl
-almost fretted herself into nervous prostration trying to please them
-both. After all, when she got home, she found—”
-
-“That she had been mistaken in her feelings for Morton, and it didn’t
-make any difference whether they were pleased or not!” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses. “I knew how it would end when you began.”
-
-“No. She discovered that Madame was only his stepmother, after all!
-Imagine trying to please a mother-in-law and a stepmother combined!”
-
-“I’d rather not fancy it,” said the president, with a shudder. “Girls,
-I only hope you will be as lucky when you are married as I am, for—”
-
-“You aren’t going to tell us all of Tom’s virtues again, are you?” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin, uneasily.
-
-“When my mother-in-law becomes unpleasant, I just ask her to go with
-me to spend the day with Tom’s grandmother,” went on the president,
-affecting not to hear the last remark, “she doesn’t dare to refuse,
-because the old lady has some china which we both want, and she’s
-afraid I may succeed in wheedling it out of her! It is great fun to
-hear my own mother-in-law lectured by _her_ mother-in-law on the sins
-which the former thinks I have appropriated entirely to my own use.”
-
-“But, ah—doesn’t Tom’s mother take it out of you on the way back?”
-queried the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“No, dear. You see, I am careful not to sit with her in the train, and
-Tom always meets us at the station; besides, she’s hardly in her usual
-form, and I could be a match for her,” she added, modestly.
-
-“Oh, girls,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “speaking of mothers-in-law
-makes me think of wedding presents. Did you—oh, did you hear about the
-plates I gave Elizabeth?”
-
-“Yes, I did,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and a girl
-who gives away old Crown Derby like that is either an angel, or not
-quite sane—I don’t know which!”
-
-“Say anything you like; I haven’t the spirit to reply. And after you’ve
-heard the story—well, it was this way: I ran across the dozen of them
-in a little second-hand shop, and the proprietor didn’t seem to know
-their value and asked a very moderate price.”
-
-“I beg your pardon, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-“I take back all that I said before!”
-
-“You needn’t. I saw that I could beat him down, so I didn’t take them
-then, but went in a day or two later, taking Elizabeth along to make
-sure they were genuine. Really, she does know something about china,
-though—”
-
-“She doesn’t know anything else,” finished the president. “Well, they
-were genuine, weren’t they?”
-
-“They were, Elizabeth became so affectionate on the spot that I saw she
-knew what I wanted them for. I didn’t take them then, but went back the
-next day to find that the man had raised his price; he said another
-person wanted them—as if I’d believe that. Well, it went on for a week,
-until the price demanded was so outrageous that I should never have
-paid it, but for the fact that Elizabeth had told everybody what lovely
-Crown Derby plates she was to have, and I wasn’t going to have her say
-that I couldn’t afford them!”
-
-“I should think not,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “besides,
-it is necessary to give Elizabeth a handsome present, since she is
-marrying a wealthy man.”
-
-“Of course; if he was poor, a very simple thing would—ah, be in better
-taste, so that the contrast would not be so great.”
-
-“M’hm. Well, I bought the plates, and took them to her myself, because
-I wanted to see her face when she opened the package.”
-
-“But she wasn’t surprised, was she?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Yes, she was. She—well, she was the other person who wanted to buy
-them, and whose inquiries had trebled the price I had to pay for them!”
-
-“In the face of a tragedy like that, it seems hopeless to offer
-consolation,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Still, Elizabeth
-will be obliged to give you a handsome present when you are married.”
-
-“Let us hope that she will not have had time to forget her
-obligations,” said the blue-eyed girl, sweetly. “Of course, she has a
-good memory, but—”
-
-“I only hope somebody will give her two chafing-dishes,” broke in the
-president. “I only have one, and if I was not the sweetest tempered
-mortal in the world Tom and I would quarrel seriously over it. Perhaps,
-I ought not to speak of myself in that way, but—”
-
-“You surely ought to know your good points better than anybody else
-does,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Very true, dear. You see, Tom thinks he is a chafing-dish cook,
-and really he _can_ cook; but the last time he made a rarebit my
-waitress gave warning, because of the state in which she found the
-dining-room—which was very mean of her, because we had waited on
-ourselves to save trouble.”
-
-“Partly for that, and partly because you wanted to talk about Coralie,
-and her sister is her cook, I remember—I was there,” said the blue-eyed
-girl.
-
-“Yes, but she didn’t know that we wanted to talk about Coralie, and I
-told her that it was to save her trouble.”
-
-“Wasn’t that the time that the rarebit made you ill, and the doctor
-couldn’t come because he, too, had eaten some of it?” asked the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“It was. I told Tom, then, that he must leave out either the doctor or
-me when he made rarebit again!”
-
-“With the result?” queried the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“That we didn’t speak for three days, dear. It was during that time,
-that I went to Annie’s chafing-dish party. She wanted me to make a
-cheese omelette, and I sent over for the dish. My messenger found Tom
-in the dining-room with a whole party of men—”
-
-“Cooking on your chafing-dish?”
-
-“No. Trying to entertain them while the new waitress hunted for it.”
-
-“But, where was it? You hadn’t taken it?”
-
-“No, dear. The cook had borrowed it for a chafing-dish party of her
-own, and neglected to mention the fact to either Tom or me!”
-
-“Then, I suppose really that each family should possess two
-chafing-dishes,” said the brown-eyed blonde, thoughtfully.
-
-“Yes—or none at all,” said the president, sighing.
-
-“Of course I am very much interested in this discussion,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose; “but I wonder if a thorough knowledge of currency
-problems will do us any practical good. None of us are earning our own
-living, and when papa talks about currency problems at home it is only
-to point the moral that times are hard, so—”
-
-“There is where your knowledge will be most useful,” broke in the girl
-with the dimple in her chin; “you can bring it out to prove that times
-are _not_ hard, and run off a lot of statistics to prove your point.”
-
-“But I don’t know any statistics,” wailed the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“I’m afraid you have not been paying strict attention to-day,” said
-the president, gravely. “However, if you are in danger of losing in
-an argument, be sure to say, with a smile of superiority, ‘I suppose
-you know what the statistics are?’ Now, people are not in the habit
-of carrying statistics around, like cough-drops, and they will simply
-give up the battle on the spot. If they don’t, rattle off a lot of
-figures; they can’t refute them immediately, and if they attempt to do
-it afterward, you can just say, in a supercilious tone, ‘I thought we
-settled that matter yesterday.’”
-
-“Well, I declare,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “that is just my
-own father’s line of argument, and yet it never occurred to me that
-I could imitate it. I do hope you will take very good care of your
-health, Evelyn,” she added. “People who are very intellectual are _so_
-apt to die young.”
-
-“I shall,” said the president. “I’ve no notion of dying and having Tom
-a widower while he is still young enough to be attractive. It would not
-make so much difference after that, for I shall take care that he does
-not accumulate enough money to make him fascinating at seventy-five!”
-
-“Dear, dear,” sighed the blue-eyed girl, “I wonder why so few men have
-money until their hair is only a memory!”
-
-“Case of the wind being tempered to the shorn lamb,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin; “after all, a man must sacrifice something on
-the altar of success.”
-
-“Humph; isn’t it usually his wife?” said the girl with the classic
-profile.
-
-“Not if she is clever,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Girls,
-I once knew a woman whose husband made a fortune in two years, and
-he wouldn’t give her more than the merest pittance for dress and
-entertaining. In fact, the only bills he would pay, without grumbling,
-were those of the doctor. And what do you think she did? She selected
-the doctor whose bills were the most outrageous, and settled herself to
-be a chronic invalid. She said she was determined to get something out
-of her husband’s fortune.”
-
-“Good,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “I do hope she
-really enjoyed herself after that.”
-
-“I’m afraid not. You see, the doctor seemed anxious to earn his money,
-and insisted that she had some desperate disease. I doubt if she really
-enjoyed his subsequent visits.”
-
-“All her husband’s fault, too,” sighed the brown-eyed blonde, “and yet,
-I doubt if she reproached him for it. It seems to be a woman’s province
-to suffer in silence.”
-
-“Yes, I’ve often heard my mother make that very remark to my father,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I had rather not quote his
-reply. Girls, I heard the funniest story yesterday; Annie wouldn’t tell
-me who was the heroine of it, really, sometimes she is as provoking as
-a man. I’ll be even with her, however, for I’ll never rest until I find
-out who it was, then I shall tell everybody, and Annie will never be
-able to convince her that she didn’t tell the whole. It seems that this
-girl had quarreled with the man to whom she was engaged, and a week
-later she received a letter addressed in his handwriting. She did think
-of taking it to a mind reader, but it was near the end of the month,
-and she hadn’t the money, so—”
-
-“By the way, Emily, dear, when can you come to lunch with me?” broke in
-the girl with the eyeglasses. “I don’t see half as much of you as I’d
-like to, and—”
-
-“Any day you like, dear. Where was I? Oh! She hadn’t the money, and the
-tea kettle happened to be handy, so she—”
-
-“But, why not open it with a hair-pin, like any other letter?” asked
-the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“She wanted to return it unopened if she didn’t like its contents. It
-proved to be perfectly horrid; he not only didn’t acknowledge that he
-was in the wrong, but he actually brought forward facts to prove that
-she was! Of course, no girl would endure that, so—”
-
-“Do you mean to say that Annie told you that?” asked the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “I didn’t think it possible that any girl—”
-
-“Oh, I don’t see any harm in that; of course every girl wants her own
-way. Well, she sealed up the letter again, wrote on it, ‘Returned
-unopened’ and sent it back.”
-
-“H’m,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I was thinking that might
-have been Clarissa, but she is too intellectual to do anything so
-clever. Anyhow, I’m glad she got the better of him.”
-
-“But she didn’t, dear. She discovered, after the messenger had been
-gone an hour, that she had sealed up the envelope without replacing the
-letter in it! Can any of you guess who it was that—”
-
-“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but if I had done such a thing, I
-should never have trusted Annie with it. Why, are you going, dear?”
-
-“I’m going over to Annie’s this very minute,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “I—I have something to say to her that will touch even
-_her_ hardened conscience!”
-
-“So it was Marion, after all,” mused the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, after the door had closed behind her friend; “well, at any rate,
-after this Annie will tell me the whole of a story when she begins it.”
-
-“I must say, though, that if I was in her place it would be a long time
-before I began one,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“So you, too, have been confiding in Annie?” said the blue-eyed girl,
-sweetly. “By the way, I am to stay over night with her, but I promise
-you that whatever she may repeat will be safe with me.”
-
-“While we are discussing currency problems, I want to say what a
-nuisance the check system is,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-“I always did hate to get my money in that way, and I had an experience
-the other day which surely ought to cure my father of giving them to
-me.”
-
-“Mercy, you weren’t suspected of being a forger, were you?” asked the
-president, turning pale.
-
-“N—no, I believe not, but—it happened that my father gave me a check
-when I was going shopping, and I found before I cashed it that I must
-have five dollars more. Father had gone to Indianapolis, and mother,
-well—the fact is, that she will not loan me money any more, because
-I sometimes forget to return it. I didn’t know what to do until I
-suddenly remembered that Ned Goldie was the person who had to cash the
-check for me at the bank; then I knew I was safe. Pshaw, it just shows
-that you can never depend on a man!”
-
-“He surely did not refuse to cash it?” asked the president.
-
-“N—no, but he—girls, I’ll tell you just what I did. I said, ‘By the
-way, Mr. Goldie, just give me five dollars more, will you? Father can
-make it right next time he comes in.’ And, if you will credit the fact,
-he actually said he couldn’t do it. A man with whom I had danced the
-german the evening before!”
-
-“I never believed Ned Goldie would be so stingy,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin. “What excuse did he make?”
-
-“Said it was against the rules of the bank, but he would be delighted
-to _lend_ me the extra five dollars. Did you ever hear of such
-impertinence in your life? As soon as my father comes home, I shall
-tell him that he must transfer his account to another bank, for after
-this I feel that Mr. Goldie is not a person to be trusted with money!”
-
-“Dear, dear,” said the president, gravely, “that is very bad. Don’t
-mention it outside of the club, girls; for if the bank directors found
-that he was being rude to the daughter of one of their customers he
-would lose his position at once. And there may be some apology or
-explanation he can make to your father, too, dear; though I confess I
-don’t see what it can be. Well, girls, I’m afraid we must adjourn, and
-I must say frankly that I am pleased with the work we have done to-day.
-The only reason that I suggested such a weighty topic for discussion
-was, that Tom had declared that the club was unable to grapple with it.
-After that, of course the only thing possible was to show him that he
-was wrong.”
-
-“Which you can now do conclusively,” said the girl with the Roman nose,
-“and I am quite sure he will be surprised at the novelty of some of the
-arguments advanced this afternoon!”
-
-“What is it, dear?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin, as she
-and the blue-eyed girl turned the corner. “You have been so bright and
-cheerful to-day, that I am sure something is seriously wrong.”
-
-“Indeed there is. Jack has behaved abominably! It was enough when he
-told Effie that Frances is the most amiable girl he ever knew; but—”
-
-“That proves conclusively that he is not engaged to her, dear. No man
-ever knows anything about a girl’s temper until he _is_ engaged to her.”
-
-“Oh, if you want to defend him, I shall say no more; but I did think—”
-
-“But, I don’t want to defend him. I only—”
-
-“Then, all I’ve got to say, Emily Marshmallow, is that you are
-prejudiced against the poor fellow. I might have known that from
-the start. I only wish I had not taken your advice and broken my
-engagement.”
-
-“But, you didn’t do it on my advice,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin; “it was all done before you said a word to me about it.”
-
-“Well, anyhow, I knew you would advise me to do it; and now you are
-not satisfied with what I’ve done. But go on, don’t spare me—I am too
-miserable to care to defend myself! I—I don’t believe I shall live very
-long, anyhow. I shall tell them to give you my marquise ring, as a
-token of forgiveness, when I’m gone. I hope you will remember me when
-you look at it—and be sure to notice if the stones are quite secure in
-their setting.”
-
-“I w—will; I promise you,” sobbed the girl with the dimple in her chin;
-“but don’t you think a trip—well a trip to Old Point Comfort might save
-your life. They tell me it is very gay there now!”
-
-The blue-eyed girl shook her head. “Nothing can save me now, dear; why
-I can hook all my gowns now without holding my breath, and yesterday I
-ate no luncheon at all—took nothing between breakfast and dinner but a
-couple of cream sodas, a box of caramels, and a cup or two of afternoon
-tea. You know nobody can live long at that rate. Well, I am sorry for
-Jack Bittersweet when I am gone; a lifetime of remorse and—and Frances
-is not a pleasant thing to look forward to!”
-
-“You haven’t told me yet about Jack, dear, so—”
-
-“True; and some one should know the true story when I am no more. Here
-is the place where they make such nice chocolate; let us stop in and
-drink a cup while I tell you. You take the chair facing the mirror,
-dear,” she said, as they selected a table, “my personal appearance is
-no longer a matter of importance to me.”
-
-“You said that Jack—”
-
-“Has behaved abominably. It is a long story, but I—I shall probably
-never tell you another long story, so you can afford to listen to this
-one. You know the little beggar boy with the beautiful brown eyes that
-I told you about a week or two ago?”
-
-“Yes; but about Jack. I—”
-
-“This is about Jack. I told you how I sympathized with that boy’s sad
-story, and went with him to investigate it, didn’t I?”
-
-“Yes, but you never told me whether his home was—”
-
-“I didn’t get there. He led me through the most awful slums, telling
-me all the time how his father would beat him, when he failed to bring
-money home, and how he knew I was the beautiful lady he had dreamed
-of, as soon as he saw me.”
-
-“Well? Go on, dear.”
-
-“Oh, nothing; only the horrid little wretch suddenly dived down an
-alley and disappeared; and, oh, Emily, I—I believe he made a face at me
-as he went! Worse yet, when I felt for my pocketbook it was gone, and I
-had to walk all the way home!”
-
-“Oh, my goodness, had he taken it?”
-
-“I surely had not given it to him. I had almost forgotten the affair,
-when the cook came up yesterday to tell me that he was in the kitchen,
-and had brought my pocketbook back, with a long story about having seen
-another boy take it. Said he had followed him, when he left me, and
-taken it away from him, in turn.”
-
-“Well, I declare; and there was all your money intact after you had
-doubted his honesty!”
-
-“Not a cent of it, dear; and the cook said he was wearing a nice new
-suit. I told her she had better go back to the kitchen, and count the
-spoons, and I called loudly after her, ‘Tell him I never want to see
-his deceitful face again!’ The housemaid had come to the door of my
-room, too, and was trying to put in a word, but I wouldn’t listen to
-her.”
-
-“Trying to excuse the little wretch; the idea!”
-
-“That was what I thought. But, oh, Emily, just then the front door
-closed with a bang which shook the house to its foundations, and then I
-noticed for the first time that the housemaid was trying to give me a
-card!”
-
-“Good gracious, Dorothy, you never mean to say—”
-
-“That it was Jack’s! Indeed I do. He had heard me scream over the
-bannister ‘Tell him to go away; I never want to see his deceitful face
-again.’ And he—he must have thought I meant it for him. Oh, Emily, was
-there ever such a miserable girl as I!”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter VI
-
-The Pioneer New Woman
-
-
-“I think the topic for to-day’s discussion should be ‘The Pioneer New
-Woman,’” observed the president of the Teacup Club. “Have you all got
-that down in your note-books? You don’t know how it pleases me to see
-your methodical ways; it shows the real intellectual advancement of our
-club. Why, for my part, I have gained so much that I am not afraid to
-discuss any subject with any one.”
-
-“We have advanced,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “I feel it, too. By
-the way, has any one seen my note-book? I haven’t had it for three
-weeks—are you sure that none of you have gotten it by mistake? I forgot
-to put my name in it, and—”
-
-“I know where it is,” said the girl with the classic profile. “You
-loaned it to Kate—she told me so herself,—in order that she might read
-up on some of the topics we have already discussed, and so qualify for
-admission to the club.”
-
-“I shall blackball her, for my part,” spoke up the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “She is so frivolous that she would drag down our high
-standard. Besides, she once left me out when she gave a luncheon, and
-told people that it was because she had all the decorations in yellow,
-and feared they would not shade with my complexion.”
-
-“Oh, well, Kate is color blind, any way,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses.
-
-“Yes, and she is a little deaf, too,” remarked the president, “and
-really does not know just how sharp her own speeches sound.”
-
-“Perhaps not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “but I shall
-blackball her just the same. By the way, Alice is giving a birthday
-dinner party next week—twenty-six covers, one for each year. Clever
-idea, isn’t it?”
-
-“For whose birthday?” asked the girl with the classic profile. “Her
-own? Ah, really, I knew she was forgetful, but this is carrying it too
-far.”
-
-“I wonder why otherwise sensible people will tell such stories about
-their ages,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“I’m sure I don’t know,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Neither do I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Of course, it doesn’t matter who knows my age, as yet,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Nor mine,” remarked the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Nor mine, either,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“No, indeed,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “I got twenty-two birthday
-gifts the other day on my twenty-second birthday.”
-
-“Are you twenty-two? Why, so am I!” cried the girl with the classic
-profile.
-
-“Just my own age, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“And mine; how odd!” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“That is one of the advantages of the new womanhood,” said the
-president; “its beautiful candor. Now, I tell everybody that I am
-twenty-two years old.”
-
-“I wish you would tell Mrs. Van Tompkins,” said the girl with the
-classic profile. “She wouldn’t take my word for it the other day,
-though I told her that I couldn’t be mistaken, as you had told me so at
-least six times in the last eighteen months.”
-
-“Cora asked me the other day if there was any age qualification for
-membership in this club,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses, during
-the slight pause which followed the last speech. “She says she has not
-yet celebrated her twenty-first birthday.”
-
-“Born on the 29th of February, then, wasn’t she?” asked the brown-eyed
-blonde. “Yes, it is true that the new womanhood is breaking down old
-traditions. We are not at all jealous of each other now.”
-
-“Of course not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “we have
-learned to value our own attractions properly. Why, the other day I
-stopped Amy and Fred to tell her there was a dab of powder on her
-nose. Formerly another girl would have been jealous of her dazzling
-complexion, and let her go on as she was.”
-
-“How sweet of you,” murmured the girl with the eyeglasses; “and yet, I
-doubt if she was really grateful.”
-
-“That was not the question, dear; I—”
-
-“Oh, dear,” broke in the president, “if my watch is right it is time to
-adjourn, and yet. Why, here is Elise! What has made you late to-day?”
-
-“A discussion with a stupid man,” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
-“Only think, he actually said that no woman was mathematician enough
-to count up her own birthdays correctly. I was so enraged—why, he said
-that ‘I am twenty-two’ is the same thing to a girl as ‘Polly wants a
-cracker’ is to a parrot, or the Spanish fandango to a guitar player—but
-what on earth is wrong? You all look so queer.”
-
-“It’s nothing at all, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “We were just
-looking at your new hat, that is all. I think your watch must have
-stopped, Evelyn dear, for mine is only—”
-
-“Perhaps it has,” said the president. “Tom talks so much, sometimes,
-that I quite forget to wind it.”
-
-“Oh, well, it needs a rest sometimes,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “I know that mine—”
-
-“Oh, dear!” said the president, “I know I am a fright to-day, and
-nothing but a sense of duty has brought me here. Why, I actually have
-not had a chance to curl my hair properly for six days, and—”
-
-“Been getting ready your new gown, have you?” said the girl with the
-classic profile. “I only wish I had mine off my mind.”
-
-“It wasn’t my new gown,” said the president. “It was Tom. He has had
-a heavy cold, and the house smells so strong of camphor that there
-will not be a moth within a block of it this year. I don’t mind being
-bidden a tragic farewell at mid-day, but I do mind being waked up at
-midnight for that purpose.”
-
-“But it was nothing serious, was it?” asked the brown-eyed blonde. “I
-thought the other day, when he came to the top of the stairs and called
-to you that he was dying, that a man who was breathing his last would
-manage to do it with less noise.”
-
-“Oh, pshaw!” said the president. “That was nothing to the time he waked
-me up at one o’clock in the morning to tell me that he was dying, but
-if I let that mug-faced young preacher who used to come to see me,
-officiate at his funeral he would come back and haunt me. It took a
-hot-water bottle, a mustard plaster, two hot toddies, and the camphor
-to quiet him that time.”
-
-“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “I wonder why a man
-always thinks a cold or a boil fatal—when he has it?”
-
-“Perhaps he doesn’t himself,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “but
-he always wants the women of the family to act as if they did.”
-
-“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “but do you know what
-Dolly does? As soon as her husband complains of being ill she begins to
-weep and tear her hair and lament that he will die, she knows he will.
-That frightens him, and when she insists upon putting him to bed, and
-giving him a bowl of hot ginger tea (which he detests), he pretends
-that he was only joking, and flees to the office, when she calls him up
-every half-hour to ask how he is. She says he seldom complains of his
-health nowadays.”
-
-“You know my sister Amelia, don’t you?” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “Well, her husband had a heavy cold last week. He waked her
-up at two o’clock to tell her that he was dying, and that he knew
-he had not been a good husband to her, and could not go without her
-forgiveness. She wept, and said that he had not been very nice to her,
-and had never given her half enough money. Upon this, the dying man sat
-up, and began to argue the case. From argument they passed to something
-warmer. He went down to the office next day, and hasn’t said a word
-about dying since.”
-
-“I wouldn’t mind Tom thinking he was dying once in awhile,” said the
-president, “if he’d only allow me the same privilege occasionally. He
-won’t, though; he comes in and says, cheerfully, ‘Oh, you’ll soon be
-all right. You should have seen how much worse I was once when I had
-it, and never missed a day at the office, either!’ The last time he
-did that my throat was too sore for me to reply properly, and I really
-thought I should die of rage.”
-
-“And no wonder,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “As if a
-woman couldn’t always stand more than a man, anyhow! For instance,
-I wonder how many of them could go out in thin shoes, and without
-overshoes, as we do. And yet you never hear a girl say that she has
-caught cold in that way.”
-
-“Never,” said the blue-eyed girl; “we have too much fortitude. My
-cousin Edith’s husband used to be always complaining of his health,
-until this last winter, I wondered what had caused his miraculous
-recovery, until she told me a few days ago. She was away from home, and
-received a telegram, saying that she must come at once if she wanted to
-see him alive. The message was delayed, being improperly addressed, and
-when she reached home, expecting to find him dead, he met her at the
-door. It seems that he had called in a new doctor, who was the cause of
-his miraculous recovery. He said he would never have another physician
-to prescribe for him as long as he lived.”
-
-“Completely cured, eh?” said the president.
-
-“Not that time. Next time he was ill, and the new doctor appeared, he
-turned out to be an old admirer of Edith’s. Her husband is frightfully
-jealous, and Edith’s potential second husband is a very real person to
-him. Edith, as nurse, always went out into the hall to talk with the
-doctor after his call. She says she is sure that she did not remain
-away so _very_ long; but when she came back, after the first visit, her
-husband sulked; after the second, he raved; and after the third, he
-got up, declaring he’d live, if only to spite them both. And now, the
-doctor points to him as an example of his remarkable healing powers,”
-she added.
-
-“Speaking of old sweethearts,” said the president, “what do you think
-happened to me the other day? I was calling on Mrs. Vansmith and her
-guest, as she had requested. Both of them happened to be out, and, to
-my annoyance, I found I had no cards with me. At last I found one of
-Tom’s in my card-case, and I left that, knowing that Mrs. Vansmith
-would understand.”
-
-“Well, and didn’t she?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Perhaps. But the visitors didn’t. It turned out that she used to
-be engaged to Tom; while I was in the kindergarten, I suppose. It
-seems that his card was handed to her; and you should have seen the
-unbelieving smile with which she listened to my explanation of the
-matter!”
-
-“You poor, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl, “you must have been as angry
-as if somebody had trodden on your gown. A rather unpleasant thing
-happened to Florence the other day, too; Molly was calling on her,
-and a note was handed in. She thought it was from Teddy Crœsus, and
-pretending that she had ink on her fingers, asked Molly to open it for
-her, which she did.”
-
-“How stupid of Molly; she might have known that it was some trick of
-Florence’s,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Was it a proposal from
-Teddy?”
-
-“It wasn’t from Teddy at all; handwritings are so much alike nowadays.
-It was a bill from the hairdresser, of whom Florence had bought those
-lovely little curls which cluster around her brow—and Molly read it
-aloud, as she had requested.”
-
-“But who told you about it?” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Molly. You didn’t suppose it was Florence, did you? I declare, it made
-me feel like trying to persuade both of them to join our club. There
-isn’t a girl in it that would do such a mean thing, and the example
-might—”
-
-“No, it wouldn’t; they are too frivolous,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “Oh, girls, I sometimes wish that the men who dance with
-us could hear the serious discussions which go on in this club,—so
-harmoniously, too.”
-
-“True,” said the president, “not one unkind word has been spoken, even
-of the absent, since we organized. I wonder if as much can be said of
-any other club.”
-
-“I doubt it,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and it isn’t as if we couldn’t
-think of clever things to say about people, either.”
-
-“Of course not,” returned the girl with the Roman nose; “why, I know
-some things, even about the other members, which—”
-
-“So do I,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Why, I heard the
-other day that you—”
-
-“Of course I wouldn’t mention, for the world,” finished the girl with
-the Roman nose, in some agitation.
-
-“I thought not, dear; it would hardly be wise,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses, “for you, especially.”
-
-“I’m sure, I don’t see why I, es—”
-
-“Don’t you, dear? But, then, you never were clever,” said the
-president. “Yes, I am very proud of the amiability we have all
-displayed since joining the club. I must say that I didn’t expect—”
-
-“I don’t see why not,” said the blue-eyed girl. “As for me, I can get
-along with anybody, so I was not at all afraid.”
-
-“Yes, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “your tongue would be a
-protection, even if—”
-
-“Other people were even _more_ envious of me? That is hardly possible,
-dear; but I thank you for your good opinion of me.”
-
-“Don’t overwhelm me with gratitude, dearest; I really do not deserve
-it.”
-
-“But, luckily for you, love, people seldom get their deserts.”
-
-“Oh, girls, don’t quarrel,” said the president, wringing her hands;
-“I’ve always wanted this to be different from a man’s club, and now—”
-
-“Really, Evelyn, you seem to be the one who is doing the quarreling,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde, tartly. “As for me, I am naturally amiable,
-and—”
-
-“It is not your fault if your temper _is_ a bit soured by repeated
-disappointments,” broke in the blue-eyed girl; “of course not.
-Everybody says it is no wonder.”
-
-“I—I resign from this club,” sobbed the brown-eyed blonde. “I’ll not
-stay here another minute to be insulted!”
-
-“Girls, girls,” said the president, “do be reasonable. I—”
-
-“This is the first time _I_ was ever accused of being unreasonable,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose; “and all I’ve got to say is, that I
-pity Tom from the bottom of my heart, and—”
-
-“I don’t doubt but that you’d be glad to comfort him—if I was dead,”
-sobbed the president. “If this is all I am to get for keeping you at
-peace during the meetings, I’ll just resign, and let you run the club
-to suit yourselves. And a p-pretty mess you-you’ll make of it!” And
-she retired behind her handkerchief.
-
-“I’ll resign, too, this very minute,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose. “I knew just how it would be when Dorothy asked me to join the
-club, but—”
-
-“You were afraid to refuse, lest something happen, and you didn’t know
-all about it,” finished the blue-eyed girl. “Well, I wish to tender
-_my_ resignation from the club, to take effect at once.”
-
-“And so do I,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“And I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“I, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“W—why, then, there’s nobody left!” exclaimed the blue-eyed girl,
-gazing about the room in astonishment. “Oh, w—what will all the men of
-our set say when they hear of this!” she wailed.
-
-“I never thought of that!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I know
-well enough, though, without thinking,” she added.
-
-“They will say that women never _can_ agree among themselves,” sobbed
-the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and they will keep on saying it,
-in spite of the fact that it is a baseless libel!”
-
-“Of—of course, I am not an—angry, only hurt,” sobbed the president.
-
-“I am not angry at all,” said the blue-eyed girl, “only distressed that
-the others—”
-
-“I’m sure I—I haven’t a hard feeling against any—anybody,” wailed the
-girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Mercy, no,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“If anybody is sorry for having hurt my feelings, I am quite ready to
-forgive it,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“And so am I,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Then, I don’t see that any of us need resign,” said the president.
-“Does anybody remember the topic under discussion?”
-
-“‘The Pioneer New Woman,’” said the blue-eyed girl, “and a very
-interesting topic it is, I’m sure.”
-
-“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, as she tucked her
-handkerchief into her belt.
-
-“One thing is always a mystery to me,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin; “why does no female creature ever acknowledge that she is a
-new woman until she is quite an old one?”
-
-“Oh, well, by that time her years will entitle her to a seat in a
-street car, even if she wears bloomers,” thoughtfully replied the
-president.
-
-“Who really _was_ the pioneer new woman?” asked the girl with the
-classic profile.
-
-“Eve; although, she did not call herself by that name, I believe,”
-returned the blue-eyed girl. “So far as I can see, the new woman is
-just like all the rest of us—she wants to get everything she can out
-of the world, and give as little as possible in return.”
-
-“And it is perfectly natural that she should,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “The only way we can make the men give us what we really
-want, is by asking for a great deal more, so that they will think
-themselves lucky if we compromise on what we originally decided to
-have.”
-
-“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the Roman nose, making an entry into
-her note-book, “I’ve been acting on that theory all my life, but I
-never thought to formulate it.”
-
-“Pardon me for the suggestion,” said the president, “but I hope you are
-not in the habit of leaving that note-book around where any man can see
-it.”
-
-“It wouldn’t make any difference if I did, dear. I went to such
-a fashionable school that no one but myself can ever read my
-chirography—I can’t myself, if it was written long enough ago for me to
-have quite forgotten what I said.”
-
-“Then, you needn’t be uneasy about any old love letters which have not
-been returned,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Not at all. Nobody could tell whether I had written a promise of
-undying affection or a recipe for hair tonic.”
-
-“I do wish my father had sent me to the same school,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde, sorrowfully.
-
-“Pshaw, old letters don’t tell half as many tales as old photographs,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses, sighing. “I know a girl who had been
-engaged to a man who returned everything she had given him except one
-photograph. She couldn’t refuse to let him keep it when he begged so
-hard.”
-
-“He had probably lost it, and didn’t know how to account for its
-absence,” said the president.
-
-“No, he hadn’t. Well, six years later, she became engaged to another
-man. I fancy she must have told him some stories about her age.”
-
-“It’s always better to understate rather than overstate a case,” said
-the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“So my old nurse used to say. Well, when she was about to be married,
-her old lover sent her a beautiful present, and with it an envelope
-addressed to her fiancé.”
-
-“Which she should have opened herself,” said the president, promptly.
-
-“He happened to be present when the box was opened, dear. The envelope
-contained the photograph taken seven years before—”
-
-“Why didn’t she say that—”
-
-“It was a picture of her elder sister? She did, dear. What really
-caused the trouble was her own name, and the date on the back of it,
-coupled with the statement that it was taken on her twenty-second
-birthday!”
-
-“Oh, my goodness, how sly men are?” said the president. “And to think
-that never, as long as she lived, could that girl tell him what she
-really thought of him!”
-
-“I know. She used to say that she sometimes regretted that she _hadn’t_
-married him.”
-
-“Oh, well, he is probably married to somebody else, by this time,
-anyhow,” said the president, “though I doubt if his wife would fully
-appreciate the enormity of his behavior, since it was toward another
-woman.”
-
-“Never mind,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “people are sure to be
-punished in some way or another. I wouldn’t get up early on Sunday
-morning, and go to church if I did not firmly believe that.”
-
-“Goodness me,” said the president, “it must be awfully late, girls, and
-I promised Tom to adjourn early and meet him down town. I do wonder if
-he has been waiting for me all this time!”
-
-“I’ve seen Jack,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, as the
-friends went down the stairs; “met him on the street this morning.”
-
-“And, I suppose you hurried right on, and never said a civil word to
-him,” returned the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Indeed I didn’t. I called after him to wait for me, and—”
-
-“And I suppose he thought that I had told you to talk to him, since
-you were so eager. You needn’t tell me a word that you said—I don’t
-want to hear anything about it. Did—did he look sort of hollow-eyed and
-worn?”
-
-“‘M—I can’t say that he did. But he said that he thought he must give
-up chafing-dish suppers.”
-
-“I should think he must have bad dreams,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-viciously.
-
-“He—he told me that he had called at your house the other day, and—”
-
-“I suppose you let him go on thinking that I meant that message for
-him. A nice friend you are, Emily Marshmallow!”
-
-“Why, Dorothy, I—”
-
-“You don’t surely mean that you explained it all, and actually let him
-think that I wanted to apologize! Well, if anybody had told me such a
-thing of you, I never would have believed it.”
-
-“No, I didn’t,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I didn’t
-say a word, for just then Frances joined us; and if _you_ are clever
-enough to get a private word with any man, after Frances sees him, I am
-not!”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter VII
-
-Woman in Legislation
-
-
-“Let us discuss ‘Woman in Legislation,’ to-day,” said the president. “I
-had written you a note, Marion, to prepare a paper on it, but I found
-it in my desk this morning.”
-
-“Too bad,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I should have been
-delighted to do it.”
-
-“Why, Marion,” cried the girl with the Roman nose, “have you forgotten?
-You said you were too busy painting dinner cards to touch it. That was
-when I told you that Evelyn wanted you to do it, you remember.”
-
-“No, I don’t,” snapped the girl with the eyeglasses. “Of course I
-shan’t have a minute to prepare a paper for next week; but I should
-have been delighted to—”
-
-“Girls,” said the president, “only think! Tom says this club is
-actually making me masculine.”
-
-“Mercy, you must have convinced him that you had the better of him in
-an argument,” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“No—but I forgot to mail some letters he intrusted to me the other day
-when he was going out of town. By the way, it seems to me that when
-legislation is in the hands of women. What are you girls whispering
-about over there in the corner?”
-
-“We are only comparing samples of bicycle suitings,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin. “Dorothy has a larger selection than I, and—”
-
-“Why, I have a lot of them, myself,” said the president. “Has anybody
-seen my hand-bag since I came in?”
-
-“Here it is,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I’ve just been
-comparing your samples with mine, and I find—”
-
-“Goodness me, I’m late,” said the brown-eyed blonde, as she bounced
-into the room. “I just stopped on my way here to look at a new design
-for bicycle suits, and—”
-
-“I’ve been trying for half a block to catch you, Frances,” said the
-girl with the classic profile, as she opened the door, in turn; “I’ve
-been looking at the new bicycles, and was detained longer than I
-expected.”
-
-“Oh, shall you get a new wheel this year?” asked the president.
-
-“No, dear,” returned the girl with the classic profile; “but, of
-course, I wanted to see what they are like.”
-
-“Naturally,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “My dears, you never
-heard of such luck as mine. You know papa said I shouldn’t have a new
-bicycle this year, if I had to walk—”
-
-“Oh, if you call that luck,” said the blue-eyed girl, “my father said
-the same thing.”
-
-“So did mine,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Wait until you hear the rest,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I
-had my old machine set in order, and expected to have to do with it
-all this season. The other day, I went into the store-room to have a
-look at it, and, to my surprise, found it all splashed with mud, the
-enamel scratched, and—”
-
-“The cook had been riding it, of course,” broke in the president.
-
-“I knew that at once, and I went to tell mamma she must discharge her
-on the spot. However, mamma was lying down with a headache, and as
-I had some shopping, a luncheon, two teas and a dinner on hand that
-day, I had no chance to speak to her. Two days later, I remembered it,
-and went in to look at it—I knew that mamma was so prejudiced against
-bicycling that I must make the case very bad to excite her sympathy.
-It was bad enough, by this time, too; one pedal was all bent, the
-handle-bar was broken, and the enamel was a sight!”
-
-“I hope you made your mother discharge that cook on the spot!” said the
-blue-eyed girl.
-
-“I rushed right up to mamma’s room to do it. I opened the door, and a
-familiar odor greeted me—a combination of arnica and witch hazel, and—”
-
-“You forgot all about the cook. Had your mother fallen downstairs?”
-
-“No; she hadn’t. The cook had been trying to teach her to ride my
-bicycle; she had a black eye, a sprained shoulder, and a skinned face.
-The cook had gone home with a dislocated collar-bone, and I had to wait
-on mamma, and do all the cooking for two days!”
-
-“And you call that luck!” groaned the president.
-
-“Not that, dear. But mamma gave me a beautiful new wheel for keeping
-the whole thing from papa’s ears. And I sold the old one for enough to
-buy me a lovely new suit,” she added, triumphantly.
-
-“I am glad _somebody_ has had a stroke of luck,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “As for me, I’ve just had an object-lesson in the selfishness
-of this world, which is enough to make a misanthrope of me for life.”
-
-“Mercy, has your grandmother decided to buy a wheel for herself instead
-of for you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“No. But you see it scratches the enamel to learn on a wheel—not to
-mention the other accidents which may befall it. Now, Nell’s bicycle
-is old, and I sent to borrow it to ride while I was taking my lessons.
-She actually refused it, unless I would lend her my new one while I had
-hers. Did you ever hear of such selfishness in your life?”
-
-“Never,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “By the way, I
-suppose Jack Bittersweet will teach you to ride?”
-
-“Why, yes; but how did you guess it?” There was a note of triumph in
-her voice.
-
-“Oh, that was easy enough. He is always teaching somebody, you know. I
-told him the other day that I was afraid people would soon think him a
-professional.”
-
-“B—but he told me that he only teaches people whom he—likes,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde, faintly.
-
-“Why, of course, dear. But, Jack hasn’t a bit of discretion; he likes
-everything that wears petticoats, I verily believe.”
-
-“Oh—I— By the way, Evelyn, dear, what is to-day’s topic? You had
-started the discussion when I came, and I didn’t like to interrupt you
-to ask.”
-
-“It is ‘Woman in Legislation,’” said the president, after a peep at her
-note-book, “By the way, Frances, I know the cheapest place in town for
-arnica, if you want—”
-
-“Mine doesn’t cost anything, dear. Papa always has a bill at the drug
-store. I know the clerk, and he has promised if I use a very large
-quantity to put it down as toilet soap and postage stamps. Papa has
-never ridden you know, and he might not understand.”
-
-“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What a comfort
-bicycling is, anyhow. For instance, if you meet a strange man, and the
-conversation lags—”
-
-“Get it on bicycles, and it runs smoothly enough,” said the president.
-
-“I wish _I_ could do the same,” wailed the brown-eyed blonde. “Well
-it is lucky for me that the dancing season is over, for my arms are a
-perfect sight.”
-
-“Oh, if it is only your arms!” said the girl with the Roman nose,
-cheerfully. “_I_ always fell on my face when I was learning. The only
-comforting thing about that was, that I soon became unrecognizable, and
-could fall right up and down my own street without a soul knowing who I
-was. It was very convenient, too, for they hadn’t far to take me when I
-had a really bad accident.”
-
-“How long did you have to wait to sit for your photograph?” asked the
-blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Six weeks, dear—and then it had to be a profile.”
-
-“Elizabeth had rather a hard time of it, too,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin; “she would learn in her lovely new suit, and by the
-time she could ride, she hadn’t enough of it left to make a bathing
-costume.”
-
-“Tom tells a rather good bicycle story,” observed the president. “He
-met a member of his club, who is a noted scorcher, the other day. He
-was wheeling along a very disreputable specimen of a woman’s machine.
-‘Hello,’ said Tom, ‘got yourself into trouble?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply,
-‘I ran into a woman up yonder, and I’m afraid it will be cheaper to buy
-her a new wheel than to have the old one repaired.’ ‘Humph,’ said Tom,
-who knows him pretty well, ‘it’s a wonder you didn’t just ride away
-and leave her, when you found what you had done.’ ‘I did,’ said the
-scorcher, ‘but it didn’t do me any good.’ ‘Policeman saw you, eh?’ ‘No.
-The woman turned out to be my wife!’”
-
-“Good!” said the blue-eyed girl. “I came very near not getting my
-bicycle last year. Papa said I should have one if I learned to make a
-good pie. I agreed to do it, but I had reckoned without the cook. She
-said flatly that she wouldn’t have me messing up her kitchen. Finally,
-I compromised by agreeing to trim her a hat, if she would make the
-pie. It was really quite the same you know.”
-
-“Quite,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“And did it turn out all right?” asked the president.
-
-“The hat did; but the pie—well, the cook had lived with us for three
-years, and that was the first time she had turned out an uneatable pie!”
-
-“But, why didn’t you ask your father to let you try again?” asked the
-girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“I did, dear; but I took no chances that time; I bought the pie from
-the Woman’s Exchange. And I must say that I think I quite deserved the
-bicycle after all I had been through to earn it.”
-
-“Indeed you did,” said the girl with the classic profile. “By the way,
-Emily, I hear that you and Dick had an almost fatal quarrel while you
-were both learning.”
-
-“We did,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “It happened this
-way: I was able to ride at least two blocks without assistance, so
-I got up very early, and went to the park alone to practice. I was
-getting along very well until I heard somebody coming up behind me at
-a terrible pace. That made me so nervous that I fell right off. The
-cyclist who had frightened me was Dick, and he actually kept right on
-without offering to help me!”
-
-“Perhaps he didn’t know it was you,” suggested the girl with the Roman
-nose.
-
-“Yes, he did; but he kept right on, and a perfect stranger had to take
-me and my bicycle home. Two hours later he appeared with his arm in a
-sling, and explained. He said it was first time he had ridden outside
-of the riding school, and he had gotten a terrific pace which he
-couldn’t have stopped if a rich uncle had been in his way. He said that
-if something in his machine hadn’t broken, he verily believed he’d have
-circled the globe without stopping!”
-
-“So you forgave him, didn’t you? You always were amiable,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Ye—es. Especially as he offered to have my bicycle repaired; papa
-having declared the last time that he wouldn’t pay another cent for
-repairs, if it stood in the attic all summer!”
-
-“That was good of you. Some girls would not have been so just,” said
-the president.
-
-“Oh, don’t praise me too much,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, modestly. “Nobody who knew me happened to be in sight when it
-occurred—else I might not have let him off so easily.”
-
-“Dear me, how modest you are,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I never knew a
-human being with so little vanity in my life.”
-
-“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Did I tell you
-about Florence’s latest trouble? No? Well, you know that horrid Mr.
-Brownsmith, who rides beautifully, begged to be allowed to teach her.
-She accepted, and as soon as she had learned to ride well, she wondered
-how to get rid of him.”
-
-“Why didn’t she ask her father to—”
-
-“Forbid him to the house? That’s just what she did. I believe you have
-heard this story before.”
-
-“Yes. And her father?” queried the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Absolutely refused to do it. Said he was the finest young man he knew,
-and only wondered that he cared for her society.”
-
-“Well, I declare! And Florence?”
-
-“Would have had to treat him just like anybody else, if he hadn’t heard
-all about it, and stopped calling of his own accord. Now, every time
-her father sees him, he asks why he hasn’t been to the house for so
-long!”
-
-“How unreasonable men are to be sure—Florence’s father, in particular.
-Why, he actually refuses to speak to Dickey Doolittle, whose third
-cousin married a British baronet, and who has all his garments made in
-London!” said the president.
-
-“I know—he says it makes no difference to him _where_ Dickey gets his
-clothes; so long as he pays for them promptly,” said the blue-eyed
-girl.
-
-“Which is the last thing Dickey would even think of doing,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Oh, well, he may _think_ of it,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “I suppose that even Dickey thinks sometimes.”
-
-“You have been reading the comic papers again,” said the president,
-severely. “Whenever I hear old jokes I—”
-
-“No, dear,” said the girl with the classic profile, sweetly, “but I had
-a long talk with your husband only yesterday.”
-
-“Dear me,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, rousing herself
-from a reverie, “I’m afraid I’ve not been paying attention to the
-discussion. I can’t even remember whether we decided that women should
-be legislators or not.”
-
-“I’m sorry to hear that,” said the president. “I fear it is too late
-to go over the discussion again for your benefit. I thought you were
-taking notes of it as we went along—I saw you jotting something down in
-your note-book.”
-
-“That was only my calculations for a bicycle suit. There must be
-something wrong about them, too, for I make it twenty-seven dollars,
-and I only have twenty-one dollars and thirty-eight cents to my name,
-even if somebody pays my car-fare home.”
-
-“I only make it twenty-six dollars and two cents,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, “and I have allowed for everything just the same as you have.”
-
-“But then you are so economical that your sums in addition always come
-out less than mine, dear. I think you had better go over it again; or
-let Evelyn do it for you.”
-
-“I make it twenty-eight dollars and sixty cents,” said the president.
-“Try it Frances, and see if I am right.”
-
-“Oh, don’t,” said the blue-eyed girl, “if anybody else adds it up, it
-may come out thirty dollars, and then I can’t afford it at all. Well,
-I do hope one thing,—that when women are legislators they will arrange
-that we all have more money to spend.”
-
-“Of course they will,” said the president, “else why should they
-bother to be legislators at all?”
-
-“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“What a comfort you are with your knowledge of parliamentary usage,”
-said the president.
-
-“Yes, I have gained that by joining this club, if I have gained nothing
-else,” replied the girl with the Roman nose. “I observe, too, that papa
-and the boys are less inclined to engage in argument with me than they
-were before they knew the kind of topics we discuss here. Not that I
-give myself any airs over it, of course,” she added.
-
-“Oh, none of us do that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “But there is
-another benefit which I derive from the club. Mamma allows me to spend
-a good deal more money on my wardrobe, now that she is afraid that I
-may begin to look intellectual if I’m not well dressed.”
-
-“Oh, speaking of bicycle suits; did you ever hear what happened to
-Molly’s old one?” asked the blue-eyed girl. “No? Well, she was
-determined to have a new one this year, so she put the old one away
-without any moth-balls, and—”
-
-“It was completely ruined by the moths, so that she had to get a new
-one?” asked the president.
-
-“No, it was comparatively uninjured; but the moths from it had got into
-all her brother’s spring garments, which were hanging up near it. Molly
-is thinking of going away on a nice long visit about the time that he
-discovers it.”
-
-“H’m; if I know anything about men, she had better,” said the
-president. “Poor Molly, I suppose she had meant to coax him for another
-suit. How unlucky that girl is, and she doesn’t in the least deserve
-her ill-luck, either.”
-
-“No. She often says it would be easier to bear if she did. Now, last
-year that very same brother was always coaxing her to ask Ida to pay
-her a visit. Finally, he said he’d give her fifty dollars if she would
-do it, and she thought she might as well be good-natured and oblige
-him. However, she was busy, and put it off a week or two, and when
-Ida’s letter of acceptance actually came he had fallen in love with
-another girl, and let Molly do all the entertaining!”
-
-“Just like a man. Did he give her the money?” asked the president.
-
-“No. He compromised on half, because Molly had put off asking her. And
-Ida stayed two weeks longer than she had been asked for, and made eyes
-all the time at the man Molly really liked herself.”
-
-“Yes, poor Molly,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “she says
-the next time her brother offers to pay her for having a girl to visit
-her, she will send the invitation by telegraph!”
-
-“And demand payment in advance,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “of course
-he would be willing to pay for the telegram, anyhow.”
-
-“Yes, and take it to the office, too,” said the president, with a sigh.
-“Tom used to send off all my telegrams before we were married—he always
-said it was too far to the office for me to go myself. Now, he says
-that the exercise will do me good.”
-
-“I suppose he doesn’t want to pay for the message,” said the blue-eyed
-girl.
-
-“Oh, I never pay for my telegrams, I always send them at receiver’s
-cost. People are so curious to know what is in a telegram that they pay
-without a murmur.”
-
-“H’m, I shall have to try that,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“But not on me,” cried the president. “I’ll never forgive you if you
-do. Oh, girls, did you hear the awful thing that happened to Milly
-when she sold her bicycle? No? Well, she only got ten dollars for it,
-because the man said it was in such an awful condition that he only
-took it to oblige her, and it would be a dead loss on his hands. He
-told her to come in in about ten days, and he’d have some second hand
-ones in such good condition that they would be the best bargains in
-town.”
-
-“That was very nice of him, since he made nothing on the transaction,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“So Milly thought. At the end of that time she went back, and found one
-that she liked very much, it being the same make as her old one. He
-wanted sixty dollars for it, but she beat him down to fifty, and took
-it home with her at once for fear he would change his mind. What do
-you think she found when she got home? That she had bought her own old
-machine back again!”
-
-“But how did she know that?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“By the number on the plate, goosie. He had put on new pedals, raised
-the seat a bit and given it a new coat of enamel—making forty dollars
-on the transaction! And when Milly wanted her husband to punish him for
-his rascality, he only laughed until she actually thought seriously of
-applying for a divorce!”
-
-“And no wonder,” said the blue-eyed girl. “One man will do a mean thing
-and another will uphold him. You don’t find women doing such things for
-each other!”
-
-“No, indeed,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “our own
-standard of feminine behavior is so high, that we hardly even give each
-other credit for the good things we do!”
-
-“I’ve often noticed that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “and I
-regret to see that men are unable to appreciate our lofty motives, and
-often set it down to envy.”
-
-“My goodness,” cried the president, with a guilty start, “it must
-be long past time to adjourn, and I don’t want the janitor to look
-at me as he did last time we were late. Why, he couldn’t have been
-more unpleasant if I had been his own wife! And the look which always
-reduces Tom to instant submission hadn’t the least effect upon him!”
-
-“I’ve been dying for an opportunity to speak to you all afternoon,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin, to the blue-eyed girl, as
-they turned the corner, “I met Effie Bittersweet to-day, and she spoke
-so nicely of you that I am sure she thinks you and her brother are
-about to become reconciled.”
-
-“It isn’t Jack this time, dear,” was the calm reply. “The fact is, that
-Clarence Lighthed has been paying me a good deal of attention lately,
-and she was afraid you would think her jealous.”
-
-“Clarence! Well, I never—how on earth did you manage it, Dorothy?”
-
-“Strange as it may appear, I didn’t manage it at all; he did it
-entirely of his own accord. But though that is the honest truth, there
-isn’t another girl of my acquaintance who would even _pretend_ to
-believe it if I told her.”
-
-“I suppose not, dear; and yet men must sometimes admire girls of their
-own free will. Well, Effie must be feeling very badly, then, for she
-said that of course she knew I would laugh at her for saying it, but
-for her part, she considered Dorothy Darling the prettiest girl in our
-set.”
-
-“Humph, I’ll remember that when Clarence calls to-morrow afternoon. You
-couldn’t persuade Effie to drop in with you for a cup of tea, could
-you?”
-
-“Ye—es, I suppose I could, if you will promise to put enough rum in my
-cup to fortify me for the walk home. And I have always wanted to own a
-hand mirror like that silver one of yours. Do you suppose anybody will
-ever give me one?”
-
-“You may have mine, if you will promise to bring Effie in at precisely
-half-past four; Clarence will be reading poetry aloud by that time.”
-
-“I promise; and I might just as well stop in and get the hand mirror
-now. You won’t want me to leave you a moment to-morrow.
-
-“Indeed, I shall not. By the way, of course I told you that I cracked
-the mirror breaking taffy the other afternoon! No? Why, I wonder how I
-could have overlooked the fact.”
-
-“Never mind, dear, Ned Crœsus will have it mended for me—and thank me
-for letting him do it, instead of Dick. By the way, how can you endure
-so much of Clarence’s society? You always said he was so stupid.”
-
-“That was when he used to talk of nothing but Effie. Any man would be
-stupid, if his only theme was another girl. You—you couldn’t let Jack
-know about Clarence, could you? If it was any one else Effie would tell
-him the first time she was provoked with him. Frances will be careful
-not to let him know, and men have such silly ideas about interfering
-with other peoples’ affairs, that I doubt if any of them say a word to
-him about the matter.”
-
-“I might. Yes, I know I could, if only I was sure that you would not
-blame me if it turned out badly.”
-
-“Well, Emily Marshmallow, to think of refusing to do a little thing
-like that for me—when I’ve just given you that lovely hand mirror,
-which I like better than anything I own. I just believe you want Jack
-Bittersweet yourself, and I’m sure you are welcome to him, for aught I
-care!”
-
-“Look here, Dorothy, I think you forget that Jack is two whole inches
-shorter than I; and if you think I am capable of caring enough for
-_any_ man to make myself look like a—a bean pole for the rest of my
-natural life, you are very much mistaken!”
-
-“Oh, well, if you are sorry to have hurt my feelings, of course I shall
-overlook it. I only hope, however, that you will not rely too much on
-my natural amiability and push me too far. If you should see Jack in
-the near future you might, as you suggested,—”
-
-“But, I didn’t suggest at all. You must just tell me what you want me
-to say to Jack and, if I get a chance, I—”
-
-“You are entirely mistaken. I don’t want you to say anything to Jack;
-after the way he has treated me, I have too much pride to raise a
-finger to bring him back. I only thought that, as you are a friend of
-his, you might like to warn him that there are others who appreciate
-me, if he does not.”
-
-“B—but I rather fancy that he will expect—er some kind of an
-explanation of the—the occurrence at your house last week. Suppose I
-just say—”
-
-“Well, then, all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet is too
-stupid to understand a simple accident, I don’t care if he never speaks
-to me again. Clarence Lighthed is one of the very nicest fellows I ever
-knew, and I am one of the hap—happiest girls in the world. Don’t look
-at me as if you thought I was crying! I am not—and if I was, it would
-be out of p—pure joy!”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter VIII
-
-An Executive Meeting
-
-
-“Why, Frances, is that you? And on your way to the Club, too,” cried
-the blue-eyed girl, as she caught up with the brown-eyed blonde, “how
-lucky I am; I shall have a nice long talk with you as we go along! How
-well you are looking to-day, quite fresh, I declare! Dear me, I should
-have put on my gloves before I left home, but I was in such haste that—”
-
-“By the way, Dorothy, it seems to me that you are not wearing as many
-rings as usual this winter. Surely, I miss the diamond you used to
-wear!”
-
-“Why, no I’m not; so much jewelry is always vulgar, and rings are _so_
-hard on one’s gloves. Mercy, we have walked a whole block, and you
-haven’t told me a bit of news!”
-
-“Haven’t I? By the way, I heard Ja—a man I know, say something about
-you yesterday which was quite a surprise. I don’t really know whether I
-ought to repeat it, or not.”
-
-“Oh, he wouldn’t have said it before you unless he expected you to
-repeat it, dear. You must tell me what it is, or I shall fancy it was
-not really unpleasant, and, really I’ve had so many compliments of late
-that it will be quite a change. I am actually afraid that Cla—a friend
-who thinks too well of me—will make me vain, and that—”
-
-“Impossible, dear. By the way, I hear that Clarence Lighthed comes to
-see you occasionally now, and—”
-
-“Not oftener than once in twenty-four hours, dear.”
-
-“Yes. And really he has been so devoted to so many girls that—”
-
-“It is a wonder that he has never thought of _you_! Why so it is, now
-that I think of it. But never mind, there may be a chance for you yet.
-Pardon me, you were about to repeat something you had heard about me,
-and I’m afraid I interrupted you.”
-
-“Was I? Dear me, I have quite forgotten what it was; nothing very
-important, I’m sure.”
-
-“Very true. By the way, I heard something about _you_ the other day,
-too. It was extremely complimentary—so much so indeed, that you will
-think I am trying to flatter you, if I repeat it.”
-
-“Indeed? Oh, I remember now what I was about to tell you. It was—so you
-really heard something nice about poor little me?”
-
-“Yes, I really did. I’ll tell you after you have finished your story. I
-really must not interrupt you again.”
-
-“Yes, Ja—I mean the man I know—said the other day that he thought
-you—now you mustn’t mind this, at all, Dorothy; I told him at once that
-nobody else had ever said such a thing of you.”
-
-“How kind of you to champion me, dear; I really did not expect it.”
-
-“Oh, yes; I often do it. He said—I wouldn’t repeat it to you, but the
-absurdity of the charge takes all the sting out of it. He said, ‘I
-consider Dorothy Darling the most heartless flirt I ever knew!’ Isn’t
-it too funny!” and she burst into a peal of laughter.
-
-The blue-eyed girl paused to pat a little dog before she replied: “How
-well you do tell a story, Frances, dear. Look at that poor, old blind
-man over yonder; let us cross over and give him some pennies,” and she
-was almost dancing as she crossed the street.
-
-“Perhaps he is an impostor, after all,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “By
-the way, you said somebody paid me a nice compliment the other day. Do
-tell me what it was, and if I ever get the chance—be it twenty years
-from now—I’ll do the same for you.”
-
-“Oh, yes, indeed. Old Miss Lucy Brownsmith said to me, only the other
-day, ‘Really, Frances is quite a nice-looking girl now that she has
-given up lacing so tightly.’ I knew you would be so pleased. Well,
-here we are at the Club; I am afraid that I must have walked too fast
-for you, dear; you look quite flushed.”
-
-“Oh, Emily, dear,” she whispered, as she embraced her friend in the
-cloak room, “Jack is wild with jealousy! He told Frances the other day
-that I was the most heartless flirt he ever knew!”
-
-“Then, he is ready to go half-way toward making up! Oh, I am so glad
-that I—”
-
-“Half-way? Do you suppose, Emily Marshmallow, that after allowing
-Clarence Lighthed to bore me almost to death for two weeks, I shall be
-willing to go half-way to make up with Jack?”
-
-“But you said the other day that unless you _did_ make up with him, you
-would learn to be a trained nurse and devote your life to others, and I
-thought—”
-
-“Never mind what I said the other day—that was before I knew how
-jealous Jack was. And all I’ve got to say, is this: if you expect me
-to make a fright of myself in a gray cloak and bonnet and cotton gown
-just to please _you_, you are very much mistaken!”
-
-The girl with the eyeglasses put her head in at the door, “Come into
-the club-room right away, girls,” she said. “Evelyn is here, and she
-has something of the greatest importance to tell us.”
-
-The president was evidently excited as she called the meeting to order.
-“I am just as angry as I can be,” she said. “What do you think I found
-in my mail to-day? A letter from a man who is old enough to know
-better, suggesting a topic for discussion by this club. That topic was,
-‘The Best Method of Keeping the Hat on Straight.’”
-
-“You don’t say so!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, it only
-shows that our mental advancement has made him uneasy.”
-
-“Of course,” said the president. “Then, as if that was not enough,
-he suggests a small mirror fastened to the inside of an umbrella or
-parasol as—”
-
-“Pshaw!” said the brown-eyed blonde, “a highly polished silver handle
-answers the same purpose and attracts less attention.”
-
-“Talk about hats,” said the girl with the classic profile, “men are
-just as fussy about their own. Did you ever see anybody put on a man’s
-hat to suit him?”
-
-“Never,” said the president. “I had an awful time when Tom’s arm was
-broken. I would put on his hat as carefully as I could—he always would
-tip it too far back himself—and yet, each time he would remove it, look
-suspiciously into the crown, and put it on again himself.”
-
-“As if it makes any difference how a man looks, anyhow,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses. “So long as they are nice and generous, no girl
-cares—”
-
-“Very true,” broke in the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and it
-is frequently the pocket of a last year’s overcoat which harbors the
-largest box of candy.”
-
-“I should like to know how a man manages to keep his hat on without
-veil or pins,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“He doesn’t always do it in a high wind,” said the girl with the
-classic profile.
-
-“And yet he always wonders why a woman holds her hat on when she is
-driving,” remarked the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“You know what a fuss men always make about big theater hats,” said
-the president. “Well, thinking to please Tom, I got a tiny bonnet,
-which was so becoming that it attracted as much attention as a regular
-mountain of feathers and velvet.”
-
-“And wasn’t he pleased?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Not when the bill came in, and he found that it cost rather more
-than a large hat. I said that he ought to be content to pay for the
-principle of a thing. He replied that it looked as if the interest was
-all about all he could afford. I suppose he thought that was sarcastic.”
-
-“Men have such queer ideas of humor, anyhow,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin; “why, I know a man who once laughed heartily at a
-joke on himself.”
-
-“Perhaps he owed money to the man who made it, or wanted his vote for
-something,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Well, I’d like to know who first invented hat-pins,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde. “I am sure it was not a woman, because—”
-
-“It was a man, and he was either an old bachelor or a bigamist,” said
-the girl with the Roman nose. “I had two pins running straight into my
-scalp all during service on Sunday. Dick was with me, too, and it was
-so hard to look saintly when—”
-
-“Men always ask why we don’t tie our hats on, when we complain of
-pins,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Wouldn’t we
-look nice with our jaws tied up like those of a small boy with the
-toothache?”
-
-“To say nothing of having our hearing so impaired that we couldn’t be
-sure whether compliments whispered into our ears were intended for us
-or were merely remarks made about other girls,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde.
-
-“Well, girls,” said the president, “I see you all resent it, as I do;
-and I’m just going to write that horrid man a letter telling him that
-the Teacup Club has too many serious topics to discuss to waste time
-upon anything relating to millinery.”
-
-“Speaking of millinery,” said the blue-eyed girl, “did you ever see
-anything as sweet as the new hats! I went with Elizabeth to select the
-ones for her trousseau the other day, and it did seem hard to me that
-a girl only has a chance _once_ in her life to buy as many hats as she
-really wants, and—”
-
-“Not to mention the fact that it is just at the time when she is so
-much interested in her future husband that she can’t give her whole
-mind to the subject,” broke in the girl with the eyeglasses. “Now, if
-she could only choose her trousseau a year after her marriage, instead
-of before.”
-
-“Yes; or even six months,” said the president. “Well, my new hat
-must cost five dollars less than I had hoped. I borrowed that amount
-from Tom last month; and—will you believe it?—he took it out of my
-allowance for this month, in spite of the fact that I told him I had
-spent it for his birthday present.”
-
-“But why didn’t you take it out of your housekeeping allowance? You
-usually do,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Because I had already taken enough for a half-dozen pairs of gloves
-out of that. It happened that he had not given a single stag dinner
-during the month, so I could not filch too much without discovery. When
-he gives a dinner, I can always pay myself well for the trouble of it.
-If he complains of the bills, I just say, ‘Yes, dear, I see that we
-cannot afford any more stag dinners,’ and that settles it at once,” she
-added.
-
-“I should think it would,” said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully. “Did
-you tell Tom how mean you thought it of him to expect you to pay back
-money that you had borrowed?”
-
-“I did. I said, ‘I wouldn’t be as selfish as you are for anything!’”
-
-“And did that make him feel badly? I should think so.”
-
-“Not a bit. You don’t know Tom; he just laughed as if it was funny.
-Luckily, I had given him a silk umbrella for his birthday, and as he
-has two already, and this one is—er rather small, I shall get a good
-deal of use out of it myself.”
-
-“And you hadn’t one at all, had you?” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “I remember the day you lost yours.”
-
-“Yes. Wasn’t it nice of me to buy one for him when I really needed it
-for myself? But one can’t expect a man to appreciate generosity.”
-
-“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “what do you
-think I heard to-day?”
-
-“I don’t know what _you_ heard,” said the girl with the Roman nose,
-“but I heard that Clarence Lighthed has just inherited a fortune from
-an uncle whom he had never seen! You know he is my cousin, and—”
-
-“Have you just heard that,” said the blue-eyed girl, “He told _me_
-about it a week ago—the day you said he was stupid, Emily. I knew at
-the time that you would feel badly when you discovered that it was
-only—er—grief for the death of his uncle, which made him so quiet and
-thoughtful. Poor fellow, it must have been _such_ a shock to him!”
-
-“How kind of you to comfort him in his sorrow,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, in sarcastic tones.
-
-“Yes, dear—especially as he could have his choice of comforters. I
-think you said that you, too, have a piece of news, Emily.”
-
-“Why—er—yes, I heard that Effie Bittersweet is on the verge of nervous
-prostration.”
-
-The blue-eyed girl said never a word; she looked out of the window
-opposite her, and there was a soft, sweet smile on her face. Perhaps
-she failed to see the glances that were exchanged by the others.
-
-“Oh, girls, have you heard the awful thing that happened to me
-yesterday?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses. “No? Then, I had
-better tell you all about it myself. I had an engagement with Harry;
-we were to call on his aunt who lives in Rogers Park—nothing very
-exciting, you know. Well, Mr. Doolittle came in early to ask me if I
-wouldn’t go to the matinée with him. Now, I knew Harry would take me to
-see his aunt any day, and Mr. Doolittle might never ask me to go to the
-matinée again, so I accepted his invitation at once.”
-
-“You would have been very stupid if you hadn’t,” said the president.
-
-“So I thought. Then, I told him that I must stop in at the drug store
-and send off a telephone message. You see, I didn’t want to give Harry
-all the trouble of coming up in vain.”
-
-“You are always so thoughtful,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“I try to be. I called Harry up, but he was not in, and I told the
-office-boy to tell him that I was ill, and could not go with him to
-Rogers Park, but hoped to be out in a day or two. The boy was as stupid
-as he could be; I had to repeat the message twice, and even spell my
-name. Oh, it was awful!”
-
-“What? his stupidity?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“No; my own. As I was going out, the clerk stopped me, and said, ‘You
-needn’t have taken all that trouble, Miss Marion; you were telephoning
-to Mr. Vansmith, weren’t you? Well, that was he that just went out;
-he was standing about three feet away from you all the time you were
-trying to make the person at the other end of the line understand!’”
-
-“Well, I hope your father is satisfied _now_,” said the president. “You
-have been trying to get him to put in a telephone all winter.”
-
-“Humph; you don’t know my father very well, dear. When I told him about
-it, he only said that he was more fully satisfied than ever that women
-were not to be trusted with telephones!”
-
-“Then there was that horrid drug clerk,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin; “why didn’t he stop you when Harry came in, instead of
-letting you—”
-
-“The fact is, that I knew he was trying to attract my attention all the
-time, but I thought that it was only somebody else who wanted to use
-the telephone in a hurry, and I took my own good time.”
-
-“He might have known you would have done that,” said the girl with
-the classic profile. “Girls, I often wonder why drug clerks are such
-gloomy, misanthropic creatures?”
-
-“Dear knows,” said the president; “I’ve often noticed it, though.
-And how cross a clerk in a shoe store always is! Strange, too, when
-they have such light, easy work. I tried on seventeen pairs of boots
-only yesterday, and I never was so tired in all my life; yet I was as
-amiable as possible, and the clerk, who had nothing to do but wait
-on me, was so rude that I thought seriously of having the proprietor
-in to hear of it. However, I compromised by going out without buying
-anything.”
-
-“It was very good of you, I’m sure,” said the blue-eyed girl. “You
-know Marie sends to Paris for all her shoes. I never saw such beauties
-in all my life as she wears.”
-
-“H’m. I know she _says_ so,” returned the girl with the Roman nose,
-“but—look here, if I tell you something, will you promise never to tell
-it as long as you live? Well, then, I spent the day with Marie last
-week. She had a lovely new pair of shoes, and I tried my best, without
-asking directly, you know, to find the name of the Parisian boot-maker,
-and how much she paid for them.”
-
-“Of course you didn’t find out,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “Marie can be as impervious to a hint as a man.”
-
-“M’hm. Well, she got ready to go out with me, and just as we were ready
-to start she was called out of the room. Her boots were all in the
-closet, and I—well, somehow I just happened to be near the door, it was
-ajar, and I stooped down to look at the maker’s name on them, when—oh,
-girls, the door behind me suddenly flew open!”
-
-“Oh, my goodness, it was Marie herself! What did—”
-
-“No, it was the maid. She said: ‘Will you please tell Miss Marie, when
-she comes in, that Cashly has sent up for the pair of boots she didn’t
-take. The boy is waiting in the hall.’”
-
-“Well, I never,” said the blue-eyed girl. “But I’ve always said that if
-I sent to Paris for my boots I’d have better looking ones than _she_
-gets!”
-
-“But then Marie gets a great deal for her money, dear, even if the
-boots themselves are not of a superior quality,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses.
-
-“Very true. By the way, who went to Marie’s tea yesterday?” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin; “I did not. Since the founding of
-this club I have cared less and less for gossip and society, and—”
-
-“Then you didn’t mind not receiving an invitation to Marie’s after
-all!” said the brown-eyed blonde. “I must tell her that. She said
-yesterday that she didn’t expect you to speak to her for a month.”
-
-“By the way,” said the girl with the Roman nose, hastily, “Dick made
-rather a good suggestion yesterday. He said why not have a phonograph,
-or even a stenographer, in the room while we are discussing a topic;
-then we could have copies made, and—”
-
-“That reminds me,” said the president, and she rapped loudly for order.
-“Girls, do be quiet. We have a very important question to decide
-to-day. A number of men have expressed a desire to become members of
-this club, and—”
-
-“I vote against it,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “We can all
-express our real opinions now, knowing they will go no further,
-whereas—”
-
-“No club man can ever keep a secret,” broke in the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “As for us, we would die rather than divulge—”
-
-“They are so curious, too,” broke in the girl with the classic profile.
-“We have all talked so much about our meetings that they want to know
-how they are conducted, that is all.”
-
-“Yes, that is just it,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “and once in they
-would spoil all the originality of it by having rules and all that.
-Then they’d go away and say that we couldn’t get along without them.”
-
-“The idea!” said the president, “when that’s the very reason I set our
-time of meeting in the afternoon!”
-
-“Look here,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “of course we don’t
-want to offend them. Why not have a ‘man’s day’ once in a while?”
-
-“So we might,” said the president; “but we had better wait until we get
-all our new things. Well, I suppose, since we are all agreed, that we
-had better not waste time in voting on it. I’m awfully glad to see you
-here, Elise; I was afraid you would not be able to come.”
-
-“Oh, I was determined not to miss it,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose. “I left word for them to tell the doctor I was asleep if he
-called in my absence. I have been troubled with insomnia, you know, and
-he would tell them not to disturb me. Of course, he gave me strict
-orders not to go out, but he—”
-
-“Will never know that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh, such a time as
-I had last fall when I was ill! You see, papa was going to make me go
-to Philadelphia to stay with old Aunt Borely. I—I was not very well,
-anyhow, so I took to my bed.”
-
-“Yes, and you had that nice young doctor, too,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “Oh, why am I so brutally healthy!”
-
-“I did, and he cured me of my particular ailment,” went on the
-brown-eyed blonde. “I had a most becoming light in the room the first
-time he called, and what do you think he did? Pulled every window-shade
-up to the top, until I looked a perfect fright—and he young enough to
-know better!”
-
-“Pshaw!” said the girl with the classic profile. “All doctors are
-horrid. Why, I once had such a handsome one that he sent my pulse away
-up every time he felt it. I did look so horrid that one day I—I put on
-a little rouge just before he came. In consequence he said I had a
-high fever, and put me on a milk-and-water diet for three days, besides
-giving me—”
-
-“Like the mean thing I had last year,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “I had a cough, and wanted a trip to Florida; instead, I got
-a pair of overshoes, a lot of flannels, and a mackintosh.”
-
-“Of course,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, I don’t believe
-my doctor is a good one; he—”
-
-“Is too ugly to be a really good one, anyhow,” broke in the blue-eyed
-girl. “Fancy being delirious, and seeing that creature enter the room!”
-
-“By the way,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I wonder why
-ugly men are always having their photographs taken and expecting one to
-keep them hanging up where one can see them constantly!”
-
-“Perhaps,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “they hope it may be a case of
-
-    “But seen too oft, familiar with its face,
-     We first endure, then pity, then”——
-
-No, I don’t mean that,” she broke off, blushing.
-
-“I should hope not,” said the blue-eyed girl, in shocked tones. “I
-should be sorry to think that any member of this club—”
-
-“The very queen of clubs,” broke in the president; “that is what Tom
-calls it—when he is in a particularly good humor, I mean. I think we
-had better adjourn now,” she added; “Elise really ought not to be
-out late, and I am wild to tell Tom that men will not be admitted to
-membership. Doesn’t the doctor do that pain in your chest any good,
-Elise?”
-
-“You don’t suppose that I told him anything about that, do you?” cried
-the girl with the Roman nose. “I hope I am not so silly as that—with
-Elizabeth’s wedding coming off in a week, and my lovely low-cut gown
-all ready to wear to it!”
-
-“Just wait one moment,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
-haven’t got to-day’s topic down in my note-book. What did you say it
-was, Evelyn?”
-
-“Oh, my goodness!” cried the president, turning pale, “here we have
-had a meeting, and I have forgotten to suggest any topic—and not one of
-you thought to remind me of it! Oh, I am afraid that all my efforts to
-advance you intellectually are wasted, after all!”
-
-“Never mind,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “this has been an
-executive meeting, anyhow.”
-
-“Why, so it has,” said the president, kissing her; “what a comfort you
-are, Marion dear. Tom’s handsome cousin is coming home from Montana
-next week with a lot of money, and you shall be the very first girl to
-have an introduction to him!”
-
-“Have you seen Jack Bittersweet lately?” asked the girl with the
-eyeglasses, as she linked her arm in that of the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, after the meeting had dissolved.
-
-“Yes, he came to see me yesterday. I was in agony all the time he was
-there, lest Dorothy come in. I knew she would never believe that it was
-the first time he had done it since they quarreled!”
-
-“Of course she wouldn’t. Did he ask your advice?”
-
-“Yes. So does she—but neither of them take it.”
-
-“You don’t expect that, I hope. Well, did you find out if he still
-cares for her?”
-
-“He does. I sat on the sofa, in my prettiest house-gown, and he took a
-chair six feet away. He didn’t even tell me that fewer men would go to
-the dogs if there were more women like me in the world!”
-
-“Well, I only hope that they will soon come to their senses, that’s
-all. Dorothy looks like a ghost, and as for Jack—”
-
-“If they don’t,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, savagely,
-“I shall just have to spend a month or two in a sanatarium. And I’m not
-sure that that will save my life,” she added.
-
-
-
-
-Chapter IX
-
-On the Use and Abuse of Political Power
-
-
-“The absurdity of some people!” said the president, pausing as she
-was about to call the meeting to order. “What excuse do you suppose
-Elizabeth gave for not asking me to look at her pretty things? She said
-she fancied I had grown too intellectual to care for gowns and hats!”
-
-“How ridiculous! She had probably heard that you do not intend to send
-her a wedding present,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“I haven’t told a soul but the members of this club that I shouldn’t
-give her one,” said the president.
-
-“Then she couldn’t possibly know it,” said the blue-eyed girl, hastily.
-
-“What enrages _me_, is the insinuation that I have ceased to care for
-pretty things, just because I study politics, and—er—other things. I
-don’t see why intellectuality has anything to do with doing up one’s
-hair with three hairpins, or—”
-
-“Wearing gowns which are frayed around the bottom,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin; “neither do I. And, yet they seem to be somehow
-connected in people’s minds.”
-
-“Very true,” said the president. “Girls, the editor of a literary
-journal has asked for some of the papers which have been read before
-this club. He says—”
-
-“Mercy, what answer shall you make?” cried the girl with the dimple in
-her chin.
-
-“I told him that I could not think of such a thing. I always disliked
-notoriety. It was very kind of him, though, and he even offered to let
-the authors of the papers have copies of their effusions at reduced
-rates, provided they took over a hundred.”
-
-“Which, of course, they would,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Well, you
-were quite right to refuse, Evelyn. I, for one, have such a horror of
-publicity, and, besides, it would be quite expensive sending copies to
-all one’s acquaintances.”
-
-“True,” said the president; “we are all in accord, as usual. Let us
-discuss, ‘The Use and Abuse of Political Power,’ to-day. It is a
-subject which is of the greatest importance to all of us, and—”
-
-“How do you spell ‘political?’ With one _t_ or two?” asked the girl
-with the eyeglasses, as she opened her note-book.
-
-“With one—no, two. Pshaw, I can’t remember. Just write it indistinctly.”
-
-“Oh, Dorothy,” whispered the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I saw
-Dick this morning, and he says Jack told him yesterday that he didn’t
-really know what your quarrel was about, but he meant to go and see you
-to-day, and ask you to forgive him!”
-
-“I shall,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and I don’t mind confessing to
-you, Emily, that I, too, may have been just the merest possible bit in
-the wrong. I’ve felt it right along, but I couldn’t admit it, until he—
-What shall I wear when he comes to see me?”
-
-“You might wear the blue gown he always admires so much.”
-
-“So I might. You know I wore a blue gown the day he asked me to marry
-him, and he said I must keep it always. Of course, this isn’t the same
-one, but I am careful to have each succeeding one the same color, and
-he doesn’t know the difference. Perhaps I have told you this before.”
-
-“I think you have, dear—once or twice,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, demurely.
-
-“Yes. I don’t mind letting you know, Emily, that I have missed him a
-good deal. Why, I had his photograph—the one I pretended to have lost,
-so I needn’t send it back—out when you knocked at my door to-day. You
-couldn’t have helped seeing me thrust it under Clover’s cushion, if you
-hadn’t thought something was wrong with your boot heel, and stooped
-down to see.”
-
-“You don’t say so. Well, all I’ve got to say is, I wish I might see
-Frances’ face at the wedding!”
-
-“You shall, dear. I’ll ask her to be bridesmaid, and you, as maid
-of honor, can have a good chance to watch her. You have been such a
-faithful friend to both Jack and myself that you deserve at least that
-much satisfaction.”
-
-“Look here, Emily and Dorothy, I am afraid you are not attending
-strictly to the discussion,” said the president. “The topic is—
-Frances, what on earth has made you so late?”
-
-“It was all an accident,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “I stopped
-for you, Dorothy, on my way to the club. The maid said you had gone
-already, and I was just coming away when I noticed that your little
-dog—what is his name? Rover? Ah, Clover! I knew it was something like
-that—was chewing something at the back of the hall! I went to see what
-it was, and—”
-
-“Oh, my goodness gracious! Not my new sixteen-button gloves,” wailed
-the blue-eyed girl. “I’ll give that dog away to-morrow!”
-
-“No, dear, not your gloves. It was a photograph. Just as I was trying
-to get the pieces away from him, Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—came up the
-steps with a huge bunch of violets. He must have seen me standing in
-the hall; you know the door was open.”
-
-“Yes, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “that checked
-gown of yours speaks for itself!”
-
-“I—ah, where was I? Oh—he succeeded in getting the fragments away
-and—really, it was too funny! It turned out to be a photograph of
-himself! I told him that I was almost sure that you didn’t give it to
-the dog purposely, Dorothy; but I am afraid I didn’t quite convince
-him.”
-
-“Indeed; and where are the violets?” asked the girl with the dimple in
-her chin; “you don’t seem to be wearing them!”
-
-“Why, er—no. Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—threw them at the dog. You will
-find them right by the stairway, Dorothy, dear; but I’m afraid they are
-not in very good condition. What is to-day’s topic, Evelyn?”
-
-“‘The Use and Abuse of Political Power,’” said the president, in a
-faint voice. “Will somebody open the window, please; I need air!”
-
-“Oh, Evelyn,” said the girl with the Roman nose, after the president
-had announced that she felt better, “I do hope you are not sitting up
-at night studying, and that sort of thing.”
-
-“Why, er—no, I believe not. The fact is I’ve been going to a good many
-dances of late on Tom’s account.”
-
-“But Tom doesn’t go, does he?”
-
-“No. B—but everybody knows how fond of dancing I am; and if I didn’t
-go they would say he kept me at home. I don’t want Tom to pose as a
-tyrant, you know!”
-
-“Of course not. You—”
-
-“Yes. The only thing which makes me feel uncomfortable is the angelic
-way in which he bears my absence. It isn’t like Tom, and—”
-
-“Clarence—my cousin you know—was saying only the other day, that he
-thought you an angel to allow Tom and his friends to smoke in the
-drawing-room, just because you happened to be out,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose. “I wonder if that—”
-
-“To smoke in the drawing-room!” shrieked the president, turning
-pale. “I’ll go home this minute, and tell him what I think of such a
-proceeding. No, I won’t, either; he is at the office, and it would not
-do any good! I never suspected such a thing and—”
-
-“Oh, well, then the smoke couldn’t have done the rugs and curtains much
-harm, after all, if you never noticed the odor.”
-
-“It’s the principle of the thing, my dear. What hurts me, is the fact
-that my husband respects my wishes so little, when I only go to dances
-to keep people from thinking ill of him, too! Well, one thing sure,
-I’ll have all new curtains and carpets—since mine are ruined with
-smoke—if he keeps on talking about hard times until he is black in the
-face!”
-
-“I wonder why men are always talking about hard times,” said the girl
-with the classic profile; “women never say anything about them.”
-
-“Unless they are driven to it,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “My sister’s husband wanted to have his mother come for a nice,
-long visit, but she told him that she hardly thought they could afford
-it in such hard times. You see he had just made that excuse for not
-doing up the house.”
-
-“With the result?” queried the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“That he decided to have the house done up at once! And, after all, the
-old lady only stayed about a week. Helen says she can’t imagine why she
-went, unless, she was offended at her suggestion that she might like to
-take a course at the cooking-school while she was here.”
-
-“Well, I don’t blame Helen, at all,” said the blue-eyed girl. “No man
-has a right to be dyspeptic before he is married, and her husband was.
-Everybody ought to have a fair chance, and Helen’s cooking might not
-have given it to him for years.”
-
-“At any rate, he can’t blame _her_ for his dyspepsia—and that is
-something,” said the president. “Girls, does any one know why Josephine
-has given up her lessons at the cooking school?”
-
-“I suppose she has made one really good loaf of bread, and doesn’t want
-to tempt fate again,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“That is not the reason,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “she is
-engaged to a man who knows how to cook, so there is no use for her to
-waste any more time over it. She is studying political economy now.”
-
-“And a very good thing, too,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, “for the way money is wasted on elections, is really shocking!”
-
-“Hear! hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose. “Of course I don’t
-want to have men as members of this club, but I can’t help wishing
-sometimes that a few of them might hear Emily and Evelyn when they are
-attacking political abuses and monopolies.”
-
-“For my part, I don’t see why they haven’t thrust the privilege of
-suffrage upon us long ago,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Then
-they would have somebody to blame, when civic and national affairs go
-wrong!”
-
-“Pshaw,” said the president, “that isn’t necessary at all. They can
-come home and scold because dinner is late, or the hall gas is unlit,
-and so relieve their feelings just the same.”
-
-“I’m sure I don’t want to vote,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “It is ever so much nicer to do as the men do with our
-housekeeping—just criticise that which we can never display our
-ignorance by attempting to do ourselves.”
-
-“That is only your sweet modesty, dear,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “What do you think Mr. Bonds said the other day! Ah, I was so
-indignant! He said it was a mistake to say that women could not throw
-stones.”
-
-“I don’t see why you were indignant at that,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “It seems to me—”
-
-“It wasn’t that. It was what came afterward. He said he knew it was a
-libel for they could—at each other! And every man in the room laughed
-as if he had said something clever!”
-
-“I declare,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “it is enough to make a
-man-hater of me. If only people would not say that it was because of
-some particular man who failed to admire me—”
-
-“There is no danger of it being laid to the door of any _one_ man in
-your case, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Is that your new gown that
-you are wearing to-day, Frances, dear?”
-
-“Why, yes. Quite a novelty, isn’t it. How do you like it?”
-
-“Very much indeed, dear. I stopped and looked at it hanging in the
-cleaner’s window the other day, and thought how well it looked. You
-remember, don’t you, Dorothy, my calling your attention to it?” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Quite well. I thought at the time that it was well she had not
-attempted to clean it herself. By the way, Helen’s little boy said such
-a clever thing the other day. We were speaking of favorite perfumes,
-and how nice it was to always use the same one, and he said: ‘I know
-what is Miss Frances’ favorite perfume. Her gloves always smell of it.’
-‘And what is it?’ Helen asked. ‘Gasoline,’ said the dear little fellow.
-Did you ever hear anything so clever in your life?”
-
-“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily, “speaking of gloves: I had
-a letter from Pauline the other day, and such a heart-rending thing
-had occurred to her. A nice man was buttoning her gloves one day, and
-he said she had the hand of a fairy—Pauline seemed to think that an
-original remark.”
-
-“Perhaps it was the first time she had ever had it said to her,”
-replied the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Um—perhaps it was. She said carelessly, ‘Do you think so? Why, I
-consider it quite large. I wear a number six.’ She was sorry for that
-afterward.”
-
-“I suppose he looked in the other glove, and—saw that she had made a
-mistake,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“No, dear. But, shortly after that, they made a bet of a dozen pairs
-of gloves, and Pauline won. Oddly enough, she didn’t know it until the
-gloves arrived. They were number six, and—”
-
-“Pshaw, she could exchange them for a larger size; he would never know
-the difference,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Not in this case, dear. He had had her monogram embroidered on the top
-of each pair. And now he is offended that she does not wear them!”
-
-“How exactly like a man,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“Now, I have too high a regard for truth to—”
-
-“Waste it on such a little thing as that? I know,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “Well, I hope Pauline’s mishap will be a warning to you.”
-
-“She might say that she could not accept such a gift from a masculine
-friend,” thoughtfully suggested the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“But she had thanked him very prettily, and said they were just her
-size, and how did he know it? before she discovered that she could not
-exchange them! Oh, I just don’t see any way out of it. I told Tom about
-it, and he said, ‘Pshaw, let her tell him the truth, and be done with
-it.’ And yet Tom is very clever—for a man.”
-
-“Indeed he is,” said the blue-eyed girl, warmly, “he is one of the few
-people who always understands a joke when I tell it. Just because I
-leave out a little bit of it, some people—”
-
-“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the classic profile, “I’ve been
-waiting for a good chance to tell you that Eunice is married!”
-
-“Is it possible?” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I remember that
-she always said people ought to know each other very well before they
-_were_ married. That was why she went for a long visit to that Kansas
-girl whose brother was so much in love with her. She married _him_, I
-suppose.”
-
-“Why—er—no. You see, he asked her, and she said she could not give him
-an answer until she concluded her visit. They would know each other
-much better then.”
-
-“And she refused him, after all?” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Well, no. For some reason he failed to renew his offer, after her
-visit was over. She had known the man she married exactly three weeks
-when they became engaged.”
-
-“And the engagement lasted?”
-
-“Just a month, dear. And she was so busy all the time with the
-trousseau that she hardly had time for a word with him.”
-
-“Perhaps it was just as well,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Has the man
-she married any money?”
-
-“I suppose so. He was thirty-four, and a bachelor. A very poor man
-would have married long before he was as old as that. By the way,
-speaking of the abuse of political power, Mr. Dickenharry tells Nell
-that if he is really elected to the office he hopes for, she will have
-to ask all sorts of people to her receptions, in order that—”
-
-“And what did Nell reply to that?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Oh, she just smiled and let it go. It will be much easier to manage
-all that after they are married. She says he is so busy now that she
-doesn’t like to thwart him unnecessarily. Nell is always so thoughtful
-of the feelings of others.”
-
-“Indeed she is,” said the president. “Anyhow if she is obliged to ask
-all those awful people to her receptions, she can snub them thoroughly
-if they accept. Oh, she is just the ideal wife for a politician; how
-she will help him!”
-
-“That is just what she says herself,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin, “and she also says that she wants to join this club as soon
-as her trousseau is off her mind. She thinks our debates on political
-subjects will be of great benefit to her. In the meantime, she wants me
-to make notes of the discussions, and let her have them.”
-
-“Yes, and let Mr. Dickenharry make use of all our original ideas in his
-speeches!” cried the president, hotly. “I am surprised at you, Emily,
-for—”
-
-“Oh, I didn’t say I meant to do it, dear; I only said she wanted me to.
-It is so much easier to promise a thing, and then forget it, you know.
-Girls, I went to see dear old Mrs. Pepperly yesterday, and—”
-
-“What, that cross, disagreeable woman!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.
-“What on earth made you do such a thing?”
-
-“Oh, I always liked her, dear. When I got there, I was _so_ surprised.
-Her son is home from Mexico on a visit, and—”
-
-“Why, don’t you remember, Emily, I told you that on Sunday?” said the
-president. “I mentioned that he had made a lot of money there, and—”
-
-“How strange of me to forget it; I believe I do remember it now. We
-used to be quite friends before he went away, too; which makes it all
-the stranger. Do you know, I’m afraid I shall have to accept one of
-those lovely Mexican opals he brought with him, or hurt his feelings!
-I’d hate to do that, too, when I haven’t seen him for so long.”
-
-“By the way, what is Mrs. Pepperly’s number?” asked the brown-eyed
-blonde. “I—I have been meaning to call on her for ever so long. What a
-clever, original woman she is!”
-
-“Yes, do go. She said she expected you would come to see her now.
-I’m afraid you will not have an opportunity to see the opals though.
-Her son has given all the rest of them to her, and they are at the
-jeweler’s being set. And, by the way, he insisted so that I had to let
-him have mine set for me. I don’t know what Dick will say, but really
-I could not hurt the feelings of such an old friend by refusing—and of
-course he knows nothing of Dick!”
-
-“For my part, I consider opals unlucky,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-“I wouldn’t wear one for anything!”
-
-“I’ve heard others say the same thing, dear,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin; “but luckily they were people who were not
-likely to have the chance! So far as I am concerned, the good luck
-of receiving such a handsome present will quite overbalance anything
-unpleasant which might follow!”
-
-“Nobody ever had such ill luck as I have, and I never owned an opal
-in my life,” wailed the girl with the classic profile. “You know how
-unpleasant my Aunt Clara is, don’t you? Well, the poor old soul seemed
-so lonely in that great big house that I asked her to make me a nice
-long visit, knowing that she intended to go abroad soon, and—”
-
-“She might take you along. Good!” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-“Did she accept?”
-
-“She did. Said she would stay three whole months. At the end of that
-time, she expects to marry a delicate clergyman with three grown
-daughters, and take the whole party to Europe.”
-
-“And that is all the compensation you receive for thinking of others!”
-cried the girl with the Roman nose. “Shall you let her come?”
-
-“I shall not. I shall tell her that unless she hears from me within two
-weeks, she may know that I am down with a threatened attack of scarlet
-fever. She has a horror of illness, and wild horses couldn’t drag her
-here after that. But I shall have an exciting time with my sire, if he
-ever finds it out!”
-
-“Humph, your father may never find it out,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses; “and if he did, you could simply say that you really
-thought you were getting scarlet fever, and only concealed the fact
-from him to save him anxiety.”
-
-“Pardon me, but you forget that I am a younger daughter. Papa has
-already had so much experience with my sisters that I have to be very
-careful in my explanations. This thing of being the third daughter is
-as bad as marrying a widower—worse, for that is voluntary.”
-
-“Not always—on the part of the widower,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-“Dear, dear, how queer some things are! I know a pair of twins, and one
-of them is called an old maid, the other a young widow. If anybody can
-explain—”
-
-“Pshaw, I know a brother and sister who have hair of the same identical
-shade. He is called red-headed while she is a Titian blonde,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“And I went to school with a girl who was always called snub-nosed
-by everybody but the man she married,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin; “he said her nose was ‘tip-tilted, like the petal of a
-flower.’ Can you explain that?”
-
-“Yes,” said the president, shortly, “she has money. Oh, girls, I went
-to the photographer’s last week, and I haven’t had the courage even
-to snub my sister-in-law since I got the proofs. Indeed, sometimes I
-almost feel grateful to Tom for marrying me—though of course I don’t
-let him know that. You have no idea how I felt when—”
-
-“Oh, yes, I have,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a shudder. “I once
-knew an awfully nice man, who turned out to be an amateur photographer.
-He took two hundred and seventy-five pictures of me one summer, and I
-used to know just who my enemies were. They would pretend that they
-recognized me in them all!”
-
-“That’s nothing,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I once
-appeared as Cinderella at a charity entertainment, and an amateur
-photographer took a picture of me in costume. My foot was thrust
-forward, and oh, girls, it looked the size of a pumpkin. And the
-photographer actually took credit to himself because the face was an
-excellent likeness!”
-
-“I was once photographed by an amateur,” said the brown-eyed blonde;
-“he said my picture was his masterpiece. I always keep it on my
-dressing table during Lent,” she added.
-
-“I once knew an amateur photographer quite well,” said the girl with
-classic profile, “but for each photograph he took of me I made one of
-him!”
-
-“With the result—” said the president.
-
-“That he gladly bartered his collection for mine. Somehow, we haven’t
-been very good friends since. I often think things might have turned
-out very differently if he hadn’t bought that camera;” and she sighed,
-softly.
-
-“Well, girls,” said the president, “I am afraid that we must adjourn,
-though I had hoped we might find time for a social session after
-the day’s work was concluded. However, I promised both Tom and the
-dressmaker that I’d meet them at five o’clock. She won’t wait, and he
-will; so I—”
-
-“But why not make him go to the dressmaker’s with you,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Because I want to tell him just what I think of his behavior—smoking
-in the drawing-room, just because I happened to be out. If he once
-heard Madame contradict me in the way she does, I could never hope to
-produce any impression on him again.”
-
-Emily and Dorothy walked home in silence, and the former noticed, with
-alarm, that Dorothy did not attempt to protect her skirts from the mud.
-When they reached her door, she turned and said:
-
-“If I am not here when you come to-morrow, you may know that I have
-gone to take up social settlement work, and devote my time to the poor.
-If you never see me again, you may know that I forgive all my enemies.
-It may make Frances feel better, though I must say that she does not
-deserve it.”
-
-“And Jack, dear; what shall I say to him?”
-
-“If it is any comfort to him, you might say that I do not regret
-my fruitless efforts to make peace with him. I hope you will think
-of me sometimes at work among the poor and the afflicted. And now,
-good-bye—perhaps forever!”
-
-Emily had walked perhaps a block, when she heard her name called once
-more.
-
-“Yes, what is it,” she said.
-
-“If you know any one who wants a nice little dog, send him to me. I—”
-
-“What! You surely don’t mean Clover?”
-
-“I just do. After what has happened to-day, I never want to see the
-little beast again! And, Emily—!”
-
-“Yes, dear.”
-
-“If you were in my place, would you wear the blue or the geranium pink
-gown at the dance to-night?”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter X
-
-Woman as a Parliamentarian
-
-
-“Oh, dear me,” said the president, “I don’t see why men can never
-understand things.”
-
-“H’m,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Are we to understand that you have
-just discovered that fact?”
-
-“Of course not,” said the president, “but I’ve just had an argument
-with my husband—that’s why I am late to-day, girls. He will insist that
-this club ought to have a constitution and by-laws, and a lot of other
-unnecessary things, in spite of the fact that we get along nicely just
-as well without them.”
-
-“I suppose he would like to draft them for us,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “That is always the way with men. When they see
-women doing anything well they always want to come in, and take the
-credit of it.”
-
-“So they do,” said the girl with the classic profile. “I suppose he
-would want us to have parliamentary rules, too—as if anybody would obey
-them! Anyhow, it is only a man who can do but one thing at a time. I
-suppose it is necessary in a club of men that only one person have the
-floor at a time, and all that sort of thing.”
-
-“I suppose it is,” said the president, “no man that ever lived could
-tell what anybody else was saying while he was talking himself. Well, I
-only wish they could see how orderly our meetings are, and how well we
-keep to the subject in hand, without any rules or regulations. By the
-way, let us discuss ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ to-day. What do you
-say?”
-
-“Oh, pshaw,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “you said the subject
-was to be ‘Woman as a Factor in the Business World,’ and I was to speak
-on it.”
-
-“Oh, well, you can use the same line of argument, anyhow; I forgot to
-tell you that I had changed my mind. Girls, do be quiet while she
-reads her paper on—”
-
-“Oh, but I am not prepared, anyhow,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-“I was obliged to stop in the midst of it to write the invitations for
-my five o’clock tea. A nice job it was, too, for I just couldn’t get
-all I wanted to say on a card!”
-
-“Why, I heard a man saying only the other day, that you write the most
-charming notes he ever read,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Thank you for telling me, dear. I shall use the telephone exclusively
-after this—the idea of living to know that everybody says when you are
-spoken of, ‘Yes, what charming notes she does write.’ Think of knowing
-that you are expected to be brilliant when you write to say you can’t
-come to dinner because your face is swollen, or to ask how to take
-coffee stains out of your new evening gown.”
-
-“I know all about that,” groaned the brown-eyed blonde; “once in an
-evil hour somebody called me ‘vivacious,’ and I’ve cultivated three
-wrinkles in trying to live up to it. Think of having to be vivacious at
-a church sociable, or when the man to whom you have just been revealing
-your views on the subject of friendship turns out to be engaged!”
-
-“Awful!” shuddered the girl with the eyeglasses, “but pity me,
-all of you. People who like me always say that I am a delightful
-conversationalist; those who do not, simply remark that I talk all the
-time. Sometimes, when I am low-spirited, it seems to me that there is
-not much difference between the two.”
-
-“Yes, but think of me!” moaned the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“Somebody once discovered that I had a ‘little head running over with
-curls,’ I calculate that I have spent a fortune in patent curlers and
-alcohol lamps since then!”
-
-“I suppose that is why you wouldn’t go to the seashore with me last
-summer,” remarked the president. “Well, for my part, I only wish I knew
-who it was that first called me a ‘nice little woman’—it’s as bad as
-being named Smith or living in a row!”
-
-“Pshaw, I wouldn’t mind that a bit,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “there’s nothing like a reputation for amiability—you can be as
-ill-natured as you please, once it is gained.”
-
-“Humph, you seem to forget that I have a husband to remind me of
-things,” said the president. “Well, there is one person I don’t envy,
-and that is Barbara.”
-
-“Humph, I don’t think she is so beautiful,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose; “for my part, I think her nose might be called a snub.”
-
-“Neither do I,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “the lower
-part of her face is actually coarse.”
-
-“Say what you please,” said the president, “she has the reputation of
-being a beauty, and if she doesn’t look as well as usual she just has
-to stay at home. She has a cold now, and her complexion is awful.”
-
-“Is it?” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I must certainly stop in
-to see her to-day. I never saw her when she had a really bad cold.”
-
-“And so shall I,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “she really ought not to
-be neglected when she is ill.”
-
-“I shall go, too,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “And by
-the way, Dick has been teasing for an introduction to her for ever so
-long. This will be the very time to take him to call on her—when she is
-certain to be at home, I mean.”
-
-“I understand,” said the president; “it is very thoughtful of you to
-want to cheer up the poor thing. Girls, shouldn’t you love to see her
-face when she finds that Emily has brought a strange man to call when
-her complexion is in such a condition.”
-
-“Oh, I don’t suppose that she will mind Dick,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde; “nobody else does, you know.”
-
-“Very true,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, sweetly. “Of
-course he has eyes for nobody else when I am in the room; but I did
-not expect you, Frances, to acknowledge as much.”
-
-“Why, Dorothy,” cried the president, “here you are, at last! It isn’t
-like you to keep anybody waiting—that is, of course, except a man; they
-are accustomed to it, and—”
-
-“Why, does Dorothy ever keep a man waiting?” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, elevating her eyebrows. “I had understood that she usually met
-them in the front hall when—”
-
-“Yes, dear, but then I am always dressed to see masculine callers. I
-have so many, you know. Why, Evelyn, I would not have been late for the
-world, but my new gown—”
-
-“I’m sure I don’t blame you for it, dear. I couldn’t have helped making
-a dramatic entry in such a poem myself.”
-
-“But it wasn’t that which made me late, dear. I fancied there was a
-tiny wrinkle in the back of the waist. After examining it in every
-mirror in the house, I discovered that it was only the way I twisted
-my shoulders to look at it, which made the wrinkle.”
-
-“Well, I am glad that your mind is at rest about it, anyhow,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses, “one’s back is so defenseless. Annie once sat
-behind me at the theater, and I endured agonies lest the bow at the
-back of my collar was crooked. When we came away, I found that she had
-actually been so absorbed in the people on the stage that she didn’t
-know I was there. I had been wanting to see that play for months, and,
-to save my life, I couldn’t have told you a thing in it after I saw it.”
-
-“I know just how you felt,” said the president, “I once went to a
-matinée with Eustace just before Tom and I were married, and I expected
-to have great fun, because there was so much danger of being found out.
-Toward the end of the first act, I heard that horrid Miss Blanque in
-the seat back of me, saying, ‘Oh, Tom, what would she say if she knew!’
-I can tell you that my blood boiled when I thought of such duplicity,
-and I was tempted to turn and wither them on the spot with a single
-glance!”
-
-“And did you?” eagerly asked the girl with the classic profile.
-
-“Why—er, no. I thought Tom might ask why I had come with Eustace,
-though that was very different.”
-
-“Very different, indeed,” said the blue-eyed girl. “And did you—”
-
-“Oh, I didn’t enjoy that play a bit. I told Eustace I had a headache at
-the end of the second act, and—”
-
-“No doubt by that time it was true enough. Such duplicity in one whom
-you trusted was—”
-
-“Yes. And he had always said he did not admire Miss Blanque at all.
-Well, I went home and wrote him a scorching note. I said that but for
-Eustace, I should never have discovered that he was flirting with
-another girl while pretending to think of nobody but me!”
-
-“That was quite right. I hope he was ashamed of himself!”
-
-“Well, no; he wasn’t. He had been at a stockholder’s meeting all that
-afternoon. My own father was there, and he called him as a witness! And
-I actually had to explain why I had gone to the matinée with Eustace!”
-
-“Oh, my goodness, how awful!” cried the girl with the Roman nose. “But
-you said you heard Miss Blanque call him Tom!”
-
-“So I did. It was Tom Dashaway who was engaged to Elaine. And wasn’t it
-a joke? She never found him out at all!”
-
-“It is awfully hard to get ahead of a man,” sighed the girl with the
-classic profile; “and it is the irony of fate that when one _does_
-succeed in doing it, the victory is usually of such a character that,
-in order to retain it, one must say nothing at all about it!”
-
-“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, I am so enraged
-with Harold that I feel ready to die! I had an engagement with him on
-Saturday afternoon, and I forgot all about it and went out with Marie.
-I never thought of him at all until I saw him coming up the street,
-and then I dragged Marie into a shop. I was so excited that she thought
-a mad dog was coming, and almost created a scene!”
-
-“And did he recognize you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“I’m afraid so. He didn’t come, as usual, on Sunday; and I took the
-dilemma by the horns, and wrote him a note, saying that I remained at
-home all Saturday afternoon expecting him; and why didn’t he come, as
-he had promised?”
-
-“Good idea!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “then, he would
-think he had mistaken some one else for you. You could pretend to be
-very much offended at that, and so snatch victory from the very jaws of
-defeat.”
-
-“So I thought. But his reply—oh, I knew I should die of rage! It
-said: ‘My dear Miss Marion: Pray pardon me for quite overlooking my
-engagement with you on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I know you were at
-home—for I saw you at the window as I passed!’ And as long as I live, I
-shall never be able to tell that man what I really think of him!”
-
-“Never mind, you can tell everybody else—and that is almost as
-satisfying,” said the president; “more so, perhaps; for then you need
-not hear what he has to say in reply.”
-
-“I am so glad to see you looking so well to-day, Dorothy, dear,”
-whispered the girl with the dimple in her chin; “it pleases me to see
-that you still take an interest in dress, and—”
-
-“Pray, why shouldn’t I take an interest in dress? Really, Emily
-Marshmallow, you are the queerest girl I ever did see! Here, you see
-me trying to conceal my poor broken heart with smiles, and then you
-begrudge me the slight pleasure I take in appearing decently clad. And
-when I mean to go and teach in a free kindergarten—well, next week,
-and wear a black gown with white collar and cuffs for the rest of my
-natural life!”
-
-“I’m sure I don’t mean to begrudge you anything, dear. And Jack says
-that he is sure that if you would just see him, he could explain the
-whole thing—”
-
-“Of course, you have been on his side all along. That is the way of the
-world; everybody sympathizes with the one who is in fault, and—”
-
-“He said that he was hurrying to catch up with you on the street
-yesterday, and that Frances—this is what he says, dear—not knowing what
-he was doing, called him to rescue her hat, which had blown away. By
-the time he had done it, you were out of sight. You see, Dorothy, he
-seems to fancy that you are—well, rather nice to Clarence, and—”
-
-“Oh, I thought Clarence was coming. So I am rather nice to the one
-human being who really understands me, am I? Well, you may just tell
-Jack Bittersweet that I shall keep on being nice to him as long as I
-choose—and he might know me well enough by this time to be sure that I
-shall keep my word!”
-
-“Dear me, Dorothy, you surely are not crying, are you?” cried the
-brown-eyed blonde. “Do tell me what is wrong; perhaps I can help you.”
-
-“I am afraid not, dear. I was just telling Emily that there is so
-much trouble in the world that I sometimes feel actually guilty when
-I think of my own absolutely cloudless existence! By the way, have
-you heard that Clarence Lighthed has just bought that pretty place in
-Astor Street, which was for sale? He must think that my knowledge of
-architecture is valuable, for he told his agent to make an offer for it
-just because I admired it so much!”
-
-“Poor Effie Bittersweet,” said the president. “I—ah, I don’t know
-what has made me think of _her_ just at this time, but Madame told me
-yesterday that she had been obliged to alter all her gowns for her.
-They are a full half-inch too loose, she says!”
-
-“Really? Is Effie ill?” cried the blue-eyed girl, in surprise. “How odd
-that you never thought to mention it, Frances! I should have gone to
-see her immediately, had I known it. Pray, tell her so when you see her
-next.”
-
-“If you are so anxious to see her, why not go with me, and tell her so,
-yourself,” said the brown-eyed blonde, dryly.
-
-“In this gown? and when all of hers are at the dressmaker’s! I couldn’t
-think of doing such a mean thing. I only thought that as you are always
-at her house, you could take a message for me; that is all.”
-
-“Tom says Clarence asked him the other day, if he didn’t consider that
-the best thing a fellow could do was to marry some nice girl, and
-settle down,” said the president, suddenly.
-
-“Yes? And what did Tom say?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“He must have said ‘yes,’ dear; otherwise he wouldn’t have dared to
-mention the occurrence to me at all.”
-
-“What _I_ am wondering,” said the blue-eyed girl, innocently, “is: what
-on earth made Clarence ask him such a question?”
-
-“Sheer curiosity, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly; “what
-other reason could he possibly have had? By the way, girls, have you
-noticed that Marie is showing great strength of character lately? She
-has broken with Mr. Mushley, and actually refused to send back any of
-his presents. She says the sight of them could not fail to remind him
-of his loss, and she would rather have people speak unkindly of her
-than cause him unnecessary pain!”
-
-“How sweet of her,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I only hope he
-will appreciate her consideration. Girls, what do you think Elizabeth
-told me the other day? Why, that all the photographs of girls my
-brother saw when he called on Fred belonged to a man with whom he used
-to room, and he was only keeping them until he happened to run across
-him again.”
-
-“And she believed him?” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-scornfully. “How silly some girls are, to be sure! They believe
-anything a man tells them. To be sure, Dick was telling me the truth
-when he said that he only wrote all those sonnets to Clara as a joke;
-but that was very different.”
-
-“Very different,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Girls,
-I heard to-day that Jack Bittersweet is thinking of throwing up his
-partnership, and emigrating to Australia. I beg your pardon, Dorothy,
-did you speak?”
-
-“Yes, dear, I was about to say that I think ‘Woman as a
-Parliamentarian’ is the most interesting topic we have ever discussed.
-By the way, I wonder if the climate of Australia is as unhealthy as
-some people think! I—I am so fond of Effie that I should hate to have
-anything happen to her brother.”
-
-“I think Effie could bear it, dear,” said the president, “even in her
-present state of health. She says Jack is so cross that a hyena would
-be amiable by comparison.”
-
-“Jack Bittersweet cross!” cried the brown-eyed blonde. “Why, he is one
-of the nicest fellows I ever knew, and—”
-
-“But after all, you are hardly a judge of masculine dispositions,
-dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Your acquaintance
-with the sex has been so limited, you know. Oh, Evelyn, I’ve been
-intending to ask you if we can’t take up theosophy, and discuss it
-thoroughly at one of our meetings in the near future. I am so anxious
-for a thorough knowledge of it.”
-
-“Indeed we can,” cried the president, heartily. “You don’t know how
-pleased I am to hear you say that, Emily,—well, if there is one thing
-this club can safely pride itself upon it is its thoroughness; and I am
-sure that is more than most organizations can do—!”
-
-“I know it,” said the blue-eyed girl; “why, my father belongs to a
-club which has taken six months to study the financial problems of
-Europe and the United States. They are not yet through discussing the
-subject—and yet they have the temerity to call themselves students!”
-
-“I hope you have pointed out to them the superiority of our system
-over—”
-
-“Well, no, dear; somehow it does not seem wise to discuss such a
-subject with one’s father. Dear, dear, do you suppose that girls were
-so very different in the days when our fathers were young?”
-
-“Humph, no,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “but they were much
-more afraid of remaining single. Besides, our fathers were young, too,
-in those days, and ever so much easier to please. Still,” she added,
-thoughtfully, “I don’t know that it is altogether that. No one is so
-easily subjugated as an elderly man who has become a widower. It is so
-long since girls have really tried to make themselves agreeable to him,
-that all their little ways are new to him.”
-
-“H’m, yes—unless he has grown daughters of his own,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“I don’t see what difference that makes. They don’t try their little
-ways of—of being nice on _him_; and seeing them tried on some one else
-is very different.”
-
-“Isn’t it?” said the girl with the classic profile. “Now, for instance,
-it is very interesting to have a man pay one compliments; but how it
-does bore one to hear him say the very same things about another girl!”
-
-“Doesn’t it? and yet, such is the selfishness of man, that he expects
-one to be as much interested,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-
-“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, “you know that
-old Mrs. Myllons is always making presents to Barbara and me! Well, one
-day in the beginning of the season she called for me to go shopping
-with her. Of course, I went. Now, it was not long after Barbara had
-encouraged her to give me that awful picture of Burns, and I was as
-eager for her to select a present for Barbara as for me. I knew I could
-direct her choice in either case. To my joy, she stopped to look at
-silks, and her choice fell upon a hideous piece of green which would
-demolish Barbara’s complexion completely—and I really think that girl
-would sooner part with her life than her complexion. I managed to
-convey to Mrs. Myllons my personal preference for a lovely pink which
-cost a dollar less a yard, while encouraging her to buy the green. You
-see she was planning her reception, and Barbara and I were to assist
-her on that occasion.”
-
-“So she took it, did she?” said the president. “I only hope I may see
-Barbara in the green!”
-
-“You never will,” wailed the girl with the dimple in her chin—“it was
-for me! Mrs. Myllons sent it with a lovely note complimenting me on my
-unselfishness in wishing Barbara to have the handsomer piece. I dare
-not refuse to wear it at the reception; and my own father actually says
-it serves me right for trying to play a joke on Barbara!”
-
-“You must not expect sympathy from your father, dear,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose; “he will expect you to wear that gown all season,
-to save buying another. And nothing will ever happen to it, either,”
-she added. “It is only the gown that is dearer to you than life itself
-which has a fatal attraction for cups of coffee or fowls carved by
-inexperienced hosts!”
-
-“Did I ever tell you of the awful thing which happened to me last
-winter?” said the girl with the classic profile. “I believe not,
-though; we hadn’t started our club then. Well, I just had to have a
-new gown, and I was so afraid that my father wouldn’t give it to me
-that I got it without saying a word to him. I knew that even if there
-was a cyclone over the bill I’d have the gown anyhow. That being the
-case, I got a much handsomer one than I would have chosen under other
-circumstances.”
-
-“Quite right,” said the president; “if there must be an unpleasant
-scene, better have it over something which will fully repay one.”
-
-“So I thought. Well, the gown only came home the evening of my sister’s
-dance; and I really wanted to enjoy that, so I decided not to give papa
-the bill until the next day, though the dressmaker was in a great hurry
-for her money.”
-
-“They always are,” sighed the president.
-
-“Yes. I was having a lovely time until supper was served, and then
-Mr. Rocksby emptied a plate of lobster salad over the whole front
-of my new gown! Florence was near; she never got farther away from
-him than—than she could help; and—well, you all know how he admires
-amiability! He apologized profusely, and I, smilingly, said, ‘Oh, it
-doesn’t make the least difference. The gown is of no value at all, and
-I should probably never have worn it again, anyhow.’”
-
-“How lovely of you!” said the blue-eyed girl. “It must have made a deep
-impression upon him.”
-
-“H’m, I don’t know about that; but it did upon me. I happened to turn
-my head just then, and papa was at my elbow! I’d rather not tell you
-the things he said when I gave him the bill for that gown the next
-morning!”
-
-“We can all guess,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a shudder. “But
-wasn’t Mr. Rocksby awfully nice to you after that?”
-
-“No, he wasn’t. He said that the girl who cared nothing for the
-destruction of such a handsome gown was too extravagant to make a good
-wife for a poor man! And the hardest part of it all was the fact that
-he must have lots of money, else he never on earth would speak of
-himself as ‘a poor man!’”
-
-“Let us hope your father never found that out,” said the president, in
-devout tones.
-
-“But he did. He overheard Mr. Rocksby saying it to Florence; and that
-was one of the things he mentioned when I gave him the bill.”
-
-“You poor dear!” said the president. “I declare it really depresses
-me to hear of such persistent ill-luck. Well, girls, since we have
-thoroughly exhausted our subject, I think we may just as well adjourn.”
-
-The blue-eyed girl went home with the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-and after they had begun to sip their tea, she said:
-
-“Is it true that Jack intends to go to Australia unless our quarrel is
-made up?”
-
-“He—he _says_ he will,” was the cautious reply.
-
-“Then, I want to know what you intend to do in the matter?”
-
-“What I—intend to do in the matter?” she gasped.
-
-“Yes. Of course it is thoroughly in your hands. I have not made a
-single move without consulting you, and being guided by your advice.
-And if the quarrel is never made up, and I die of a broken heart, it
-will be entirely your fault!”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter XII
-
-The Club Investigates Theosophy
-
-
-“We will discuss to-day: ‘What Theosophy Really Teaches,’” said the
-president, as soon as she could make herself heard. “You expressed an
-earnest wish to study it,’ Emily, and—”
-
-“Did I?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin, looking surprised.
-“I had quite forgotten it. However, I have been so busy with my new
-hats and the chairmanship of a committee appointed to instruct tenement
-house mothers as to the best method of bringing up children, that I
-have had no time for anything else.”
-
-“And no wonder,” said the girl with the classic profile. “How grateful
-those poor ignorant people must be for your instruction!”
-
-“M—I don’t know about that. At times, I am very much discouraged. One
-woman said she would gladly allow her children to wear two fresh aprons
-a day, if I would pay for the washing of them. Another said that she
-had already raised six children without my assistance, and she believed
-she could worry on without it a bit longer. Still another was so stupid
-that she couldn’t be made to understand how I, who had never had any
-children, was able to offer her such valuable suggestions.”
-
-“As if it depended on experience,” said the president. “The theory is
-ever so much more important.”
-
-“That was what I said to the woman who— You knew that I had resigned
-from that same committee, didn’t you?” said the girl with the Roman
-nose.
-
-“Why, no; this is the first I have heard of it. And you were so
-enthusiastic, too! What on earth has made you change your mind?”
-
-“A woman. She—”
-
-“Oh! I thought, perhaps, it was a man,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“No. I am not as easily influenced as you are, dear. This woman lived
-up six flights of the dirtiest stairs I ever saw. I wondered at the
-time why she didn’t ask the landlord to have an elevator put in;
-probably she hadn’t thought of it. She lived in two rooms, and you
-never saw such awful poverty in your life. I thought, as she was so
-awfully poor, she couldn’t have much feeling, so I told her plainly
-that she could never expect her children to love and honor her if she
-did not at once give them each a hot bath, and put up fresh curtains
-and a pot or two of flowers in the windows. Everybody knows how cheap
-curtains are nowadays—not the real lace ones, of course, but—”
-
-“Tamboured muslin and all that,” said the president. “Was she grateful
-for your interest in her?”
-
-“I fear not. She looked at me, earnestly, and said: ‘You’ve been to one
-of them, haven’t you? I’ve always wanted to see somebody that had!’”
-
-“Was the woman mad?”
-
-“I was afraid so, and I began to back out of the door, when she called,
-‘Mary Ellen! oh, Mary Ellen! come right in here this minute! Here is a
-lady who has been to one of them there beauty doctors we was talking
-about yesterday! She must be awful old, for she’s brought up a lot of
-children; and come here to teach me how to raise mine; and if that
-beauty doctor ain’t fixed her up so she looks real young!’”
-
-“And did Mary Ellen come?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-sympathetically.
-
-“I don’t know. I didn’t wait; but I am almost sure I heard several
-people laughing as I came down-stairs. After this, I shall devote my
-energies to foreign missions or something like that. If the heathens
-are not grateful for my efforts in their behalf, they at least express
-themselves in a tongue I don’t understand; and they are too far away
-for me to hear them, even if I _could_ understand!”
-
-“Their ingratitude is awful,” wailed the president. “Well, I’m glad
-you have told me all this. Otherwise, I never could have had courage
-to tell you my last experience with visiting the dwellers in the slums
-as a member of the ‘Society for Procuring Better Ventilation in Other
-People’s Bedrooms!’ I called on one woman, who really seemed impressed
-by my arguments; she was quite polite, and never took her eyes off my
-bonnet all the time I was talking to her. I was so pleased with her
-that I gave her my address, and told her I would let her have a lot of
-pamphlets on the subject, if she would send for them. I knew I could
-not get one of my maids to carry them into that district, and besides
-her husband could easily come for them. He was a street paver, and no
-doubt would be glad to get the exercise.”
-
-“Of course,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Did he come?”
-
-“No. But she herself walked in on my reception day a few weeks later.
-She wore a bonnet which was a perfect caricature of mine. She said she
-hoped I would forgive her for delaying the returning of my call so
-long; and didn’t I think my reception-room was too warm to be quite
-healthy?”
-
-“Did you ever hear of such impertinence! and in your own house, too!”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What did the other members of the
-society say?”
-
-“I don’t know. I resigned, by telephone, as soon as Tom and the doctor
-succeeded in bringing me out of my fainting fit.”
-
-“And no wonder,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-sympathetically. “And yet, people complain that we take so little
-interest in the poor! Only a real philanthropist can appreciate the
-rebuffs we receive. The only thing which helps us to bear them, is the
-knowledge that we are doing such incalculable good.”
-
-“It is very sweet and good of you to feel so,” sighed the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “I don’t know that I am quite so magnanimous, myself. Oh,
-Catharine, dear; you were speaking of Mr. Rocksby the other day. Did
-you ever hear the end of his affair with Florence?”
-
-“Why, no,” said the girl with the classic profile. “I only knew that it
-_had_ an end. How on earth did you find out about it?”
-
-“I heard that she and Effie had fallen out, and I asked Effie all about
-it. Of course she was glad enough to tell. It seems that there was a
-dance at the club in Arcadia, and Florence went out to stay with the
-Brownstones and attend it. Mr. Rocksby happened to meet her at the
-station, and went out with her, intending to return by the next train.
-It turned out that there was no train back until midnight, so the
-Brownstones invited him to dine and go to the dance with them. They
-even brought out a dress coat of Mr. Brownstone’s for him to wear, and
-Florence told Effie that he looked as if he weighed twenty pounds less
-when he put it on.”
-
-“It’s really wonderful the way people always help Florence along,”
-sighed the girl with the classic profile. “Nobody ever does such things
-for _me_.”
-
-“I fancy Florence wishes they hadn’t for _her_, dear. Well, he was
-lovely to her at the dance, and after a while he coaxed her out on the
-balcony for a quiet talk. Before she fairly knew what he was about, he
-had fallen heavily on his knees and said, ‘Florence, I—’ when she heard
-the queerest sound, and he sprang to his feet, with his hand on his
-back!”
-
-“Good gracious, I hope the poor old soul hadn’t hurt himself?”
-
-“No; I believe not. But he had split Mr. Brownstone’s dress coat from
-top to bottom. And though Florence tried her very best, she never could
-coax him to finish the sentence he had just begun!”
-
-“Poor Florence! No wonder she says now she thinks a man looks better
-in cycling garb than anything else. The sight of a dress coat must be
-enough to make her ill.”
-
-“I should think so,” said the president. “By the way, speaking of
-theosophy, I wonder why its stout and elderly devotees wear such
-flowing white robes? The younger ones seem content with short hair and
-general dowdiness.”
-
-“Good gracious, you will be wondering next why politicians always wear
-diamonds or why dressmakers invariably appear in old-fashioned gowns,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose; “and I must say, frankly, that I
-can’t answer either of those questions. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose I
-am to congratulate you. I hear that Tom has just inherited ten thousand
-dollars.”
-
-“I don’t know whether you may congratulate me, or not,” said the
-president. “Sometimes, I—”
-
-“Oh! Then, there is no truth in the report?”
-
-“Yes, it is true enough, but I don’t know whether I am to be
-congratulated or not. You see, I was getting along very well as we
-were, and now I see that I need a lot of things I never thought of
-before—more than the extra income could possibly cover—and I shall be
-absolutely wretched unless I can have them.”
-
-“But you will have some of them, anyhow, won’t you?”
-
-“I’m not sure. Tom talks now of putting all the money into his
-business. In that case he will be obliged to work harder, because he
-will have more at stake; he says, also, that I shall have to be more
-economical than ever because every cent will be needed to extend his
-operations. On the whole,” she added, thoughtfully, “I am rather sorry
-his aunt is dead. It was ever so much nicer when she was living, and I
-could spend the expected legacy royally, in imagination, at least.”
-
-“You poor dear; to think of having cause to regret the death of a
-wealthy relative,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but—er—couldn’t Tom put
-you on the pay-roll as a clerk, or something?”
-
-“I did suggest that; but he said he’d rather pay me a salary to stay
-out of the office. I haven’t spoken to him since.”
-
-“Do you know, I always think it a mistake to stop speaking to any one,”
-said the blue-eyed girl; “it seems unkind, and then one loses the
-opportunity to say unpleasant things to them, too.”
-
-“I believe you are right,” said the president. “No married man seems to
-appreciate speechless indignation, anyhow.”
-
-“I must see you alone a moment, Emily, dear,” whispered the blue-eyed
-girl. “Can’t you come with me down to the other end of the room, and
-let me pretend to straighten your hair?”
-
-“With pleasure, dear,” replied Emily, but there was no alacrity in her
-voice; “only we must not stay too long lest Frances suspect something.”
-
-“What if she does? She would only think we are talking about her—and
-I doubt if that would make her particularly comfortable. It is about
-Jack. Perhaps, you can pardon his behavior, but for me the last link
-which bound us is broken, and I feel now that I can start for India as
-a missionary without a pang!”
-
-“My goodness, what has he done now? I’ve been afraid all along,
-Dorothy, that you would put off the reconciliation too long. While he
-confines his attentions to Frances, it is all right; but some time he
-will find out that there are a number of nice girls in the world, and—”
-
-“Frances has nothing to do with it,” she replied, with great dignity.
-“It happened this way: I was coming home about dusk yesterday—you
-remember how it rained, don’t you? Well, I was so miserable that I
-didn’t even attempt to hold up my skirts—it was a kind of a comfort to
-let them get thoroughly draggled. A gust of wind blew my umbrella to
-one side, and I saw Jack and Mr. Bonds just ahead of me. By the way,
-did you ever notice that—er—there is a certain likeness between those
-two?”
-
-“I’ve always said they looked enough alike to be brothers. Don’t you
-remember, dear, when you were first engaged to Jack, you wouldn’t speak
-to me for two weeks because I mentioned the fact?”
-
-“No, I don’t remember. Well, all of a sudden, I felt that I could
-forgive Jack all if I could just lay my head on his shoulder, and hear
-him say that he was sorry.”
-
-“Oh, Dorothy, dear, I am so glad! He told me this morning that he—”
-
-“If you will kindly allow me to proceed, without interruption, I will
-explain how that is now impossible. I was wondering how Mr. Bonds could
-be gotten rid of, so that Jack could go home with me and apologize
-comfortably before dinner; when he suddenly left him and ran up the
-Vansmith’s steps. Jack was walking slowly, and I just shut my eyes,
-and made a dash to catch up with him. My own voice sounded like a fog
-whistle, as I said: ‘W—wait a moment; I—I wish to speak to you.’ And,
-oh, Emily—”
-
-“You surely never mean to say that Jack wouldn’t stop when you called?”
-
-“It wasn’t Jack. It was Mr. Bonds; Jack had gone into the Vansmith
-house! But, oh, Emily, if he really loved me, he would have known that
-I was right behind him, ready to forgive and forget. I shall sail for
-India some time next week, and if I never return, you—”
-
-“But, Dorothy, Jack is only too anxious to make up. He says that a
-lover’s quarrel is worse than a Welsh rarebit for keeping a fellow
-awake at night. And he told me to tell you—”
-
-“Well, Emily Marshmallow, if this is all the interest you take in
-our discussion of theosophy, we might as well adjourn, and go to a
-millinery shop or an afternoon tea,” said the president, with some
-asperity; “and, after all the trouble I’ve taken in reading everything
-the dictionary and the encyclopædia have to say on the subject, I think
-you might at least pay attention to my remarks!”
-
-“Dear me, Evelyn, I really beg your pardon. I shall borrow Elise’s
-note-book, and study it all out before I sleep. There is nothing so
-productive of a good night’s rest as half an hour’s solid reading after
-one is in bed. Why, the other night, I took a book on philosophy to
-bed with me, and before I had read six sentences I was asleep. I never
-woke till nine o’clock in the morning, and the gas was blazing all that
-time. I doubt if I’d have waked then if somebody hadn’t knocked at my
-door.”
-
-“It was the sweet consciousness of duty well performed,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose. “Now, if your book had been a really interesting
-novel, you would have been awake half the night.”
-
-“True,” said the girl with the classic profile, “and been as yellow as
-a primrose in the morning. I often say that a few pages of really good
-literature just before retiring is the best thing in the world for the
-complexion. One girl I know says she always reads her Bible then; but I
-don’t approve of that—if one falls asleep suddenly, allowing it to drop
-heavily upon the floor, it is sure to awaken the other members of the
-family. If I do that, my father—”
-
-“I know,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, plaintively.
-“Mamma says that if I take any more solid reading to bed I may confront
-papa with this month’s gas bill, when it comes in, for she absolutely
-refuses to do it!”
-
-“Pshaw, men are all alike; though I didn’t use to think so,” said the
-president. “Now, I always forget all about the topic for discussion
-until half an hour before it is time to start for the club. A man would
-say that he hadn’t time to prepare for it, but a woman’s courage never
-deserts her. I am all ready at the appointed time, even if I have to
-tell the cook to have anything she chooses for dinner. Now, Tom thinks
-I ought to be ready by the day before, even if I have to give up a tea
-or a luncheon to do it.”
-
-“The idea!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Really, women have so
-many things to do nowadays that is a wonder they find time for them
-all; and yet, men seem to expect them to be just as good housekeepers
-as they were when they had nothing else to do. I regret to see that the
-sexes have not progressed equally.”
-
-“Indeed they have not,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Who ever heard of
-the new man? And if there _was_ such a creature he would no doubt be so
-effeminate that nobody would care anything for him.”
-
-“True,” said the girl with the classic profile, “sometimes, I fear
-that Helen’s husband will develop such proclivities. Of course it is
-only a harmless eccentricity which makes him sew on his own buttons—I
-can overlook that. But the other day he was getting ready to go down
-town while she was out on her bicycle. Just because she was wearing one
-of his shirts and a collar and tie of his, he dressed up in that lovely
-lace collarette of hers, and was actually going out with it on! What
-would people have said of a man who appeared in such feminine attire!”
-
-“Goodness me, I hope he is not losing his mind,” said the president.
-“However, if he is, Helen is always ready to supply him with a piece
-of hers. By the way, girls, what queer questions men do ask! Several
-of Tom’s friends dined with us last evening, and they actually wanted
-to know why a stout woman always selects a tiny dog for a pet, while a
-wisp of a woman will be tugging at the chain of an enormous mastiff. I
-simply told them that they must not be so curious, for, though I would
-not confess it to _them_, I really could not answer the question.”
-
-“And you were quite right,” said the blue-eyed girl, indignantly; “by
-and by, they will actually expect us to give a reason for everything we
-do! Which is palpably absurd, since we so often do things without any
-reason at all!”
-
-“Well, luckily, we are not responsible for anybody,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses. “Oh! I just wouldn’t be a man for anything in the
-world.”
-
-“Would anybody, if he could help it?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Of course, they all pretend to like it, but one can easily see the
-hollowness of the pretense. Why, they would not be half so anxious to
-criticise our actions if they didn’t feel that we have the best of
-things. Of course, I would not be a man for anything—”
-
-“Nor I,” said the president, “and have to give up my comfortable seat
-in a street car every time a woman entered.”
-
-“But of course it is only right for them to give up their seats to us,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“Certainly, it’s right. Only I shouldn’t like to have to do it myself.”
-
-“Of course not. Or to have to pay for pretty things for somebody else
-to wear. Or to have to drop a nice book, and go out in the rain to
-escort home a girl who had been calling on some one else,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“Yes. Or to have to buy candy for somebody else to eat,” said the girl
-with the classic profile.
-
-“M’hm. Or to have the nearest woman manage one, without one being aware
-of the fact,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I know! Or to have to
-fall in love with a girl, and marry her, just because she had made up
-her mind that one should,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-
-“Yes. Well, really the poor things have a great deal to endure, though
-many of their sufferings are mercifully hidden from them,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “But, after all, we are very nice to
-them, you know.”
-
-“Of course we are,” said the president; “we wouldn’t get nearly so
-many things out of them, if we were not. Girls, I hear that Annie has
-finally decided to marry Nelson.”
-
-“I thought she had done that long ago,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Talk of a woman not knowing her own mind. That man never—”
-
-“He knew his own mind well enough, dear. It was only about Annie’s that
-he was doubtful,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Annie
-told me herself how it came to be settled. She said that she couldn’t
-decide whether to accept him or not—”
-
-“Which means that she had done all she could, and was doubtful whether
-he would do the rest,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Perhaps so. At any rate it was still uncertain until last Tuesday.
-He had been out of town for several days, and returned unexpectedly.
-Annie had gone out to mail a letter, and just as she raised the lid of
-the letter-box she saw him coming up the street toward her. As they
-walked away together, she glanced down and saw that she still held her
-letter in her hand, but her pocket-book was gone!”
-
-“Goodness, you don’t mean to say that she—”
-
-“I do. She said she knew at once that she must care a good deal for a
-man whose sudden appearance was enough to make her post her pocketbook
-instead of a letter—so she said ‘Yes.’”
-
-“As soon as he asked her,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Well, what he
-can see in _her_, I’m sure _I_ don’t know!”
-
-“What _she_ can see in _him_ puzzles me,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-thoughtfully. “I don’t see how any girl can really love and honor a man
-who wears red neckties; do you?”
-
-“For _my_ part, I can’t see what they see in each other,” said the
-president, thoughtfully. “Well, I really think Annie ought to give me
-a handsome present, for it was I who brought it all about.”
-
-“Mercy, did you speak ill of her to Nelson?”
-
-“No; but I told Tom the other day that I didn’t believe that girl would
-ever get married. And when I make a remark like that about any girl,
-she may as well set about selecting her trousseau, for somebody is sure
-to propose to her at once.”
-
-“And yet, I doubt if Annie would be grateful to you, if you told her,”
-said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully.
-
-“One must not expect gratitude in this world, dear. The consciousness
-of having done one’s duty is reward enough for a right-minded person.
-By the way, Emily dear, I hear that Dick says he will positively wait
-no longer. You must give him a decisive answer one way or the other, or
-he—”
-
-“Yes; but he hasn’t yet screwed up the courage to tell _me_ so,
-dear. When he _does_, it will be time for me to make up my mind. I
-do wonder,” she added, thoughtfully, “why a girl who has one lover
-already, is sure to win the affections of another man?”
-
-“Cause and effect,” said the president, gloomily. “I never thought of
-buying that new hat until I heard Helen tell the milliner it was too
-expensive for her. After I got it home, I found it didn’t match a thing
-I possessed. I just believe Helen said that before me for meanness,
-knowing I would be compelled to buy it, then. And now the milliner
-absolutely refuses to take it off my hands. I threatened to withdraw my
-trade if she didn’t; but it had no effect. She knows I have more hats
-already than I need for this season, and by the time they are all worn
-out—and paid for—I shall have forgotten all about it.”
-
-“But why not pay your bill at once, and open another with somebody
-else? That—”
-
-“I don’t care to let Tom see the old bill just now, dear. It wouldn’t
-matter ordinarily, but since he inherited that money from his aunt he
-is feeling unusually poor, and it might cause a family unpleasantness.”
-
-“How thoughtful you always are, Evelyn! Really, the study of theosophy
-seems to have developed your character wonderfully. I do hope you will
-explain it all thoroughly to me,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “I
-am really so stupid that even after to-day’s discussion, I feel that I
-do not fully understand it.”
-
-“Perhaps at some future time,” said the president, hastily. “I am sorry
-to say that we really must adjourn now. My mother-in-law is coming
-to dine with us, and I don’t want her poking about the house in my
-absence.”
-
-
-
-
-Chapter XII
-
-A Discussion and a Surprise
-
-
-“‘Civic Organizations Among the Ancient Greeks,’ will be our topic for
-to-day,” said the president. “And, oh, girls, I am so angry with Tom
-that I would go right home to mamma, but for the fact that she always
-agrees with him. Papa invariably thinks _I_ am in the right; but he
-would say unpleasant things about Tom, and I shouldn’t like that,
-either. The consequence is that I must just endure my martyrdom in
-silence.”
-
-“But, what is wrong? Is it about that legacy from Tom’s aunt?” queried
-the girl with the Roman nose. “Dear me, I often think it’s so hard that
-really poor men are usually nicer than those that have money.”
-
-“I don’t see why you always think of money in connection with me,” said
-the president. “Heaven knows, I am not mercenary, and I only want to
-live well and dress properly, in order that people may see Tom is not
-stingy. No, this is quite another matter. It all came from the topic
-I selected for to-day. I was talking, rather learnedly, about ‘Civic
-Organizations Among the Ancient Greeks,’ when Tom asked me suddenly
-what ward I live in! Of course, I didn’t know—”
-
-“Why, neither do I,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “but it must be the
-same one, for we both live on the north side!”
-
-“I really don’t know, either,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “I don’t see what difference it makes though, for I could ask the
-clerk at the corner drug store if I needed particularly to know.”
-
-“Of course you could,” said the president, “and so could I. But, Tom
-was awfully unpleasant—he couldn’t have been more so if we had been
-married twenty years instead of two. He said he didn’t see any use in
-my poking about among the civic organizations of ancient Greece, when
-I did not know what ward I lived in.”
-
-“Humph! I suppose next thing he will be saying that he doesn’t see any
-use in the Teacup Club,” said the girl with the classic profile, in
-sarcastic tones. “A man will say anything when he is angry.”
-
-“Humph! I fancy he will hardly say anything like that, dear. He knows
-it has its use, if it is only to make me look more leniently on his own
-club. When we first organized it he complained a good deal about the
-demands it made on my time and attention, and I just said: ‘Oh, very
-well, dear, let us both give up our clubs, and spend all our spare time
-at home together.’ After that, he held his peace on the subject.”
-
-“But you wouldn’t have given it up, would you?” asked the brown-eyed
-blonde, anxiously.
-
-“Of course not—but Tom didn’t know that. By the way, Emily, what is
-making Dorothy so late to-day?”
-
-“I fancy she is engaged,” replied the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, demurely; “at least Jack Bittersweet was on his way to call on
-her a couple of hours ago, and I suppose—Pardon me, Frances, did you
-speak?”
-
-“I—I was about to say, ‘how nice’—for Dorothy, I mean. By the way,
-girls, I—I am thinking of going to Omaha for a nice, long visit as soon
-as I can get ready.”
-
-“But I thought you had already refused Lola’s invitation,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin.
-
-“I—I had. But, really I have bought so many pretty things of late that
-I can get ready for my visit without the slightest trouble, and as my
-last visit was cut short, I—”
-
-“Yes, I remember that quite well, dear. I remember that you came home a
-few days after Dorothy broke with poor Jack. But I don’t understand why
-you have been embroidering so much table linen lately. You surely will
-not need that for a visit to Omaha.”
-
-“Why, er—no. I—I shall take it as a present to Lola’s mother, I think.
-You have no idea of how fond she is of me.”
-
-“Indeed, I have, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-warmly. “I’ve often noticed that married women who have no grown sons
-_are_ fond of you. It is rather a pity, as things turned out, that you
-cut your last visit short; I am really afraid, if you go now, that you
-will miss Dorothy’s wedding.”
-
-“At any rate, dear, she will not miss it herself. Really, I think
-the poor girl would have lost her mind if she had lost Jack. These
-disappointments are so hard to bear that—”
-
-“I shall tell her that you said so, dear. I am sure she and Jack will
-both—”
-
-“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily, “do you suppose that Greek
-women used actually to wear those dowdy gowns on the street? Of course
-they would do very well for tea gowns, but—”
-
-“I don’t suppose anything of the kind,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose. “It was chiefly the men who made the antique statues, wasn’t
-it? Very well, then, the poor creatures had no idea of style, and just
-reproduced the gowns they happened to admire themselves.”
-
-“True,” said the girl with the classic profile; “men always detest the
-ruling fashion of the hour. And yet, they seem to think we dress to
-please them,” she added, derisively.
-
-“I know it. And the women of ancient Greece were just like anybody
-else, I suppose,” replied the girl with the eyeglasses. “However, if
-they really wore white as frequently as they seem to, they must have
-had more money than I have to pay the laundress.”
-
-“Yes, or the principal street of Athens—I forget the name of it, must
-have been a good deal cleaner than State street,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin. “I don’t suppose, however, that the carving of
-statues could have made much dirt, and really the ancient Greeks seem
-to have done little else.”
-
-“At any rate their system of civic organization was—dear me, what was
-it? I had it all written down on the back of an invitation to dinner,
-and I must have lost it as I came along,” wailed the president. “Oh,
-dear, what shall I do?”
-
-“Never mind, you can tell us what you remember,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, soothingly. “None of us know enough about it to detect the
-fact if you _are_ wrong.”
-
-“It isn’t that; I’ve got it all at home in the old school book I copied
-it from. But, as I say, it was on the back of an invitation to dinner,
-and I can’t remember whether it was for next Tuesday or Thursday!”
-
-“Goodness me, that is really serious,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin; “but perhaps Tom will remember.”
-
-“Tom remember the date of an invitation to dinner! How little you know
-about men. Why, he would tell me the wrong day, if he did remember,
-just to escape putting on his dress coat and going with me.”
-
-“Humph! from what Helen says, you may be thankful that he goes at all.
-Her husband does not. She says—”
-
-“Helen didn’t manage him properly at first, that’s all. When Tom first
-began to declare he wouldn’t go to dinners, I would just say, ‘Very
-well, dear, we’ll both remain at home, and tell our would-be hostess
-the true reason why we didn’t come. And now, I often reap the benefit
-of that Spartan policy. Of course, he is sometimes detained at the
-office by important business, or even called off by a telegram just as
-we are about to start. However, I always remember that he is only human
-after all, and seldom revenge myself in any other way than by telling
-him that Mr. Troolygood sat next me at table. Life will be a much more
-complicated affair for me if that dear fellow ever takes it into his
-head to marry.”
-
-“I think you are perfectly safe for some time to come, dear,” said the
-girl with the classic profile, “his married sister, with whom he lives,
-is anxious for him to marry. She has the habit of inviting any girl he
-seems to admire, so constantly to the house that she soon loses all her
-charm for him.”
-
-“No man likes courtship made easy,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-“Mr. Troolygood will surely die a bachelor unless he succeeds some day
-in unearthing a girl whom his sister dislikes. That is hardly probable,
-either, since he invariably admires a girl with money—a habit, by the
-way, which I have also noticed in other young clergymen.”
-
-“It is not confined to young clergymen, dear,” remarked the girl with
-the eyeglasses. “Talk about women being mercenary, I have often noticed
-that men think much more of money than we do. We know that they must
-provide for us somehow, and the doing of it is their affair.”
-
-“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “what excellent
-mental training we do receive at this club! Dorothy was wondering the
-other day how we ever got along without it; and, indeed, so was I. A
-reputation for being intellectual is the nicest thing in the world;
-once you have it, you can be as silly as you choose, and people will
-feel actually grateful to you for unbending. It has its drawbacks,
-though. I find one must be more careful than ever to have cuffs and
-gloves immaculate.”
-
-“True,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Girls, a college
-professor asked me the other day why we always wear veils on the
-street!”
-
-“And what did you reply?” queried the girl with the Roman nose.
-
-“To keep our faces clean! What did you suppose?”
-
-“Oh! I thought you told him the truth. However, the more intellectual a
-man is the less he understands women. One of his students would—”
-
-“Know better than to expect the truth in reply to such a question?
-Of course he would,” said the president; “but oh, girls, if an
-octogenarian knew as much about us as a sophomore _thinks_ he does,
-what a queer world this would be!”
-
-“Unpleasant rather than queer,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “Of course we understand men thoroughly; but that is a very
-different matter.”
-
-“Oh, very different,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “But aren’t
-they queer? Why, I once knew a man who called a girl a ‘most adorable
-little flirt,’ and then felt very much aggrieved when she kept on
-flirting after they became engaged!”
-
-“Lots of girls never have an opportunity to flirt until they _are_
-engaged,” remarked the girl with the dimple in her chin. “To some men,
-an engagement ring on a girl’s hand has the same effect that a ‘Keep
-off the grass’ sign has on children.”
-
-“True,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Oh, Marion, shall you also
-visit Lola this year?”
-
-“Not this century,” replied the girl with the eyeglasses. “Didn’t you
-hear what happened the last time she was here?”
-
-“Why, no; except that she was to dine with you. What happened? Did she
-discuss art in a monologue from soup to coffee? or, did—”
-
-“Yes, she did that; but it wouldn’t have really mattered, except
-for—you see it was this way: when she was here last summer, she gave
-me one of her, well, _she_ calls them paintings. I accepted it with
-profuse thanks; and hung it in the darkest corner of the attic as soon
-as her train was well out of Chicago. When I heard that she was coming
-back, I fished the picture out of its corner, and gave it a prominent
-place in the parlor, telling her it had been there all the time.”
-
-“Well, I’m sure she ought to be satisfied with that,” said the
-president; “not many people care enough for Lola to hang her pictures
-even temporarily on the parlor walls. The one she gave me is in the
-cook’s bedroom—the poor woman has been complaining of insomnia lately.”
-
-“No wonder. Unluckily I forgot to coach my family, and when we came in
-from the dinner table, my brother Frank joined us. You know Lola _is_
-pretty when she remembers to comb her hair and remove her painting
-apron.”
-
-“Mercy on us! did he criticise her painting while she was present?”
-
-“No. He only said, ‘Hello, where did you get this new picture? I never
-saw it before. Looks like the one that has been vegetating in the
-attic!’”
-
-“You needn’t tell us the rest, dear; we all know Lola. It was too bad,
-when you had only done it to spare her feelings, too!”
-
-“Dear! dear!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I wonder
-why the most hopeless artists are ever the most generous with their
-productions? They seem to wish to give them away, whereas—”
-
-“Self-preservation, dear. When one has done something dreadful, one
-dislikes to be constantly reminded of the fact!” said the girl with
-the classic profile. “You know my eldest sister, don’t you? Well, her
-husband has an awful temper, but he seldom gives Sophie any trouble.
-Whenever he begins to be unpleasant, she says: ‘Isn’t it fortunate,
-dear; if you should die, or we should ever separate, I could have a
-good income, anyhow—I could just publish in book form the poems you
-wrote to me before we were married!’”
-
-“And what then?” asked the president, breathlessly.
-
-“Oh, he kicks the dog or snubs his typewriter; but he never says
-another word to Sophie.”
-
-“And yet, Sophie used to be considered dull at school,” said the
-president, thoughtfully. “Well, that’s only another proof that even
-genius needs a special opportunity.”
-
-“Speaking of opportunities,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
-“have you heard of Marie’s last mishap? No? I thought not. You know
-that delightful young physician who cares nothing for society, and
-declines all non-professional invitations, and never calls on a woman
-under seventy. Well, Marie has developed neuralgia, grip, and nervous
-prostration in swift succession, and he has been called in to attend
-her. You see, it is this way: it gives her an opportunity to see him in
-bewitching tea-gowns, and she studies new poses on the sofa when she is
-not taking powders.”
-
-“Oh! And when are they to be married?” asked the president.
-
-“Never, dear. He says he had long loved her silently, and was trying to
-summon up enough courage to tell her so. Now, however, he sees that she
-is too delicate to make a good wife for a hardworking professional man!”
-
-“Humph! No wonder Marie’s little brother told mine he wants to go away
-to boarding-school,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, I always
-did hate deceit. I never—”
-
-“By the way,” said the president, “I thought you had such a bad
-headache that you could not go out to-day.”
-
-“That was when mamma wanted me to accompany her to a meeting at the
-orphan asylum, dear. I felt ever so much better after she was gone.”
-
-“I am so glad you care so much for the club,” said the president.
-“I gave up a luncheon at my mother-in-law’s, in order to come,
-myself. I wanted awfully to go—all the other guests were lovely old
-ladies—perfect walking encyclopædias on the subject of servants, and
-the proper time to hunt moths or cut first teeth.”
-
-“Oh, I forgot to tell you, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “Tom’s mother sent you a message by me that she had put the
-luncheon off until Friday because you were so disappointed at your
-inability to be present.”
-
-“Well, if she expects me to waste a whole morning on those old frumps,
-she is very much mistaken, that is all. And you are no true friend of
-mine, or you would have told her I had an engagement for that day, too!”
-
-“Humph! You seem to forget that I am afraid of her, too. She was my old
-Sunday-school teacher, and she would as lief be disagreeable to me as
-to you. Besides, it is not as if Tom had no unmarried brothers. One has
-to consider her feelings, you know, and—”
-
-“Very true, dear. You always were charitable, Emily—I can just as well
-go to bed with a cold on Friday. Well, I fear we must adjourn now. What
-a profitable meeting we have had! I only wish Dorothy could have heard
-some of the arguments that—”
-
-“Yes, indeed, Dorothy needs all of the good sense she can possibly
-obtain in any form,” murmured the brown-eyed blonde.
-
-“Not now that she is about to be married, dear,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “However, I am sure that nothing save death or a
-boil on her chin will ever keep her away from another meeting. She says
-she considers the founding of this club her life work.”
-
-“And a noble one, too,” said the president, warmly. “Well, if ever a
-girl entered upon matrimony with bright prospects, _she_ is that one. I
-verily believe she could make Jack Bittersweet do anything she wanted,
-whether he liked or not!”
-
-“At any rate, she has begun well,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.
-
-When the girl with the dimple in her chin reached the blue-eyed girl’s
-home, she ran up the stairs to her friend’s room, two steps at a time,
-and burst open the door. That young person was discovered, radiant with
-smiles in spite of the traces of recent tears; she was seated at her
-desk, and the waste basket was overflowing with crumpled sheets of her
-best note paper.
-
-“Oh, you dear, Dorothy,” said the visitor, “tell me all about it, do!
-I was dying to come earlier, but I wanted to see what Frances would do
-when she heard that Jack was coming here, so I had to stay all through
-the meeting. Evelyn says that no girl ever had brighter prospects in
-marrying than you, and—”
-
-“Oh! then, they all know I am to be married, do they? Did Jack tell? I
-thought he would hold his peace, because—”
-
-“Well, not exactly; but he told me that he was on his way here to ask
-you to forgive him for everything he ever did! And he said he just
-wouldn’t come away until you set your wedding-day, and so—”
-
-“Oh! he told you that, did he? Well, it is set, and—”
-
-“Dear old Jack, he must be the happiest fellow in the world, for he—”
-
-“M—I can’t say that he looked it when he went away; however, some
-people have such a way of concealing their emotions. I never had
-myself; I am as open as the day—anybody could know just what I intended
-to do all the time.”
-
-“Of course; I told Jack how it would be from the start. But I don’t
-see why he looked so melancholy when he came away. Didn’t you set the
-wedding day early enough to please him?”
-
-“He said he didn’t want to know the day, and—”
-
-“Didn’t want to know the day of his own wedding! Why, the poor boy must
-be crazy; he—”
-
-“The date of his _own_ wedding! Emily Marshmallow, are you out of your
-mind? I said the date of _my_ wedding, and—”
-
-“Would you mind feeling my pulse, dear, or examining my eye to see if
-there is a look of insanity in it! For really, I don’t see how you and
-Jack can be married to each other on different days, unless you are
-thinking of matrimony on the instalment plan; and that—”
-
-“Married to each other? Jack Bittersweet and I? Why, Emily Marshmallow,
-you haven’t listened to a word I have been saying, when I have been
-telling you for the last half hour I am to marry Clarence Lighthed, the
-only man I ever loved, next month, and—”
-
-“Oh, Dorothy, don’t! If Jack did not ask you to marry him to-day, it
-was only that he hadn’t the courage, and—”
-
-“He did, dear—twice. But you see, I had accepted Clarence an hour
-before he came. Well, it is a great comfort to know that I never
-encouraged poor Jack! You will bear me out in that, I know. And oh,
-Emily, Clarence is the dearest person in the world! You can’t imagine
-how happy first love makes one! I—I wouldn’t say a word to Frances now
-if I saw her with one eyebrow a full half inch higher than the other.
-But, what is the matter? You—”
-
-“I—I feel a little faint, dear; that is all. Did you—er, try to soften
-the blow to Jack?”
-
-“I did. I advised him to marry Frances; said that I knew she would make
-him happier than I could ever have done, and their marriage was the one
-thing needed to complete my own happiness.”
-
-“Well, he wouldn’t marry her now if—not if she was a wealthy young
-widow. Did—did Jack say anything about me?”
-
-“Why, er—yes; he seemed sort of offended with you for something.
-I don’t know what it was. The only reference I made to you in our
-whole conversation, was to tell him that you had seen all along that
-I intended to marry Clarence. Of course if you had not been able to
-make him understand that fact, it was his own stupidity, and not your
-fault. Oh, I tell you, I always defend my friends—even before they are
-attacked! But what is the matter? You look sort of queer?”
-
-“I—I was only wondering what they would say at the club! They—they
-seemed to have an idea that you would marry Jack, and—”
-
-“Marry Jack Bittersweet! What on earth could have put such an idea into
-their heads? I only hope, Emily, that you—”
-
-“Oh, no, dear; nothing of the kind. I—I merely told them that he was on
-his way to ask you to marry him, and—”
-
-“Very thoughtful it was of you, dear. I only wish I could ask you to be
-bridesmaid for your pains; but Clarence has somehow gotten an idea that
-you are not a friend of his. There was no one else to oppose the match,
-and I—I doubt if he’d have asked me quite as soon if you hadn’t; so I
-shall try to forgive you, in time, for the things you have said about
-him.”
-
-The girl with the dimple in her chin gasped, but her only reply, was:
-“I really don’t know what the other members of the club will say. They—”
-
-“The club. I am so glad you mentioned it. There was a meeting to-day,
-was there not? I was just writing Evelyn a letter when you came in,
-saying—”
-
-“That you want us to meet twice a week after this! How nice; that is
-just—”
-
-“No, dear; it was a letter of resignation I was writing. Dear Clarence
-has such a horror of intellectual women, that I—”
-
-“But, Dorothy, you know when you founded the club, you said the
-membership would be for life, and—”
-
-“Emily Marshmallow, I never said anything of the kind! And, if I _did_,
-only a person of your colossal selfishness would expect me to waste my
-time on a mere club when I want to devote eighteen hours a day to the
-selection of my trousseau, and the other six to Clarence! And, if you
-want to know my real opinion of the club, I consider it the greatest
-bore among my social duties!”
-
-
-    PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY
-    & SONS CO. AT THE LAKESIDE
-    PRESS, FOR WAY & WILLIAMS,
-    CHICAGO, U.S.A. MDCCCXCVII
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-Obvious punctuation errors repaired. This text uses both single
-quotation marks and double quotation marks within dialogue. This was
-retained as printed.
-
-Page 82, “nowaday” changed to “nowadays” (nowadays don’t intend)
-
-Page 216, “absense” changed to “absence” (bears my absence)
-
-Page 245, removed repeated word “heard” (you heard Miss Blanque)
-
-Page 296, “he” changed to “her” (criticise her painting)
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50751 ***
+
+_The_ Teacup Club
+
+    BY
+    ELIZA ARMSTRONG
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    _CHICAGO_
+    WAY AND WILLIAMS
+    1897
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT
+    WAY AND WILLIAMS
+    1897
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+A portion of the matter in this little book originally appeared in _The
+New York Journal_, and is used by the courtesy of W. R. Hearst, Esq.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                PAGE
+       I THE TEACUP CLUB IS FORMED                            9
+      II THE CLUB DISCUSSES WOMAN IN POLITICS                39
+     III MAN’S REAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN    65
+      IV CONCERNING THE HEROINE OF TO-DAY                    89
+       V THE CLUB SETTLES SOME CURRENCY PROBLEMS            112
+      VI THE PIONEER NEW WOMAN                              136
+     VII WOMAN IN LEGISLATION                               159
+    VIII AN EXECUTIVE MEETING                               185
+      IX ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF POLITICAL POWER            210
+       X WOMAN AS A PARLIAMENTARIAN                         236
+      XI THE CLUB INVESTIGATES THEOSOPHY                    261
+     XII A DISCUSSION AND A SURPRISE                        285
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+The Teacup Club is Formed
+
+
+“You can never be sure of pleasing a man,” sighed the blue-eyed girl,
+who was calling on her dearest friend; “that is, if you try to please
+him,” she added reflectively.
+
+“I suppose not,” replied the girl with the dimple in her chin, “unless
+you succeed in concealing from him the fact that you are trying to
+please him.”
+
+“H’m; yes, I suppose there is something in that. However, we ought not
+to be hard on the poor things. The whole truth with the sterner sex is
+that they are never really practical. They—”
+
+“How clever you are!” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+admiringly. “Sometimes it does seem a pity that you are to marry Jack,
+instead of studying law, or—theosophy or something like that. Really,
+a very little study would fit you for the bar, but of course Jack—”
+
+“I don’t intend to marry Jack,” said the blue-eyed girl, calmly.
+
+“O, my goodness, does he know that?”
+
+“I don’t know whether he knows that or not; but he does know that I’ve
+broken my engagement with him. I sent back his ring, and—”
+
+“Dear, dear; that ring must have already cost its real value in
+messenger fees alone. Let me see, how many times have you sent—”
+
+“And you may know that I am in earnest when I tell you that I am to
+pour tea for Nell to-morrow, and everybody will comment on its absence.”
+
+“Do you want me to come over and stay with you to-night, dear?” queried
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“No, thank you, dear. I can just as well talk it over with you now. Of
+course it was Jack’s fault.”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin was silent.
+
+“Well, Emily Marshmallow, I did think that you, of all people, would
+sympathize with me, and—”
+
+“Look here, Dorothy; of course I sympathize with you, but you remember
+when you quarreled with Jack the last time I—”
+
+“I remember the last time that Jack quarreled with me,” replied the
+blue-eyed girl, with dignity.
+
+“Well, I sympathized violently with you, and the consequence was that
+you wouldn’t speak to me for a month after you made up with him!”
+
+“O, of course, if you really do sympathize with me, I—”
+
+“You might know that. But tell me all about it. Is it that you want a
+new ring which is too expensive for anything save a peace offering? Or
+is Edwin coming home on a visit? Or has—”
+
+“Nothing so frivolous, my dear; this is a serious matter. Jack—that is,
+Mr. Bittersweet, joined a new club without even letting me know that
+he meant to do it. I shouldn’t have minded if he had only told of it
+beforehand—”
+
+“Of course not, dear; for then you could have made him give it up!”
+
+“Exactly. Well, when I did find it out, I told him that I plainly saw
+he did not really love me, and that it was lucky I had discovered the
+fact before it was too late!”
+
+“How very original you are!” murmured the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “Go on, dear.”
+
+“Yes, it is all over and I never was so hap—happy in my life! Where is
+my hand—handkerchief? I—I got s—something in my eye on the way here,
+and—”
+
+“Here it is, dear, and let me draw down the window shade, so the light
+will not hurt your poor eye.”
+
+“You needn’t, dear. I saw them coming up the street a minute or two ago
+and all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet thinks he can make
+me jealous by parading up and down with a made-up thing like Frances,
+he is very much mistaken!”
+
+“I suppose you have coaxed Edwin’s sister to write and tell him that
+you have broken with Jack?” queried the girl with the dimple in her
+chin.
+
+“No, I haven’t. I did that last time and he was so unpleasant after we
+made up!”
+
+“Who was unpleasant? Jack?”
+
+“Of course not, goosie. A man is always nicer than usual just after
+making up. No, it was Edwin; he—men are so awfully selfish, you know!
+Just because I was nice to him while I was angry with Jack, he imagined
+I had treated him badly—did you ever hear of such a thing? How did
+he ever expect me to bring Jack to his senses in time for the opera
+season, without a little jealousy as an incentive?”
+
+“Well, you know, men are so awfully vain that he probably thought—”
+
+“That I really liked him? Perhaps he did. I never thought of that.
+Still, badly as he has behaved, I can’t help a kindly feeling for him.
+You see, I had such a lovely new gown for the opera and everybody knew
+that I expected to go often, so—”
+
+“You might even have had to give in and acknowledge that you were
+wrong, but for Edwin!”
+
+“No, dear,” replied the blue-eyed girl, with great dignity. “Never
+that. I really expected to marry Jack, you know, and it would never
+have done to establish such a precedent. How could I ever expect a
+happy married life, if I began it by acknowledging that I could ever be
+in the wrong?”
+
+“Very true, dear. By the way, do you think a peep at my lovely new
+waist would do you any good?”
+
+“You seem to have misunderstood me entirely,” retorted the blue-eyed
+girl, severely, “I am feeling quite happy. Indeed, I don’t know that I
+ever felt happier in my life, unless it was the day upon which I was
+mistaken for my younger sister!”
+
+“But what are you going to do in regard to Jack?”
+
+“Why, Emily Marshmallow, how stupid you are to-day! You seem to
+imagine that I want to be flattered, like a man, by being asked to
+explain things. I told you, didn’t I? that Jack and I quarreled about
+his membership in a new club. Very well, I too, have decided to join a
+club!”
+
+“Humph, that isn’t a bad idea. But what kind of a club? An Ibsen or a
+Browning one, I suppose. I notice that men dislike particularly to have
+us members of really intellectual clubs.”
+
+“Well, I did think of either an Ibsen or a Symphony club, but neither
+of them just seemed to suit me, so—well, the fact is that I’ve decided
+to found a club of my own.”
+
+“But even then you can’t always have it to suit you, because the other
+members—”
+
+“Oh, yes, I shall dear. You see, I’ll make all the—the by-laws and
+resolutions just as I want them, before I invite any one to join the
+club. I think I shall ask Evelyn to be the president, because she is
+married and accustomed already to making somebody do as she wishes.”
+
+“Dear, dear, I’m only afraid that you are too clever to—”
+
+“Succeed? Not quite so bad as that, I hope. Now, you see, the chief
+objection to Jack’s new club was that he wouldn’t tell me anything
+about it. Said he didn’t know just what its purpose was. As if a man
+would join a club without knowing—”
+
+“I begin to see now. You mean to keep the purpose of your own club a
+secret, too?”
+
+“That’s just it, and when Jack hears how nice it is, he’ll find out
+that we are a great deal cleverer than he thinks. I shall make the
+membership for life too, so—”
+
+“But you haven’t even told me the purpose of the club yet.”
+
+“The Advancement of Woman, dear. Jack hates advanced women and when I
+make up with him—”
+
+“But you said a moment ago that you would never—”
+
+“Good gracious, Emily,” cried the blue-eyed girl, hastily, “do stop
+talking a moment and let me get in a word edgewise: I’ve been trying
+for half an hour to get a chance to ask you where the new waist you
+offered to show me, is, and I can’t—”
+
+“Here it is in my wardrobe and isn’t it a dream? You may try it on, if
+you like.”
+
+“Thank you, dear; but no. I care so little for such frivolities, now
+that I have come to enjoy the real intellectual life. Did you ever see
+such darling sleeves? It does seem that a girl who could not be happy
+in them must—”
+
+“Have at least a boil on her chin! Yes, doesn’t it? But really,
+Dorothy, you make me ashamed of caring so much for such vanities. Why,
+those very sleeves cost me two whole nights’ rest!”
+
+“Never mind about that, dear; we can’t all be intellectual. Look here,
+Emily Marshmallow, if you’ll promise never to breathe it as long as you
+live, I’ll tell you the last mean thing that Frances—”
+
+“Oh, do! She has a new gown that would arouse the envy of Dr. Mary
+Walker. All chiffon, spangles, embroidery and—”
+
+“I know. My story has reference to that very gown. You know how very
+mysterious she always is about her new things!”
+
+“M’hm. As if anybody cared to know about them! Do tell me if her waist
+is made—”
+
+“Well, I—you see, it was this way: I knew she was having her new gown
+made at Madame’s, and I accidentally discovered that she was to be
+fitted on Friday at two.”
+
+“Oh, I see. Then, you called upon Frances at one o’clock, thinking that
+she’d take you along, rather than risk offending Madame by being late?”
+
+“No; Frances isn’t afraid of Madame—she doesn’t owe her anything.
+I just happened in at Madame’s at half-past two. They told me she
+was busy, but I said I knew she wouldn’t mind if I stepped into the
+fitting-room for a minute, as I had a letter from Paris and wanted to
+tell her all about the new skirts.”
+
+“Oh, you clever thing!”
+
+“Yes. So in I bounced, and there stood Frances, all in billowy waves of
+turquoise blue and—”
+
+“But I thought her new gown was green and white, with—”
+
+“And you should have seen how sweetly she smiled. So sweetly that I
+knew she was wild with rage!”
+
+“But did you make it right with the Madame? Did—”
+
+“Pretended that I must have left the Paris letter at home, and told her
+I’d fetch it the next day. Then, after a good, long look at Frances, I
+came away and—”
+
+“And ran in to tell all the other girls how her new gown was made?”
+
+“M’hm. Annie first: you know, she hasn’t a bit of originality and
+she said, at once, that she’d have her new one just like it. Then, I
+dropped in at Evelyn’s tea and—”
+
+“Told all the others, too. M’hm.”
+
+“Yes. But what do you think that cat, Frances, had done? She’d been
+there before me and told them all that I had come into the fitting-room
+out of sheer curiosity—I curious, the idea! And the gown she was trying
+on was not her own, after all, she said, but one about which Madame
+had asked her opinion and—”
+
+“Gracious, do you suppose that was the truth?”
+
+“Alas, I know it;” groaned the blue-eyed girl, “it belonged to Jack’s
+sister, Effie! Now, Effie detests Annie and when she sees her in a gown
+which is an exact reproduction of her own, she will—”
+
+“Won’t she, though? Well, my dear, Effie was an unknown quantity
+before, but now you may depend upon one thing—she will use any
+influence she may have with Jack against you.”
+
+“True. And all because of such a silly thing, too! But, then, people
+are so frivolous. Well, you will join my new club, won’t you?”
+
+“Mercy, yes. You had better invite Frances, too; she will tell Effie
+all about it, and the first time Effie is offended with Jack, she will
+tell him, thinking to annoy you both—”
+
+“I shall, though it is hardly necessary, either, for, once started,
+everybody will talk of nothing else. But, whatever you do, don’t tell
+Dick a word about it. Evelyn’s husband is sure to tell him, anyhow, and
+then he can’t say that women never keep secrets.”
+
+“What utter nonsense. Of course women can keep secrets! Why, I once
+knew a girl intimately for two whole years and in all that time she
+never told me that her curls were false. I wouldn’t have known it to
+this day, if I hadn’t walked into her room one day when she had washed
+them and hung them up to dry. I’ve told that story to a dozen men, and
+I’ve never yet found one of them magnanimous enough to acknowledge that
+it proved my point!”
+
+“You can’t prove anything to a man, dear, unless he wants it proved.
+Well, I must go. You’ll not fail me at the first meeting of the Teacup
+club, then?”
+
+“The Teacup club,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+disappointedly, “Why I thought it was to be a really intellectual club,
+and—”
+
+“So it is. But, you know, real merit is always modest. If a lot of men
+get up such a thing, they give it a six-syllabled name; but we wish to
+evade, rather than seek, notoriety and, besides, as I said before, once
+we get it started, the whole town will talk of nothing else!”
+
+It fell upon a bright sunshiny day, and the meeting for the
+organization of the Teacup club was well attended.
+
+“And all the girls are wearing their newest gowns, too,” whispered the
+blue-eyed girl to the girl with the dimple in her chin, “that shows
+that they appreciate the importance of the undertaking.”
+
+“And what an awfully becoming hat you are wearing,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “If I owned such a milliner’s dream I should
+not mind anything that could happen to me.”
+
+“Which means that you have something unpleasant to tell me,” said the
+blue-eyed girl. “You need not be uneasy,” she added, “I’ll not move a
+muscle, for Frances is looking this way.”
+
+“Well, then, I heard her tell Nell that Jack comes to her almost every
+day for sympathy and—”
+
+“Humph. When a man says ‘sympathy’ he means flattery! Is that all?”
+
+“All? Why I thought—”
+
+“Yes, dear. You see, I thought perhaps you had stronger proof than her
+own assertion. Why, Frances, dear, how well you are looking to-day! I
+have not seen you for such an age that I thought you must be out of
+town.”
+
+“Has it seemed so long to you, dear?” returned the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Now, to me the days go so swiftly that, as I sometimes tell Ja—Mr.
+Bittersweet, I mean—I often forget whether it is Saturday or Monday!”
+
+“So you have seen the poor fellow, have you?” returned the blue-eyed
+girl, with an angelic smile; “it is so good of you to console him. But,
+indeed, you are always good about such things and so modest about it,
+too, that but for the men themselves, we should never know how hard
+you work just to induce them to come and be comforted!”
+
+“I—why,—I—” stammered the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Yes, indeed, I was defending you only the other day. I was quite angry
+with Marion for saying that your house should be called ‘An Asylum for
+the Rejected.’ I was so indignant that I just told her that, for my
+part, I thought we all ought to be grateful to you for consoling the
+poor fellows and helping to keep them out of mischief when they are
+feeling so badly. I reminded her, too, that you must do it out of pure
+philanthropy—for you never seem to get anything out of it. Really, I
+never saw you looking quite so well; you have such a fine color and—oh,
+here is Evelyn, at last, and we can call the meeting to order!”
+
+“Why, Evelyn is wearing her old gown,” cried the girl with the classic
+profile, “I call that downright mean! I had thought I could get such a
+good chance to study the draping of it while she was on the platform.”
+
+“Perhaps, that is why she didn’t wear it,” returned the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Mercy, is it me they are calling to order? Why, didn’t you
+tell me before; I—”
+
+“Dear me, girls,” the little woman on the platform was saying, “I don’t
+know that I ought to be president. It seems to me that we should have
+an election or something.”
+
+“That is not necessary,” said the blue-eyed girl, “don’t you remember?
+I asked you to be president, in the first place. But if you’d rather,
+I’ll move that you are to be the chief officer, and Emily, here, will
+second the motion, won’t you Emily?”
+
+“Why, yes of course,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“That does seem more regular,” said the little woman on the platform,
+in a relieved tone. “I wonder if I ought to make a speech of
+acceptance?”
+
+“Not unless you choose;” said the blue-eyed girl, “harmony is the
+chief study of this club, and—”
+
+“Oh, if it is to be a club for the study of harmony, I can’t join;”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses, “I don’t know a thing about music
+and—”
+
+“I’m afraid you have not been paying attention,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, severely. “The club is organized for the advancement of woman and
+I don’t know a girl anywhere who would be more benefited by it than
+yourself. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose we ought to assess dues, or
+something. I know that Ja—I mean a man I know—is always talking about
+dues at his clubs.”
+
+“Oh, but this is to be entirely different from a man’s club,” said the
+president, “and, then, what is the use of assessing dues, anyhow?”
+
+“We might give the money to charity,” suggested the girl with the
+classic profile.
+
+“Oh, well, if we did that, why not let each of us give what she wants
+to charity and be done with it?” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Yes, of course,” said the president; “dear me, I had no idea that
+it was so easy to organize a club, or I’d have done it long ago. It
+isn’t half as much trouble as giving a tea and you don’t run any risk
+of offending people by forgetting to invite them and then having to
+convince them that the card was lost in the mails.”
+
+“Talking of teas,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I—”
+
+“Pardon me,” said the president, gently, “but if this is a club for the
+advancement of woman, ought we to talk about teas?”
+
+“But you began it, yourself,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I
+only—”
+
+“I think I said merely that the club is ever so much nicer than a tea,”
+said the president.
+
+“And so it is,” said the blue-eyed girl, “though, by the way, Nell’s
+last one was lovely—there were enough men present to amuse us, whereas—”
+
+“There are usually so few that they have to be amused, lest they get
+lonesome,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh, girls, have you heard
+that Clarissa—”
+
+“Oughtn’t we to be attending to business,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “instead of talking about Clarissa? I saw her myself only an hour
+ago and if there was anything exciting to tell, she would have—”
+
+“But this _has_ a connection with the club,” insisted the brown-eyed
+blonde. “She wants to become a member!”
+
+“She just can’t be anything of the kind,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“the idea! A girl whose reputation for intellectuality rests upon the
+careless combing of her hair and a habit of wearing hats six months
+behind the mode.”
+
+“But how can we get out of it, if she says she wants to join?” said the
+president, with an anxious air.
+
+“Tell her that one of the rules of the club is that no person over the
+age of twenty-two years can become a member,” suggested the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “she celebrated her twenty-third birthday
+about a week ago, you remember.”
+
+“But it isn’t one of the rules,” objected the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Then, we can make it a rule, right now,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+calmly. “I know just how it would be if we let Clarissa into the
+club—she’d insist upon having everything her own way right along. I
+hate such selfishness myself, and—”
+
+“So do I,” said the president; “by the way, oughtn’t we to make a note
+of that rule, at once?”
+
+“What would be the use of that?” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “we have all heard it. Oh, girls, I already see the benefit
+we are to derive from the influence of this club! Not a single soul
+has said a word in regard to Clarissa’s pretentions to being only
+twenty-three!”
+
+“Why, that’s true,” cried the president, “and very considerate of us it
+was, too, when we all know how ridiculous it is!”
+
+“Oh, girls, I must tell you something,” cried the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I went with Clarissa to a reception given by her literary
+club the other evening and it was simply awful!”
+
+“Not a decent toilet in the room, of course,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.
+
+“Oh, I didn’t expect that—I knew it was a culture club. It seems that
+there had been an awful time over the programme. Some of the members
+wanted to have an Ibsen evening, while others declared for Browning.
+Finally, they decided upon a mixed programme, selections from them
+both, you know. I did not know that when I went.”
+
+“I should think not,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “otherwise,
+you—”
+
+“Would gladly have accepted the invitation—and been suddenly taken ill
+on the appointed day, of course. Well, when the papers and selections
+were being read, I studied my programme to keep my eyes from those
+appalling coiffures, and when I saw the word ‘Music’ on it, I felt like
+a person who has found an oasis in a desert!”
+
+“And had you?” queried the president, who had left the platform and
+joined the group about the narrator.
+
+“No. They played something from Wagner!”
+
+“And you?” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Oh, I was in a comatose condition by that time. Nothing mattered.
+After the interminable programme they served refreshments.”
+
+“You felt better then?” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“No, I didn’t. They had tea and wafers! Tea and wafers after Ibsen,
+Browning and Wagner! And then Clarissa vanished and I couldn’t get
+away. The people present were all very distinguished; one of the
+members had written an epic poem which would have appeared in Harper’s
+if it had not been lost in the mails; one of them had invented a
+rational dress for men and another had once been asked to deliver a
+lecture upon ‘Thought Transference’ before a mothers’ meeting at an
+orphan asylum!”
+
+“My goodness, no wonder you wanted to go home!” cried the brown-eyed
+blonde.
+
+“I did—badly. By and by, while I was wandering about the rooms in
+search of Clarissa, I found a woman who looked as unhappy as I felt. I
+was afraid to speak to her, lest she be somebody very remarkable, but
+she asked me, timidly, if I was the lady who had actually worn a rainy
+day dress, in public. I assured her that I was not, and after that we
+got on famously.”
+
+“But who was she?” the president asked.
+
+“I don’t know her name, but after we had discussed Ibsen and Browning
+a little, I asked what she had done. She replied, modestly: ‘Oh, I am
+the person who always read the Woman’s page in the daily papers!’ After
+that, we talked just like ordinary people, and I didn’t see Clarissa
+when she came to look for me!”
+
+“My goodness, girls, we really ought not to laugh so,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose, “because this club is devoted to the advancement
+of woman, and—”
+
+“That is entirely different,” said the president. “Did Ibsen, Browning
+or Wagner ever do anything for the advancement of woman, I’d like to
+know?”
+
+“Of course not,” said the blue-eyed girl, promptly. “How very absurd!”
+
+“Besides, our club is laid out on entirely new lines,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Yes, isn’t it?” returned the president; “Oh, girls, I quite forgot to
+tell you that we shall have to pay rent for this room if we hold our
+meetings here, and we haven’t made any provision for paying it.”
+
+“But what is the use of making provision, when it isn’t due yet?” asked
+the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Why—er, that is very true,” said the president; “I only wish I was as
+good a business woman as you!”
+
+“Oh, I often feel that I have a great deal to learn yet,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, modestly. “By the way, Evelyn, what did your husband
+say when you told him that you had decided to join a club?”
+
+“He said—Oh, girls, I’m almost ashamed to tell you, but then Tom is
+only a man, after all. He said: ‘Then, may the Lord have mercy upon my
+wretched digestion!’”
+
+“As if women had nothing to do but cook and keep house! when lots of
+us know nothing about either of them,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, indignantly. “Girls, I wonder why it is that if a woman
+studies law or anything like that, somebody is sure to say that she is
+going outside of her sphere, while nobody thinks anything of the kind
+if a man becomes a chef or invents a food for infants?”
+
+“Oh, if you expect logic from a man!” said the president, shrugging her
+shoulders; “however, I expected it, too, before I was married. I know
+better now.”
+
+“Dear, dear, isn’t the Advancement of Woman delightful?” cried the
+girl with the eyeglasses. “After this, when we want to know anything,
+we needn’t go to the trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or the
+encyclopædia; we can just discuss it at the club, and—”
+
+“Why do you bother with those horrid books? I never do,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “They are so heavy and always dusty, too.
+Now, I just ask the nearest man what I want to know. If he happens to
+be wrong, I can always cite my authority and it gives the next man a
+double pleasure in setting me right.”
+
+“What a clever thing you are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “you
+always make me think of what somebody said about er—Juliet, I think:
+‘To know her is a liberal education.’”
+
+“Oh, that is nothing. Why, I know a Vassar girl who has studied Greek
+and all that sort of thing and she invariably misspells several simple
+words whenever she writes to a man, so he may think himself so much
+cleverer than her and—”
+
+“And I know a girl who asks every man, the first time she meets him, to
+explain the Australian ballot system. You see, it is a thing they all
+have to know, so they—”
+
+“Goodness me, I should think she would get awfully tired of the
+answer,” said the president.
+
+“She does. She told me not long ago that she really must invent a new
+stock question, for she could hardly keep from yawning now, while—”
+
+“Speaking of yawning,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde, “Teddy Crœsus
+doesn’t send Molly flowers or bonbons any more!”
+
+“I don’t see what that has to do with yawning,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.
+
+“More than you may think, dear. You know Molly always asks a man if a
+premonition of danger has ever been the means of saving his life. She
+doesn’t ask it the first time they meet, but saves it for some special
+occasion. Well, one evening at a reception, Teddy seemed disposed to
+talk to Florence too much, and Molly asked him the question then,
+because she knew—”
+
+“That he would stay with her as long as she allowed him to talk about
+himself! Yes, of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“M’hm. Well, he was in the midst of a long story about how he once
+escaped from being in a railroad wreck by missing his train. Molly was
+listening with breathless interest when she saw Florence stop within
+two feet of her. She couldn’t resist one glance of triumph and that
+glance was her ruin.”
+
+“It was? Did he look up just then and remember Flo—”
+
+“No, dear. But just as Molly looked at her, she gave a mighty yawn.
+Well, you know, yawning is contagious and Molly had been at a ball the
+night before, so she yawned, too. Teddy’s eyes were on her and—”
+
+“And now Florence gets his violets and bonbons! Well, isn’t that a
+story without a moral?” cried the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“It certainly is,” groaned the president. “Well, girls, I fear we must
+adjourn, though it is hard to break up such an intellectual talk. For
+my part, I shall go back to the petty cares of life with renewed
+energy after a breath of air from a higher plane.”
+
+“I, too,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I feel now as if petty
+gossip and scandal could never interest me again.”
+
+The president and the blue-eyed girl had walked four blocks, when the
+former suddenly stopped.
+
+“There, I knew I had forgotten something,” she cried; “at first, I
+thought it was only to order dinner, but now I remember that I did not
+suggest a topic for discussion at our next meeting!”
+
+“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,” said the blue-eyed girl, “nobody
+would have had time to prepare anything for it, if you had; there is so
+much going on in our set this week, and—”
+
+“Very true,” replied the president, “and all the members are so much
+interested in intellectual topics, anyhow, that they are quite prepared
+to discuss them extemporaneously as we did to-day.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+The Club Discusses Woman in Politics
+
+
+The Teacup club was called to order fifteen minutes before the
+appointed time at its second meeting. “We are all here, you know, and
+there is no use in waiting,” observed the president, as she rapped for
+order with a jeweled hatpin.
+
+“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, who had been reading
+up in parliamentary usage.
+
+“I am so glad to see you all here,” said the president, “I was afraid
+that Effie’s luncheon might—”
+
+“Keep some of us away? Not from this club,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I believe she chose the day just on purpose to break
+up the meeting, so I declined her invitation.”
+
+“Did you?” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I didn’t. Effie is not
+popular enough to offer her guests badly cooked food, so I went and
+excused myself as soon as we rose from the table on the plea that I
+should be late for the club if I remained longer.”
+
+“I wish I might have seen Effie when you said that,” remarked the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “However, your turn came when the door closed
+after you.”
+
+“I think not, dear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, calmly, “Effie
+is not yet distinctly engaged to my cousin Clarence, so—”
+
+“She has to be on decent terms with his family! I might have thought of
+that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“If they had been married, now of course I shouldn’t have dared to do
+it, but—”
+
+“I should think not. Oh, girls, speaking of what happens after the door
+closes, makes me think of what happened to Effie herself once. It was
+just after the affair with Teddy Crœsus, you know.”
+
+“The time she thought to make people believe she was engaged to him,
+and took him to dine with her grandmother—”
+
+“And her grandmother failed to understand the situation and
+congratulated them! Indeed, I do,” cried the girl with the Roman nose,
+“although, on account of being her dearest friend, I failed to hear it
+until two days after everybody else had.”
+
+“Well, you know she went to a breakfast at Nell’s a few days after
+that,” went on the girl with the eyeglasses, “and left early. As she
+reached the corner, she remembered a message for Nell and went back to
+deliver it. She burst into the room unannounced and found all the girls
+talking at once.”
+
+“About her, of course! What did—”
+
+“Yes. Any other girl would have known that, but Effie said: ‘Oh, girls,
+do tell me all about it; what has happened?’”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“And it was so sudden that not one of them could think of a thing to
+say until she had flounced out in a rage!”
+
+“The moral is: Never go back after once saying good-by,” said the
+president.
+
+“True,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “by the way, Dorothy, why weren’t
+you at Effie’s to-day?”
+
+“I fancy my invitation was lost in the mail,” replied the blue-eyed
+girl. “I shall mention it to Effie as soon as I see her, so she will
+not feel that I’ve slighted her intentionally. Why, Frances, dear, did
+those mean things let you sit all through luncheon with the end of
+your, ah—detachable hair showing and a dab of powder on your nose? How
+mean and envious some people are!”
+
+“I—I think it is cooler over on the other side,” panted the brown-eyed
+blonde, “and besides I must see Emily a minute.”
+
+“Why, Dorothy, you must have just heard something awfully nice, you
+look so happy and smiling,” said the girl with the classic profile,
+“but really this delightful club is making us all amiable.”
+
+“Yes, isn’t it?” said the blue-eyed girl, “I couldn’t be really mean to
+anybody now, if I tried.”
+
+“Excuse me for interrupting you, girls,” said the president, “but I
+want to announce our topic for discussion, and if I don’t do it at once
+I may forget it. Suppose we choose “Woman as a Political Factor?” That
+is a broad enough field even for us, and—”
+
+“So it is,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Well, I know one
+thing—whenever a woman really knows what she wants in a political line,
+she gets it.”
+
+“She does—and has ever since Eve held that first caucus with the
+serpent in the garden,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose, who had been
+furtively consulting her book on parliamentary usage. “Oh, girls, have
+you heard that the man Nell expects to marry is a politician?”
+
+“No; but it seems a very suitable match,” said the president, “for I
+don’t know a girl anywhere who can shake hands as gracefully as she
+does.”
+
+“Dear me, Evelyn, how generous you are,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I believe you could find something nice to say about
+everybody.”
+
+“I really believe I could,” said the president, modestly, “and, after
+all, it is easy enough, for if you don’t like the subject of your
+remarks, you can always say it in such a tone that it does more harm
+than good.”
+
+“You are so just,” sighed the girl with the classic profile, “and yet,
+men always declare there is no real fellowship among women!”
+
+“They confuse their own wish with the true state of affairs,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “They know that one woman is often
+more than a match for the whole male sex and when a number of women
+band together they—”
+
+“Usually get more than they want,” said the president. “I often wonder,
+though, why it is always so much easier to convince other men that you
+are in the right than it is to persuade the men of your own family?”
+
+“Perhaps we put it in a more flattering way to strangers,” suggested
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we just can’t help it, though,
+for we can’t always be—”
+
+“Looking up?” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Of course not—if we
+were our necks would grow so stiff that—”
+
+“We could never see our own boots; besides, we would be such frights
+that no man would look at us and so—”
+
+“It would do no good in the end,” finished the blue-eyed girl. “Still,
+I sometimes fancy, after all, that it might be well to be as nice to
+papa and the boys as I am to the men I dance with!”
+
+“My goodness,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we must be
+getting into metaphysics now! I’m not quite sure as to what metaphysics
+may be, so I always conclude that everything I don’t understand must—”
+
+“Be metaphysics? Do you? For my part, I always confuse metaphysics with
+hydraulics, though there is some difference between them I know,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde. “Let us ask Evelyn to explain them right now.
+She—”
+
+“Some other time, dear;” said the president, hastily. “You know we are
+discussing Woman in Politics to-day and—”
+
+“It would be unparliamentary to discuss anything else,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose.
+
+The president looked at her gratefully.
+
+“What a logical mind you have, dear,” she said. “I only wish you could
+be with me sometimes when Tom comes home late from his club. I know
+that there are all sorts of flaws in the stories he tells me, but
+somehow I never find them until after he has given me money and I’ve
+kissed him and made up.”
+
+“What a pity,” sighed the girl with the Roman nose, “for if you found
+out the real flimsiness of his stories sooner, you could get more
+money.”
+
+“Oh, dear, so I could,” wailed the president, “it is an awful thing to
+have a husband and not a logical mind!”
+
+“So it is,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “but, Evelyn, don’t
+tell anybody your opinion of me, for if you do, it may end in my having
+a logical mind and no husband, which is worse!”
+
+“Oh, isn’t this beautiful!” cried the girl with the eyeglasses,
+suddenly. “Really, girls, I am so stupid—that is not stupid as compared
+to a man, of course, but to the rest of you—that I wonder you allow me
+to belong to the club!” and there were tears in her eyes as she spoke.
+
+The president came down from the platform and kissed her.
+
+“Stupid! the idea of a girl with such a genius for hairdressing being
+stupid,” she cried.
+
+“And that girl a chafing-dish cook whose Welsh rarebits are sometimes
+successful, too!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Oh! speaking of chafing-dish cookery,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “You know that Annie used to be engaged to Eustace, don’t
+you?”
+
+“Yes. But what has that to do with chafing-dish cookery?” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “Girls, I have the loveliest recipe for making—”
+
+“It has a great deal to do with it. When he married Claire, Annie just
+smiled and selected a chafing-dish as a wedding present. She knew that
+Eustace was a confirmed dyspeptic and that Claire’s hands are so pretty
+that she could not possibly resist an opportunity to display them, so
+she would cook all sorts of dishes and—”
+
+“By the way, I hear that they have agreed to separate,” said the
+president. “I met Claire on the way to the manicure the other day. I
+wonder where Eustace is?”
+
+“He is in a sanitarium,” replied the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“the doctor thinks he will have to be taken into court on a stretcher
+when the divorce proceedings come up!”
+
+“And yet you told me the other day that Annie had no originality; I’ve
+learned this since then,” whispered the girl with the dimple in her
+chin to the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I only meant in the matter of gowns, dear,” was the apologetic reply.
+“By the way, Frances seems not quite herself, to-day.”
+
+“I’ve noticed that. I fancied you might have said something to her
+which—”
+
+“Oh, never; why, I consider Frances one of my dearest friends—”
+
+“I know that, dear. But what is the use of a friend, if you can’t be
+disagreeable to her sometimes?”
+
+“True. I sometimes think it is one reason that married women keep their
+friends longer. They have husbands to—”
+
+“Act as lightning rods and carry off their displeasure! Yes; it must
+really be quite a convenience.”
+
+“Very likely. Don’t you feel, after all, that Jack—”
+
+“Jack? Oh, I suppose you mean Mr. Bittersweet! No, I don’t feel any
+such thing, Emily Marshmallow, and you are no friend of mine if you
+champion him after the way he has behaved to me!”
+
+“I—I was only going to mention that he had resigned from that new club.
+He told me so himself.”
+
+“Oh, he has, has he? Well, isn’t that just like a man? And after he had
+paid all his dues for a year in advance, too, and gotten nothing out of
+it!”
+
+“Perhaps he—he did it hoping to please you, dear.”
+
+“His actions are perfectly indifferent to me, I assure you. Besides, if
+I made up with him to-morrow, Frances would always think I was jealous.
+I jealous of her—the idea! And, oh, Emily, the way he—he flirts with
+that girl is enough to b—break my heart!”
+
+“If you two girls have anything interesting to say, I wish you would
+say it aloud,” broke in the president. “Of course I am not curious, but
+some of the others may—”
+
+“Nothing at all interesting,” said the blue-eyed girl, promptly; “I—I
+was just telling Emily that this club seems the one thing needed to
+fill my cup of happiness to overflowing!”
+
+“And mine!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “By the way, isn’t it
+too provoking that curls are coming in again, just as veils are going
+out!”
+
+“And just at the windiest season of the year, too,” wailed the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Really, I often think that the fashions are
+invented by men—they are so contrary!”
+
+“Pardon me,” said the president, “I did not quite catch what you were
+saying, because Emily and Marion were both talking at the same time.
+It seems to me that since I have been married, I can’t follow even two
+conversations simultaneously, as I used.”
+
+“Speaking of that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “who do you tell
+your secrets to now that you are married?”
+
+“Why, I’ve hit on a splendid plan,” cried the president, “when I feel
+that I must just tell a secret or die—and I often feel that way—I wait
+until Tom is asleep and repeat the whole story in his ear. It relieves
+my mind and does no harm.”
+
+“Don’t be too sure of that,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“My sister Helen doesn’t agree with you at all. You mentioned it to
+her the other day and she thought it clever, and resolved to emulate
+your wisdom, so she tried it on her husband, and he wasn’t asleep, only
+pretending.”
+
+“But I always test my husband with a question or two, first,” said the
+president.
+
+“So did Helen. She asked him if he could fail to see how much she
+needed a new bonnet and wanted to know how much his share of the alumni
+banquet amounted to. He only snored in reply, and of course she thought
+she was safe and repeated the secret.”
+
+“With the result?” queried the blue-eyed girl, who was listening,
+breathless.
+
+“That it was all over his club the next day,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “It would not have made any difference,” she added,
+soberly, “only the secret was a rather clever trick I had played on
+Dick a few days before—and he belongs to the same club!”
+
+“And yet they say a man can keep a secret!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.
+
+“Who says so?” queried the girl with the eyeglasses. “Other men? Oh! I
+didn’t know but that you had heard some woman say so.”
+
+“Not unless a man was listening, dear, and that man a person whom—”
+
+“She wished to flatter immensely!”
+
+“Yes. Or who happened to know some of her own secrets! Girls, I’ve been
+wondering what on earth Annie sees in that horrid Fred Van Stupid? Now,
+I can understand the interest a girl takes in a brainless man who has a
+great deal of money, because then—”
+
+“He is exposed to so many temptations and her influence is sure to do
+him good,” finished the girl with the dimple in her chin, “for my part,
+I always let Ned Goldie come to see me oftener than usual during Lent.
+I feel that I am really doing some good and—”
+
+“Violets are an absolute necessity then and they are so dear that very
+few men can afford to present them in quantities.”
+
+“Oh, of course I let him bring me flowers if he wants to—it is so much
+better for him to spend his money in that way than to lose it at poker,
+that I feel quite a missionary.”
+
+“H’m; I don’t know about that, dear, though it’s very lovely of you to
+feel so,” sighed the president, “the fact is, that you are actually
+encroaching on what is really my violet money. Ned will play poker with
+my husband at the club at other seasons of the year, when he is not
+allowed to see much of you. He always loses and I make Tom divide his
+winnings with me, so—”
+
+There was a look of high resolve upon the face of the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.
+
+“After this, I shall make him bring me twice as many, so I can divide
+with you,” she said, sweetly. “Oh, no, don’t thank me; I do so love to
+feel that I am doing some good in the world and I do so disapprove of
+games of chance!”
+
+“You haven’t made up your mind as to whether you will accept him or
+not, have you?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Not yet, dear. His chances and Dick’s are about even, at present.
+Of course he doesn’t know that, though; I couldn’t exert such a good
+influence over him, if he was sure one way or the other.”
+
+“True,” sighed the president. “Oh, girls, I don’t know why men are so
+much more willing to be influenced for good before they are married
+than after. You may be sure of one thing though, Emily; he will say
+horrid things about you, if you finally do refuse him.”
+
+“No doubt,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “but when one
+tries to do good in this world, one can not begin to count the cost.”
+
+“Oh, Emily Marshmallow, what an angel you are!” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, kissing her. “You are always so busy doing good to others, that
+you never seem to give yourself a thought!”
+
+The brown-eyed blonde had by this time quite recovered her equanimity
+and was chatting, in low tones, with the girl who wore the eyeglasses.
+
+“Poor, dear Dorothy is looking rather ill, isn’t she?” she remarked,
+after a while.
+
+“Why, I hadn’t noticed it before, but now that you speak of it, she
+does. However, she can’t expect to look young always. By the way, I
+hear that she has quarreled with Jack Bittersweet again.”
+
+“Has she seen him lately? I didn’t know that she had,” returned the
+brown-eyed blonde, smiling affectionately into the mirror.
+
+“Your hair is looking lovely to-day,” returned the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Look here, Frances, do, like a dear, tell me all about the
+quarrel. You know all about it, of course, and I’ll not tell a soul.
+You know how well I can keep a secret and, besides, you owe it to me,
+for you wouldn’t have known a thing about Fred and Clarissa but for me!”
+
+“But I hadn’t a thing to do about the quarrel, oh, really now I hadn’t.
+Of course, people think it was all on my account but—why, I was in
+Omaha when I heard of it.”
+
+“By the way you came back from Omaha earlier than you expected, didn’t
+you?”
+
+“I—no; that is only a week earlier. How well Jack looks, doesn’t he?
+And what a flow of spirits he has.”
+
+“Is it possible? Now, Effie says that he is as cross as a bear. But,
+then, Effie is his sister, so—”
+
+“What she says is of no consequence. Well, since you know so much
+already, I may as well tell you the rest. I fear that it is Dorothy’s
+insane jealousy of me which made the trouble. Of course I have not a
+spark of vanity, but I can’t help seeing—”
+
+“But I heard that the quarrel was over Jack’s membership in a new club.”
+
+“That might have been, dear, but people that are engaged don’t always
+quarrel over the real bone of contention. Of course, I only hope I
+really had nothing to do with it; I have so many such things on my
+conscience already that I don’t want any more,” and she sighed softly.
+
+“Yes, but tell me about the quarrel, do.”
+
+“Well—er—the fact is that Jack hasn’t said a word to me about it,
+which makes me quite sure that I am the cause of it, unwilling as I am
+to think it.”
+
+“Then, you really don’t know any of the facts?” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Excuse me now, dear, I see Emily beckoning me; she wants
+to ask me about a new seamstress I’ve discovered. Frances doesn’t know
+a bit more than we do,” she whispered to the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Jack hasn’t told her a thing, so he evidently still cares
+for Dorothy, and she—”
+
+“That’s just it,” wailed the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I’d
+have succeeded in making it up long ago, if they didn’t care quite so
+much!”
+
+“Oh, dear,” said the president, “I am afraid that I am awfully stupid
+to-day, but the fact is that—”
+
+“By the way, I heard that you slept at a hotel last night, Evelyn,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “how on earth did that happen?”
+
+“It was all Tom’s fault,” returned the president, in an aggrieved
+tone, “only he, being a man, will not admit the fact. You see, he
+didn’t want to go to the reception at all, so he—”
+
+“But, Nell said she met him in the street and gave him a verbal
+invitation, which he accepted with effusion.”
+
+“Pshaw, if Nell knew my husband as well as I do, she’d be aware that
+the more affably he accepts an invitation, the more determined he is to
+escape by some plausible excuse at the last moment. He says that people
+always accept your regrets as genuine under such circumstances.”
+
+“Thank you for telling me that,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “My great aunt gives whist parties sometimes and, as she has
+a lot of lovely old lace and china and nobody in particular to leave
+it to, I don’t like to hurt her feelings by refusing her invitations
+outright. On the other hand, if I accept and happen to be placed at the
+table with her, I know I shall not receive so much as a cracked saucer
+in her will!”
+
+“But you and Tom did go to the reception, I know, for I saw you
+there,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “how did you manage it?”
+
+“To make him go? Oh, that was easy enough. I merely said that he wasn’t
+very well and as I did not like to go out and leave him alone, I would
+ask mamma to come and stay with him.”
+
+“Oh, then he agreed to go, did he?”
+
+“Yes, dear—said he had meant to go all along. But after that everything
+went wrong: his razor refused to do its work and he actually pretended
+that it was all because I had sharpened a lead pencil with it the other
+day, as if that could have—”
+
+“But why did you tell him that you had sharpened your pencil with it?”
+asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Because I cut my finger on the old thing and thoughtfully warned him
+that it was too sharp. Then, I—well my own wardrobe was full and I had
+hung up a few things in his, and the skirt of my new tailor-made gown
+was hanging over his dress coat. He pretended that it was all wrinkled
+and creased by that. Then, I had borrowed his box of neckties and
+neglected to return them, and he made such a fuss over my forgetfulness
+that I determined to give him a lesson. I saw him lay his latch key on
+the chiffonier ready to put in his other pocket and I didn’t say a word
+when he turned out the gas and went off without it.”
+
+“But how did you expect to get into the house when you returned?”
+
+“Oh! I slipped back into the room in the dark after he had gone down,
+and put it in my own pocket.”
+
+“As an object lesson in remembering. Good, I’m glad you did it,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“M’hm. I told the maid not to sit up for us, and I saw for myself that
+every door and window was fastened tight—for once Tom climbed in at the
+pantry window when he had forgotten his key and didn’t want me to know
+how late he stayed at the club.”
+
+“I suppose he complained next day because the window was open, too,”
+murmured the girl with the dimple in her chin, “men are so illogical!”
+
+“Well, no, dear; but he would have done so, only the clock happened to
+strike three as he came upstairs, and I counted the strokes aloud. Well
+Tom was cross at being kept waiting, but my gown fits so well that I
+felt at peace with all mankind.”
+
+“Even your own husband!” said the brown-eyed blonde. “It must indeed
+fit well.”
+
+“Yes. And I enjoyed the evening immensely, for I knew I had such a good
+joke on Tom when we got home.”
+
+“Yes, and what happened then?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Oh, it was great fun. He searched in all his pockets twice, rang the
+bell until he was tired, though the maids asleep in the third story
+might as well have been in Greenland for all the good that did. Then,
+he tried to force each door and window before he came back to the
+carriage to tell me that we were locked out!”
+
+“And then you—”
+
+“I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me before, dear? Luckily, there is one
+of us who remembers things.’ If you could only have seen his face as he
+took the key I gave him!”
+
+“Then why on earth did you sleep at the hotel?” queried the girl with
+the Roman nose, in a bewildered tone.
+
+“I—well, the fact is that I—in the dark, I had mistaken the key to his
+desk for the latch-key! And, oh, girls, if you had seen me driving home
+from the hotel at ten o’clock in the morning, in the gown I had worn at
+the reception!”
+
+“You poor, dear thing!” cried the blue-eyed girl, “no wonder you chose
+‘Woman in Politics’ for to-day’s discussion! If men are such tyrants as
+that, our only refuge will be equality in suffrage and—”
+
+“Latchkeys,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “though to be sure,
+we’d need pockets to keep them in, if we carried them. Sometimes, I
+suspect that the dressmakers are in league with the men to keep us from
+gaining our rights,” she added.
+
+“Perhaps they are,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a startled air, “the
+men pay the bills and so the dressmakers may be in league with them!”
+
+“You forget one thing, dear,” said the president, with a superior air.
+“It is the women who make the bills. You never heard of a man who
+ordered a dress for his wife did you?”
+
+“I hope not,” replied the girl with the Roman nose, “at least, if she
+was obliged to wear it.”
+
+“Well, dears,” said the president, “we really must adjourn, it is
+awfully late, but of course such a serious discussion could not be
+hurried. I think I must go and have a cup of bouillon to refresh me
+after making such serious demands upon the gray matter of my brain.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+Man’s Real Attitude Toward the Progress of Woman
+
+
+The Teacup club came to order with more than its usual reluctance
+at its next meeting and the president looked severe. “I wish you
+girls would stop talking about Helena and her affairs,” she said. “I
+detest gossip, and, besides, I want to hear all about her, too, and
+we can talk better after the meeting is over. The topic for to-day’s
+discussion will be, ‘Man’s Real Attitude Toward the Progress of Woman.’”
+
+“I’m glad to hear it,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Men are such
+queer creatures that by the time a girl gets to understand them really
+she is too old to attract their attention. Now, if we all put our heads
+together—”
+
+“We may attain wisdom without its accompanying wrinkles,” broke in the
+girl with the dimple in her chin; “that is a good idea, for—”
+
+“It is no real gain to know how to make them bring the proper kind of
+flowers and confectionery, if you have to spend the money thus saved on
+the beauty doctor; yes, that is true,” sighed the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Widowers, or men who have been engaged several times, are often nice,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Thank you,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I like to do
+my own training, if it is troublesome. You can’t persuade a widower
+that his late wife was not a type of all womanhood, and that is horrid,
+especially if she happens to have had a taste for domestic magazines
+and molasses candy! That is why a widower is so much less attractive
+than a widow; she—”
+
+“Has learned that men, save for a few leading traits, are all
+different,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Yes, matrimony
+always widens a woman’s views of the opposite sex, while it narrows
+those of a man.”
+
+“Oh, dear,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “I do wish men would not
+do one thing and say another. Now, they are always praising domesticity
+in women, as well as shrinking modesty, and yet—”
+
+“They always overlook the domestic kind of a girl when she does venture
+among people,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “I know it, and as for
+shyness and modesty, it is only the girl who is bold enough to call
+attention to those qualities in herself who receives a social reward
+for them.”
+
+“Oh, well,” said the president, “a man with a couple of sisters learns
+a great deal about the sex.”
+
+“Humph!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I don’t know why it
+is, but the more sisters a man has, the slower he is to enter into
+matrimony.”
+
+“I’ve noticed that myself,” said the girl with the classic profile;
+“while girls who have plenty of brothers usually marry before they are
+twenty.”
+
+“Pshaw! That is because the friends of their brothers get a chance to
+see them sew on buttons and make caramels,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.
+
+“No, it isn’t,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “it is
+because such a girl has more than one person to oppose the man who
+wants to marry her. But talk about masculine inconsistency! It sets me
+wild to hear men talk about domesticity and modesty and all that, and
+then hang about Kate, a girl who doesn’t know a frying pan from a—a
+camera, and who had as lief ask for a thing she wants as to hint for
+it—so unfeminine!”
+
+“I know it,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Why, she never has
+to buy a flower, and as for candy, she has so much that she actually
+shares it with the other girls! I go to see her more frequently in
+Lent, because my conscience will not allow me to buy any then, and—”
+
+“And Kate has been engaged six times; she told me so herself,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses. “I declare, it is enough to make a girl—”
+
+“H’m!” said the president. “Don’t forget, my dears, that while she has
+been engaged six times, she has not been married once!”
+
+“Why—er—that is true,” cried the blue-eyed girl. “You dear, delightful,
+clever thing! I am so glad that I just made you be our president.”
+
+“Oh, well, of course I like it dear; still, as somebody once said, I’d
+rather be right than president.”
+
+“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Yes. But, oh, girls, Tom says that all the men in our set are talking
+about this club. He says that Jack Bittersweet asked him confidentially
+the other day if being intellectual made a woman less loveable.
+Luckily, I had just agreed to let him have a masculine dinner party and
+he assured Jack that it did not.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl arose softly from her seat and going over to where
+the brown-eyed blonde was sitting, kissed her. “You dear thing,” she
+said. “Come over any day you like and you shall see the new sleeve
+design I got from Paris yesterday.”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin exchanged glances with the girl
+with the eyeglasses.
+
+“What time in the year do you prefer for a wedding?” asked the latter,
+apropos of nothing.
+
+“Oh, speaking of weddings, that reminds me,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “I’d have prepared a paper on to-day’s topic, as you
+suggested, Evelyn, but Elizabeth asked me to help select her wedding
+dress and—well, you know, Elizabeth. It has taken her two days already
+and I don’t see any prospect yet of her making up her mind.”
+
+“And yet she required only five minutes in which to decide to accept
+Fred, when he asked her to marry him,” said the president, thoughtfully.
+
+“I know, dear, but then in this matter of selecting her dress, she had
+a choice,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“And I’m sure that Elizabeth’s father is delighted to buy her a wedding
+dress,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, Emily, pardon me—I
+quite forgot that Elizabeth is your cousin!”
+
+“Never mind, dear, though I rather like her, in spite of the
+relationship. Oh, girls, you have no idea of what an effect this club
+is having upon me. Why, I’ve turned my den into a library, cut all the
+leaves of my Carlisle and coaxed papa to buy me a handsome writing desk
+and do up the walls in forest greens because pink and blue seemed so
+frivolous. Now, I can sit in that room and write papers for the club in
+real comfort.”
+
+“You don’t know how pleased I am to hear it,” cried the president,
+warmly. “It is quite worth all the labor of selecting topics and
+leading the discussion, I assure you. Why, Marion, how late you are!
+Don’t you know that the really advanced woman is even ahead of the
+clock?”
+
+“Yes, I do,” panted the girl with the classic profile, “but, really,
+I’ve had the most awful time getting here at all! You know I’m always
+in trouble, but really this is the worst that—I’ll never go anywhere
+with Nell again, unless it’s to my own funeral, and I can’t help
+myself, then.”
+
+“What on earth has Nell done now?” queried the girl with the dimple in
+her chin, “don’t you know that you must not expect absolute sanity from
+an engaged girl? You said you were going with her to the south side to
+call upon some of the relatives of her affianced. Did she take you over
+there, and then discover that she didn’t know their exact address? Or
+did—”
+
+“The address was not forgotten. We hadn’t meant to do any shopping
+to-day, but we stopped in to buy some thread, and really the new silks
+were so cheap that—”
+
+“You arrived an hour late, and penniless! I know,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“N—ot quite. I had ten cents left when we started for home, and we had
+to take two lines of cars. Nell and I couldn’t get seats together—in
+fact, we were at opposite ends of the car. However, I paid her fare and
+signaled the fact to her, receiving a nod in reply.”
+
+“Well?” said the president, “didn’t she want to pay your fare on the
+other line?”
+
+“She—well, the fact is that she had misunderstood the signal, and paid
+our fare again with her own last dime. And there we were three miles
+from home, without a penny in our pockets—and the street car company
+had a dime it hadn’t earned. But then Nell never had a grain of sense—I
+should think by this time she knew that herself.”
+
+“If she doesn’t, I’m sure you are not to blame, dear,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “However, for my part, I shall not blame you, even
+if you are as cross as a man who is wearing a frayed collar, for the
+rest of the afternoon.”
+
+“But, don’t let us interrupt the proceedings,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “just tell me what to-day’s topic is, and I—”
+
+“Oh, it is a perfectly delightful one!” said the blue-eyed girl. “Man’s
+real attitude toward the Progress of Woman, and—”
+
+“His real attitude is that of flight,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “he—”
+
+“Don’t be flippant, dear, whatever you are,” said the president,
+gravely, “we have enough of that to endure from our masculine
+acquaintances. It seems to me that a man laughs at whatever he fails to
+understand, and then feels that he has replied to the argument.”
+
+“Perhaps that is the reason that men laugh at so many jokes in which I
+can see nothing funny,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“No doubt of it,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “but, girls, never
+attempt to imitate them. I did once, and Annie—you know how obtuse she
+is—kept asking loudly what I was laughing at, and I couldn’t tell her.
+When a man had just made the remark that he was glad to find a girl
+with a keen sense of the ridiculous, too!”
+
+“Just like Annie,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I sometimes wonder whether
+she is really obtuse or only malicious. You know how devoted Tommy
+Bonds is to music, don’t you? Well, Annie and I once accompanied him to
+a Thomas concert, and I wanted to make myself agreeable—”
+
+“I hope you didn’t do it by conversing while the orchestra was
+playing,” said the president.
+
+“Of course not, goosie. But I remembered that he always says a woman
+should be two things—sincere and fond of music. The soloist was a
+pianist, I can’t remember his name, but his hair was not at all
+remarkable. When he played an encore, Tommy leaned over to me, and
+said: ‘Isn’t it charming?’ and I replied, ‘Yes, I like it better every
+time I hear it; in fact, I often ask people to play it for me.’ I wish
+now that I hadn’t said that.”
+
+“Why so?” asked the president, “it seems to me just the right thing to
+say.”
+
+“But Annie leaned over asking, loudly, ‘What is the name of it?’ and,
+to my horror, Mr. Bonds said he didn’t know, and it was all so sudden
+that, to save my life, I couldn’t make up a name! In the silence which
+followed, some one in front of us was heard remarking that the encore
+was a composition by the pianist himself, and now played for the first
+time in public!”
+
+“And it was all Annie’s fault, too,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “By the way, did I ever tell you how it happened that Mr.
+Bonds gave up calling me a delightful conversationalist? No? Well, you
+see, he lived almost opposite to us, and he practiced on the ’cello
+until papa, who is very fond of De Quincey, said he no longer dared to
+read “Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts.” Suddenly he stopped
+practicing, and—”
+
+“Mercy on us, had anything happened to him?” gasped the president,
+turning pale.
+
+“Nothing ever happens to people who deserve it. As it happened,
+however, we were no better off, for some one, a new resident of the
+street, we supposed, began to practice on the violin seven hours a
+day!”
+
+“It may not have been a newcomer,” observed the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “It is a fact that one vigorous soprano is enough to
+demoralize a whole neighborhood, and I suppose—”
+
+“The ’cello is quite as bad? Possibly so, at any rate rents went down
+in the neighborhood and placards went up. One day I happened to meet
+Mr. Bonds, and as long as my father was not within hearing distance, I
+said: ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you have given up your delightful ’cello.’ If
+you could have seen the rapture on his face.”
+
+“I’d rather have seen his face than that of your guardian angel,”
+remarked the girl with the classic profile; “but go on; don’t stop.”
+
+“I wish I had stopped then, but I didn’t. I said, ‘By the way, who is
+it that scrapes the violin all day long? I never heard anything so
+awful in my life!’ Oh, girls, I—”
+
+“But I don’t see anything wrong in that,” said the president.
+
+“He did. You see, he had given up the ’cello and taken to the violin
+with the idea of astonishing the world with his genius!”
+
+“And you live to tell it,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“M—yes—you see, everything has its compensation. When papa heard what I
+had done, he gave me a hundred dollars and his blessing.”
+
+“What luck some people have,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “while
+others—oh, girls, I know something perfectly lovely, but I don’t know
+whether I ought to tell it to you or not. My conscience—”
+
+“Why, Frances,” said the president, “I shall be awfully hurt if you
+don’t tell us now. When a girl speaks of her conscience in that way, it
+simply means that she distrusts her audience. You might know by this
+time, that we never tell anything which transpires at a meeting of this
+club.”
+
+“Of course not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Why, Dick
+teased me vainly a whole evening to find out the line of argument
+advanced in favor of equal suffrage when we discussed ‘Woman in
+Politics’ the other day. The janitor must have told him the topic under
+discussion,” she added hastily.
+
+“Very likely,” said the president. “What was that you wished to tell
+us, Frances, dear?”
+
+“It was something that happened to Nell,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Her fiancé had told her a great deal of his friend, Mr. Thynker, of
+Boston, who is to be his best man, and whom she had never seen. He
+appeared suddenly at Mr. Dickenharry’s office the other day, just as
+the latter was starting for Milwaukee, and there was barely time for
+him to make arrangements with Mr. Thynker to call on Nell the following
+afternoon. As it happened, he knew the Vansmiths, and was asked to the
+luncheon they gave that day, and seated immediately opposite to Nell.
+Of course he didn’t catch her name when they were introduced, and there
+was no chance for explanations. Oh, girls, I wonder if I really ought
+to finish this?”
+
+“If you don’t, I shall ask Nell why you didn’t,” said the president.
+
+“Well, during a lull in the conversation, he leaned forward and, in
+loud, clear tones, asked Nell what kind of a girl his friend Tom
+Dickenharry had got himself engaged to _this_ time!”
+
+“M’hm,” said the president, after the laughter had subsided a little,
+“that settles one matter in advance, anyhow. It is easy to know upon
+whose side the victory will rest when they have their first quarrel
+after marriage.”
+
+“There is one question I would like to ask the members of this club,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses, “and it is one which nearly
+disrupted our little Shakespeare club: If you really want to please a
+man—any man—what is the best way to go about it?”
+
+“That is really such a simple question that there is only one answer
+possible,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“And that is—”
+
+“Be born rich.”
+
+“But, suppose you have neglected that qualification,” persisted the
+girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Learn to cook; but never let him taste the result of your cookery,”
+said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Yes—or wear his college colors,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“Let him do all the talking,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Praise the shape of his head—no matter what it may be,” said the
+president. “I wouldn’t tell anybody that,” she added, reflectively,
+“only that two fortune tellers and a palmist have assured me that my
+husband will outlive me.”
+
+“Mr. Bonds has a very well-shaped head,” observed the girl with the
+eyeglasses, “a little long perhaps, but—”
+
+“The rotundity of his pocketbook over-balances that,” broke in the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Clarissa says he is generous, too—a rare quality in a really wealthy
+man,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“M—I don’t know about his generosity,” said the president. “A marriage
+license is about as inexpensive a thing as a man can buy, and yet he
+has displayed no desire to invest in one.”
+
+“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “lots of girls nowadays don’t intend to marry, anyhow, so—”
+
+“I wonder why they never think to mention the fact publicly until after
+they are thirty,” mused the girl with the dimple in her chin; “oh,
+girls, shouldn’t you like really to do something wonderful?”
+
+“I once wore a pair of common-sense shoes a whole month,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, modestly.
+
+“H’m; who was the Englishman?” asked the brown-eyed blonde, “the one
+with whom you used to walk at that time, I mean,” she added, pleasantly.
+
+“It was the spring that Mr. Penny-Lesse was here, but I don’t see what
+that had to do with it,” said the blue-eyed girl, with great dignity.
+
+“Nothing at all of course,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “I only—”
+
+“You did not meet him, I believe; he was very particular about the
+people to whom he was introduced,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, sweetly. “I did rather an unusual thing myself once—I had five
+dollars in my pocketbook when my allowance came due!”
+
+“Yes, but you had left the pocketbook at my house ten days before, and
+thought it was lost,” said the girl with the classic profile, “don’t
+you remember, I only brought it over after the shops were closed the
+evening before?”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the president, “I’ve recently met a woman who has
+traveled all through Asia, and—”
+
+“I suppose she did it in bloomers and one of those horrid, unbecoming,
+stiff caps, too,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Well, all I’ve got
+to say is that a woman who has the courage to make such a guy of
+herself, is brave enough to face all the tigers and mountain lions,
+and—er—boa constrictors in Asia.”
+
+“I don’t believe there are any boa constrictors and mountain lions in
+Asia,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “As for tigers—”
+
+“Mercy, how literal you are!” pettishly replied the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Well, buffalos then; how will that suit you? I’m equally afraid of all
+of them, myself.”
+
+“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, “Marion and I
+have just had such fun. We have been telling each other the most awful
+things that ever happened to us in our lives.”
+
+“Perhaps that is what made you late, too,” remarked the president, in a
+severe tone.
+
+“N-not exactly. You see, I knew there was something wrong about my
+watch, and I could not remember whether it was thirteen minutes fast or
+thirteen minutes slow, so—”
+
+“But do tell us what was the most awful thing that ever happened to
+you, Evelyn,” cried the girl with the classic profile. “The very worst
+thing that ever befell me was connected with a timepiece. It was last
+summer, and a man who—who had been very nice to me was going away early
+the next morning. Men were scarce at the seashore, as you know, and
+when a lot of the girls saw us sitting on the porch they came over and
+spent the evening with us. We just could not get a chance for a word
+alone.”
+
+“I know—I know,” groaned the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Yes. Well, his train was to go at 5:16 A.M., and he asked me in the
+most meaning tone if I cared sufficiently to hear something he had to
+say to get up early enough to see him off. I—I said I did.”
+
+“Well?” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I set my watch by the hall clock in order to be sure of getting up
+in time; then I lay awake nearly all night so I would not oversleep
+myself. When I reached the station it was five minutes past six.”
+
+“Watch stopped?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“No; Harry had run down to spend that evening with Kate, and she had
+set the clock back. The man was married in October to one of the girls
+who had risen in time to see him off.”
+
+“Of course,” said the president. “Speaking of awful things—you all know
+how afraid I am of fire.”
+
+“We do,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I believe you could smell
+a burning match a block away.”
+
+“Well, the other day our fire insurance ran out, and Tom handed me the
+money and asked me to go down and renew it, as he was very busy. I
+forgot all about it until night; then I lay awake sniffing smoke until
+Tom thought I had influenza again. Next morning I got ready to go and
+attend to it at once. I wanted to look nice, too, because one of the
+men in that office once told Tom that he had an awfully pretty wife.”
+
+“How much money did he borrow from Tom that time?” asked the girl with
+the dimple in her chin.
+
+“I was curling my hair,” went on the president, unheeding, “when I
+smelled fire. I ran wildly all through the house, with a curl still
+wrapped about the iron, trying to locate it!”
+
+“And did you find any?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Yes; my own hair was burning,” said the president, with a groan.
+
+“How awful!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “That reminds me of
+what once happened to me. It was when I was wearing a single curl in
+the middle of my forehead. One day Frank was there, and he—he would
+twist it over his finger and quote poetry about it until he took all
+the curl out of it. Of course I discovered that I had no handkerchief
+and went up to get one.”
+
+“I don’t see anything so awful in that,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“No, dear; but while I was curling it I dropped the hot iron down my
+back, and dared not even scream lest he find out what I was doing.”
+
+“The worst thing that ever happened to me,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “was in connection with Lewis. As soon as it was
+settled, I went to tell Emmeline, so she would give up trying to get
+him. I said I was his first love, and she couldn’t imagine how jealous
+he was. ‘Oh, yes, dear, I can,’ said she; ‘he was always so when he was
+engaged to me!’”
+
+“I wondered why you broke with him,” said the president. “Well, we must
+adjourn now, and I must say that I have never heard a subject more
+logically discussed than the one to-day!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+Concerning the Heroine of To-day
+
+
+“Are you ready to go to the meeting of the club?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl, as she bounced into the room. “Why, Dorothy, dear, what is the
+matter? has your father gotten himself a new bicycle instead of one for
+you, or—”
+
+The blue-eyed girl sat up on the couch. “I don’t care if I never ride a
+bicycle again as long as I live,” she replied, deliberately.
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin turned pale. “I knew it was
+something awful when I saw you crying with the blinds all rolled up;
+but I hardly thought it was so bad as that. You—you haven’t any fever
+or queer feelings in your head, have you?”
+
+“If I had, it would not make any difference,” she sobbed. “I—oh, I’ll
+get even with Effie Bittersweet if it ruins my complexion and takes me
+all the rest of my natural life to do it!”
+
+“Oho, it’s Effie, is it? Well, you’ll have plenty of chances to get
+even with her, once you are her sister-in-law!”
+
+“I wouldn’t marry Jack now, to—to spite Effie, and I—I doubt if I shall
+have the chance, anyhow. And as for Frances, I—”
+
+“Never mind, dear; I know she has behaved abominably, but she is
+punished already. Her aunt has brought her a new hat from Paris, and it
+is geranium pink—fancy Frances in geranium, can you? She promised it to
+Frances when she went abroad last fall, and Frances has been talking
+about it ever since. She will have to wear it, too, because her aunt is
+to make them a long visit, and she is too wealthy to have her feelings
+hurt.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl shook her head, sadly. “It is very kind of you to
+try to cheer me,” she said, “but I am beyond rejoicing. I only hope it
+is a very deep geranium pink, that’s all. Oh, Emily, what a desert
+waste this life is! No, don’t put another cushion back of me—I want
+to be just as uncomfortable as possible. You know Effie was here this
+morning, don’t you?”
+
+“I suppose so—I noticed that you have two portraits of Edwin on the
+table.”
+
+“Yes. Well, she asked me to go shopping with her, and I must say I was
+pleased, because she hasn’t been here since—since—”
+
+“Not since you quar—pardon me, I mean since her brother quarreled with
+you.”
+
+“She said she’d ask me to lunch with her down-town, but she had spent
+almost all her allowance.”
+
+“The idea of hinting to you in that bare-faced way! Now, if you had
+been a man it—”
+
+“Would have been all right, of course. However, I know how confidential
+Effie always grows over a cup of tea, so I promptly invited her to
+lunch with me. After she had accepted, I found that I had only fifty
+cents to my name. Papa had gone down-town and, mamma had just borrowed
+a quarter from me!”
+
+“My goodness, did you tell Effie that your head ached so badly that you
+couldn’t go?”
+
+“And have her say that I was fretting myself ill over Jack? No, thank
+you. I excused myself a moment and went downstairs, for I had just
+remembered a habit Papa has of leaving money lying about on his desk.
+To my joy, I found a five-dollar bill in one of the drawers, and I took
+that, because I—”
+
+“But weren’t you afraid to take it?”
+
+“M—yes, but then one’s own people have to make up with one sometime or
+other. Well, we had a lovely time shopping, and I took Effie off to
+luncheon before she had had time to get cross matching samples. It was
+a lovely luncheon, and before we had finished Effie said she hoped I
+would visit her at Delavan in August!”
+
+“H’m; I suppose she didn’t mention the fact that Jack expects to be in
+Canada from the last week in July to the first one in September, did
+she?”
+
+“No; she didn’t. Oh, what a cat she is—and I asked her to take another
+ice on the strength of it! Well I paid the bill, tipped the waiter,
+and was just going out when the cashier came running after me, and oh,
+Emily, what do you think?”
+
+“You had left your umbrella, of course.”
+
+“No, I hadn’t. I—I, that five-dollar bill was a counterfeit which papa
+was keeping as an object lesson to mamma, who had gotten it in change!”
+
+“You might have known that no man with a wife and grown daughter would
+leave five good dollars in an unlocked drawer, dear. Did Effie—”
+
+“Loan it to me? She hadn’t quite enough, and I don’t know what I should
+have done if Frances had not happened to come in. Effie said that she
+did not mind borrowing from Frances, because she—she was quite like a
+sister to her! And now I shall have to make Papa angry by coaxing for
+money to pay for all those ices Effie ate on false pretenses, and
+w—worse yet, she and Frances will have the pleasure of laughing over it
+together!”
+
+“And telling Jack about it, too,” gasped the girl with the dimple in
+her chin, helplessly.
+
+“Of course I know they will do that,” sobbed the victim. “But I hardly
+thought that even an intimate friend would be unpleasant enough to
+remind me of it!” And she buried her face in the cushions and wept.
+
+“Then you are not going to the club this afternoon? Shall I tell them
+that you are busy with the dressmaker, or the dentist? They know that
+you can make everybody else wait.”
+
+“Tell them nothing. I shall go—and complain of a cold in the head,
+which will explain the pinkness of my nose and eyes.”
+
+“But will any of them believe you?”
+
+“All of them. You know those horrid quinine tablets Evelyn is always
+wanting people to try—well, I shall take one of them publicly. You
+don’t suppose that any one will suspect me of doing it unnecessarily,
+do you?”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin shuddered. “Impossible,” she said.
+
+The blue-eyed girl suddenly stopped curling her hair, and, facing her
+friend, remarked: “I can tell you one thing though—Jack Bittersweet
+shall pay dearly for this!”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The president of the Teacup club rapped for order with the handle
+of her umbrella. “I am glad to see you all here to-day, in spite of
+the weather,” she remarked. “We have a very interesting topic for
+discussion. It is, ‘Woman in Her Character of Heroine.’”
+
+“Indeed, it is interesting,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I only
+wish you had thought to mention it to me and I should have prepared
+a paper on it. No, I couldn’t have done it, either, for my aunt from
+New Jersey was in town, and I had to take her sight-seeing. Oh, dear,
+aren’t people who live in the country painfully active? And what ideas
+they have! They seem to think Lincoln Park is in the back yard and the
+Statue of Columbus across the street.”
+
+“I know a girl who has had a much worse time than that,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “She had to take her future mother-in-law to see
+the sights. The old lady had read up in preparation for her visit, and
+knew more about the city than Marie herself. Now, while the poor girl
+is being massaged with arnica and things to get over the effects of her
+exertion, the old lady is busy telling her son that such an ignorant
+girl can never make a good wife!”
+
+“Speaking of the bravery of women,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, “I know a girl who early one morning heard a noise in a large
+closet next her room, in which she kept her furs and cloth gowns. She
+slipped out of bed and into the hall, and turned the key, which was
+fortunately on the outside, and there she had the burglar safe in that
+stifling atmosphere. Then she fainted.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I should have
+fainted first.”
+
+“It took them three-quarters of an hour to restore her and find out
+what was the matter, then they sent for the police, and what do you
+think they found?”
+
+“That the burglar was dead,” breathed the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No. It wasn’t a burglar at all; it was her own father, who had risen
+early and gone into the closet to look for a file of papers which
+had been kept in the attic for twenty years. Oh, he said perfectly
+awful things when he got breath enough to speak! Unluckily, too, it
+happened just at the time when she needed a lot of new things. She said
+that nobody appreciated her bravery except a man who was paying her
+attention at the time, and he didn’t dare say a word before her father
+for fear of losing his good-will.”
+
+“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “it only goes to
+show that women are really more courageous than men.”
+
+“Of course they are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Why, only the
+other day I read of a girl who had a hole bored in one of her front
+teeth and a diamond inserted. Did you ever hear of a man who was brave
+enough to go to the dentist unless he really had to?”
+
+“No,” said the president. “Oh, girls, I once had my pocketbook snatched
+from me by a boy, and I just ran after him until he dropped it. I don’t
+know that I should have been so brave,” she added, “but for the fact
+that, beside my card, it contained several unpaid bills of which my
+husband knew nothing. If the police had caught the boy with it, they
+would have communicated the fact to him, and I never should have heard
+the last of those bills.
+
+“I hope he appreciated your bravery, anyhow,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.
+
+“Of course not,” said the president; “his only comment was that it
+served me right for carrying my pocketbook in my hand. Oh, you can’t
+make a man understand that a woman fears nothing. By the way, I wish
+several of you would come home to dinner with me. I broke Tom’s lovely
+bit of old Venetian glass to-day, and I had rather not be alone with
+him when he finds it out.”
+
+“I’ll go with pleasure,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “is anybody
+else coming?”
+
+“Nobody but Mr. Troolygood,” said the president. “I always ask him in
+such an emergency, because he prophesied that Tom would break my heart
+within two years of our marriage. Tom knows that, and—well, I could
+dance on the graves of his ancestors if Mr. Troolygood was present, and
+Tom would encourage my efforts.”
+
+“Then, I don’t see why you ask us to-day,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “he ought to be—”
+
+“Sufficient? Yes, I suppose so; but—well, the truth is that he is
+rather hard to entertain, and Tom is so busy in his presence, being
+nice to me, that he is no help at all.”
+
+“I should be delighted to dine with you, also,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “but really I have such a cold that I don’t dare to be out at all
+after nightfall.”
+
+“Have you a cold?” said the brown-eyed blonde, “why, I didn’t notice it
+when I met you in the restaurant this morning.”
+
+“Didn’t you, dear? But then you are not very observant. You had not
+even noticed that there was a wrinkle in the waist of your new gown,
+until I pointed it out to you. Evelyn, dear, mightn’t I take another
+of your quinine tablets now? I really think that I am feeling better
+already.”
+
+“Do not take too much of it, dear, if you value your peace of mind,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I’ve had such an awful cold this
+week. I don’t know how I ever caught it, unless it was sitting in that
+hot church on Sunday. Mamma would have me go, and I—”
+
+“Perhaps you caught it standing on your front steps Monday evening,”
+suggested the girl with the classic profile. “I saw you, as I passed,
+and wondered how long—”
+
+“Oh, it was only a moment. The parlor was full of people, and I just
+stepped out with Frank a moment to—to ask him how he expects to vote at
+the coming election.”
+
+“I thought you both looked as if you were discussing politics. Of
+course, he had to think well on the merits of the opposing candidates
+before he gave an opinion and—”
+
+“Oh, pshaw, it is impossible to know how one catches cold, and it does
+one no good to know, anyhow,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Unless it is some one else’s fault,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I have a cold myself, and I don’t dare to mention the fact
+to my family. They are so unsympathetic that they—”
+
+“Would want you to wrap up and wear overshoes if it was July,” said the
+president.
+
+“They would, they would,” wailed the girl with the eyeglasses, “well, I
+just knew that I had to be well in time to go to Mrs. Brownsmith’s card
+party. The way that Marie tries to attract Frank’s attention is too
+dreadful, and I knew she would be there.”
+
+“If she had to unscrew her coffin lid to get out,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“M’hm. They wanted me to take all sorts of horrid remedies at home.
+I wouldn’t do it, though; the very idea made me cross. Finally, on
+Wednesday, Frank dropped in to see if I was better and said I must
+take some quinine. Of course, I couldn’t refuse and hurt his feelings,
+especially as he remained all the afternoon and watched me take it. By
+his advice, I took a large dose of it that night, and when I woke up in
+the morning my cold was almost gone, but oh, I had the queerest buzzing
+in my ears!”
+
+“Oh, well, nobody could see that,” said the president, “so you—”
+
+“Kept on taking it all day, and was able to go to the card party, after
+all; though the quinine had made me as deaf as a statue. It made little
+difference at first, because Marie kept close at my elbow, and Frank
+and I were not alone a moment. I couldn’t get rid of her at all until,
+just as mamma said she would not wait another second Mrs. Brownsmith
+called Marie to her, and Frank—”
+
+“Improved the moment,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “What
+did he say?”
+
+“I—I don’t know,” sobbed the girl with the eyeglasses. “He whispered,
+and I couldn’t hear. And before I could ask him to repeat, Marie was
+at my side. As he put me into the carriage, he said: ‘You will let me
+have my answer by messenger to-morrow, won’t you?’ And I—I don’t know
+w-whether he ask-asked me to marry him, or only to go to the m-matinee!”
+
+“You poor, dear martyr,” cried the president. “Dorothy, dear, you had
+better not take any more of those tablets, because—”
+
+“But dear, Dorothy is in no danger of having to answer such an
+important question,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.
+
+“Very true, dear; I have answered it already—in the negative,” said the
+blue-eyed girl. “Ah, you can never know, Frances, how painful it is to
+be obliged to tell a man who loves you that there is no hope.”
+
+“Dear, dear,” said the president, hurriedly, “I’m afraid that, in spite
+of all my efforts, we have not discussed to-day’s topic as consistently
+as usual. It does seem to me sometimes that you girls talk as much as
+men. Of course you do not expect to be listened to as they do, still—”
+
+“I should think not,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “did I ever
+tell you of the time I went to make a round of calls with Ethel, and—”
+
+“Found she was leaving her sister’s cards by mistake?” said the girl
+with the classic profile. “Indeed you did. And wasn’t it funny that she
+left one for Maria, to whom her sister hadn’t spoken for a year? Just
+like Ethel, too.”
+
+“This was another time,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “You know
+how much Ethel talks? Well, we called on one woman I had never met
+before, and she asked Ethel subsequently if I was not deaf and dumb!”
+
+“Never mind, she knew better when she met you next time,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses; “but what is the topic for discussion to-day?”
+
+“‘The Heroine of To-day,’” said the president, “and I think—”
+
+“I suppose that is the bachelor girl,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Or the one who marries a foreigner,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Talk about bravery! Why, I knew a girl who became engaged to
+a Russian before she could pronounce his name.”
+
+“Speaking of that,” said the girl with the classic profile, “isn’t it
+horrid of Elizabeth to send out her wedding cards so long ahead. No
+chance this time to say that we didn’t know it in time to select a
+present.”
+
+“I shall pretend that I never received my invitation at all,” said the
+president; “one must protect one’s self somehow.”
+
+“I do hate to go shopping with her nowadays,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “if I don’t buy a lot of things myself I am
+miserable, and if I do her reproachful gaze seems to say, ‘I know the
+cost of this will come out of my present.’”
+
+“As if you wouldn’t ask your father for the money for that, anyhow!”
+said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“I shall do nothing of the kind, dear; it would make too much trouble.
+I don’t know why a man will cheerfully give a wedding present himself,
+but let—”
+
+“One of the women of the family ask for money for the same purpose and
+he feels that he is being robbed,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I suppose it is on the same principle that makes a man insist upon
+treating every other man he meets and then grumble because his wife
+wants oysters after the play,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Just as he feeds a girl on candy before he marries her and then
+complains of dentists’ bills afterward,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “men are so illogical!”
+
+“Indeed they are,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “one of them will
+keep on telling a girl that she has a swan-like carriage, and then
+think her vain if he catches her watching her own movements in the
+glass.”
+
+“Why does she let him catch her at it?” queried the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “Oh, girls, you know that awful, dark green necktie
+that Dick has been wearing! Well, I endured it until I felt as if I
+should scream if I saw him wear it again, so I begged it from him; told
+him that I wanted it as a souvenir to hang beside his college cap and
+his football colors. As soon as he sent it to me I threw it into the
+fire.”
+
+“And he came in before it was reduced to ashes?” asked the president,
+in sympathetic tones.
+
+“No. He appeared with another just like it, the very next day—said he
+didn’t like it himself, but since I had admired it and he wanted to
+please me, he had matched it before he sent it to me!”
+
+“And that was your only reward for trying to save his feelings,” sighed
+the blue-eyed girl. “Really, Emily, I often think you are too good for
+this world.”
+
+“At any rate, I shall soon be out of it if so many sorrows are heaped
+upon my head. By the way, girls, I’ve been learning to ride my bicycle,
+and talking of heroism, I—”
+
+“How many times have you fallen?” exclaimed the girl with the classic
+profile. “I heard the other day of a girl who learned to ride in a
+single lesson, without falling once, and—”
+
+“Humph. I’ve often heard of that girl myself—but I’ve never seen her.
+I’ve fallen nineteen times; that is, not counting the time mamma called
+after me to be careful, and the time that Dick said I had ridden almost
+a half block since he let go of my belt—because you know, it was not my
+fault that I fell upon either of those occasions!”
+
+“Of course not,” said the president, “but, girls, we really must not
+talk about bicycling, because if we do we shall drift away from our
+discussion, and I can’t bear to depart, even momentarily, from the high
+standard of the club. We were speaking of Elizabeth a moment ago; has
+any one seen her lately?”
+
+“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I make a point of avoiding the girl
+who is about to be married, the mother of the cleverest baby in the
+world, and the woman who is designing her own house. Really, you know,
+I don’t mind letting someone else do all the talking, but I _do_ like a
+change of topic once in a while.”
+
+“I know I was just as sensible as any one could be while Tom and I were
+engaged,” said the president, “and yet, people did act so oddly. Why,
+they would go right away if I began to talk of him at all; they didn’t
+even stay long enough to see how sensible I was.”
+
+“By the way, I believe that Jane and Mr. Sooter are engaged,” said the
+girl with the classic profile; “Jane denies it but—”
+
+“Then I think you are mistaken,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
+know Jane, and she seldom understates a case. Why do you think they are
+engaged?”
+
+“He has given up sending her flowers and candy, and begun presenting
+bric-a-brac instead.”
+
+“Pshaw, that is nothing; he may once have been engaged to a girl who
+was a china maniac, and these may be the presents she returned.”
+
+“Possibly. By the way, Kate has grown so wary now that she only gives
+the man to whom she happens to be engaged presents which she can use
+after she breaks with him; never pipes and—”
+
+“Oh, by the way, I know how her last engagement came to be broken in
+so many pieces that it could never be mended,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.
+
+“Do tell us all about it; we are all so intimate with Kate that we
+wouldn’t dare to tell anybody, because it would seem that we were
+betraying a confidence,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Well, when she was engaged to Mr. Yaleblue, she gave him a lovely
+meerchaum pipe, which of course came back with her other presents when
+the engagement was broken. By the next Christmas she was engaged to
+Dan, and it seemed such a waste to let it lie in the case, and she gave
+it to him, telling him a pretty little story of how she bought it
+when she was in Paris, and kept it hanging in her den ready for Prince
+Charming when he appeared. You wouldn’t think a little thing like that
+would have broken the engagement, would you?”
+
+“Why, of course not,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “how on earth
+did—”
+
+“Oh, he just asked how it came that it was so strong of tobacco!”
+
+“Dear me, girls,” said the president, “I am afraid that we really must
+adjourn, though there is still a great deal more to say on both sides
+of the discussion. But I have just remembered that I have invited a
+whole party of you to dinner, and neglected to mention the fact to the
+cook!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+The Club Settles Some Currency Problems
+
+
+“The topic for to-day’s discussion will be ‘Currency Problems of the
+Present Day,’” observed the president, after the club had come to
+order, “and I hope you are all prepared—”
+
+“There is only one currency problem in the present day—to my knowledge,
+at least,” broke in the girl with the classic profile, “and that is:
+how to make two dollars do the work of ten.”
+
+“Dear me, there is something actually masculine in your flippancy,”
+said the president, with ferocious gentleness. “The question before us
+is one of the deepest gravity, and—”
+
+“Nobody knows that better than myself,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, “don’t I lie awake night after night, wondering how to get my
+new things out of the money my father has allowed me for the purpose,
+or, better yet, how to coax more out of him without letting him realize
+the fact.”
+
+“Don’t talk about money, please; it makes me blue,” wailed the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “What with never having enough for myself
+and constantly seeing other people with more than I like them to have,
+I—”
+
+“What I want to know is—and you ought to be able to tell me, girls—why
+a woman who looks all sweetness and gentleness should suddenly develop
+into a raging lioness, just because her own son wants to marry some
+nice girl,” sighed the girl with the eyeglasses, waking suddenly out of
+a reverie.
+
+“Humph,” returned the blue-eyed girl, “there are some things I don’t
+quite understand myself—such as the banking system, and the reason why
+your dressmaker tells you calmly that she must have two yards and a
+half more of your dress material, when you have plainly informed her
+that you bought a remnant. But as for your question, it is so simple
+that a man could answer it. No woman ever did, or ever will, like to
+play second fiddle to another one, and—”
+
+“Oh, nonsense,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “it is just a
+question of tact. Let a man make his mother believe that she has chosen
+his wife and she—”
+
+“Yes, and wouldn’t it be pleasant to have your mother-in-law tell you,
+every time she wanted you to discharge the cook or do without a new
+gown, that her son would never have married you but for her!” cried the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Speaking of mothers-in-law,” said the girl with the classic profile,
+“Nell is to have a new woman in that capacity. I found her crying the
+other day because she had heard that Madame considered her too domestic
+to make her son a good wife!”
+
+“Yes, I know,” said the blue-eyed girl, “and did you hear of Alice’s
+woes? No? Well, you know, she and Morton fell in love at first sight,
+and became engaged two weeks later. After the engagement was announced,
+she was invited to visit his people in Iowa, and went in fear and
+trembling, for she did not know much about them, and Morton could not
+be there at the time.”
+
+“Hadn’t the courage, you mean,” murmured the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.
+
+“Very likely, dear. Well, his mother was as bad as Alice had feared.
+Her ideas were all in direct opposition to Morton’s, and the poor girl
+almost fretted herself into nervous prostration trying to please them
+both. After all, when she got home, she found—”
+
+“That she had been mistaken in her feelings for Morton, and it didn’t
+make any difference whether they were pleased or not!” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “I knew how it would end when you began.”
+
+“No. She discovered that Madame was only his stepmother, after all!
+Imagine trying to please a mother-in-law and a stepmother combined!”
+
+“I’d rather not fancy it,” said the president, with a shudder. “Girls,
+I only hope you will be as lucky when you are married as I am, for—”
+
+“You aren’t going to tell us all of Tom’s virtues again, are you?” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, uneasily.
+
+“When my mother-in-law becomes unpleasant, I just ask her to go with
+me to spend the day with Tom’s grandmother,” went on the president,
+affecting not to hear the last remark, “she doesn’t dare to refuse,
+because the old lady has some china which we both want, and she’s
+afraid I may succeed in wheedling it out of her! It is great fun to
+hear my own mother-in-law lectured by _her_ mother-in-law on the sins
+which the former thinks I have appropriated entirely to my own use.”
+
+“But, ah—doesn’t Tom’s mother take it out of you on the way back?”
+queried the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“No, dear. You see, I am careful not to sit with her in the train, and
+Tom always meets us at the station; besides, she’s hardly in her usual
+form, and I could be a match for her,” she added, modestly.
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “speaking of mothers-in-law
+makes me think of wedding presents. Did you—oh, did you hear about the
+plates I gave Elizabeth?”
+
+“Yes, I did,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and a girl
+who gives away old Crown Derby like that is either an angel, or not
+quite sane—I don’t know which!”
+
+“Say anything you like; I haven’t the spirit to reply. And after you’ve
+heard the story—well, it was this way: I ran across the dozen of them
+in a little second-hand shop, and the proprietor didn’t seem to know
+their value and asked a very moderate price.”
+
+“I beg your pardon, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“I take back all that I said before!”
+
+“You needn’t. I saw that I could beat him down, so I didn’t take them
+then, but went in a day or two later, taking Elizabeth along to make
+sure they were genuine. Really, she does know something about china,
+though—”
+
+“She doesn’t know anything else,” finished the president. “Well, they
+were genuine, weren’t they?”
+
+“They were, Elizabeth became so affectionate on the spot that I saw she
+knew what I wanted them for. I didn’t take them then, but went back the
+next day to find that the man had raised his price; he said another
+person wanted them—as if I’d believe that. Well, it went on for a week,
+until the price demanded was so outrageous that I should never have
+paid it, but for the fact that Elizabeth had told everybody what lovely
+Crown Derby plates she was to have, and I wasn’t going to have her say
+that I couldn’t afford them!”
+
+“I should think not,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “besides,
+it is necessary to give Elizabeth a handsome present, since she is
+marrying a wealthy man.”
+
+“Of course; if he was poor, a very simple thing would—ah, be in better
+taste, so that the contrast would not be so great.”
+
+“M’hm. Well, I bought the plates, and took them to her myself, because
+I wanted to see her face when she opened the package.”
+
+“But she wasn’t surprised, was she?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Yes, she was. She—well, she was the other person who wanted to buy
+them, and whose inquiries had trebled the price I had to pay for them!”
+
+“In the face of a tragedy like that, it seems hopeless to offer
+consolation,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Still, Elizabeth
+will be obliged to give you a handsome present when you are married.”
+
+“Let us hope that she will not have had time to forget her
+obligations,” said the blue-eyed girl, sweetly. “Of course, she has a
+good memory, but—”
+
+“I only hope somebody will give her two chafing-dishes,” broke in the
+president. “I only have one, and if I was not the sweetest tempered
+mortal in the world Tom and I would quarrel seriously over it. Perhaps,
+I ought not to speak of myself in that way, but—”
+
+“You surely ought to know your good points better than anybody else
+does,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Very true, dear. You see, Tom thinks he is a chafing-dish cook,
+and really he _can_ cook; but the last time he made a rarebit my
+waitress gave warning, because of the state in which she found the
+dining-room—which was very mean of her, because we had waited on
+ourselves to save trouble.”
+
+“Partly for that, and partly because you wanted to talk about Coralie,
+and her sister is her cook, I remember—I was there,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“Yes, but she didn’t know that we wanted to talk about Coralie, and I
+told her that it was to save her trouble.”
+
+“Wasn’t that the time that the rarebit made you ill, and the doctor
+couldn’t come because he, too, had eaten some of it?” asked the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“It was. I told Tom, then, that he must leave out either the doctor or
+me when he made rarebit again!”
+
+“With the result?” queried the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“That we didn’t speak for three days, dear. It was during that time,
+that I went to Annie’s chafing-dish party. She wanted me to make a
+cheese omelette, and I sent over for the dish. My messenger found Tom
+in the dining-room with a whole party of men—”
+
+“Cooking on your chafing-dish?”
+
+“No. Trying to entertain them while the new waitress hunted for it.”
+
+“But, where was it? You hadn’t taken it?”
+
+“No, dear. The cook had borrowed it for a chafing-dish party of her
+own, and neglected to mention the fact to either Tom or me!”
+
+“Then, I suppose really that each family should possess two
+chafing-dishes,” said the brown-eyed blonde, thoughtfully.
+
+“Yes—or none at all,” said the president, sighing.
+
+“Of course I am very much interested in this discussion,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose; “but I wonder if a thorough knowledge of currency
+problems will do us any practical good. None of us are earning our own
+living, and when papa talks about currency problems at home it is only
+to point the moral that times are hard, so—”
+
+“There is where your knowledge will be most useful,” broke in the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “you can bring it out to prove that times
+are _not_ hard, and run off a lot of statistics to prove your point.”
+
+“But I don’t know any statistics,” wailed the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I’m afraid you have not been paying strict attention to-day,” said
+the president, gravely. “However, if you are in danger of losing in
+an argument, be sure to say, with a smile of superiority, ‘I suppose
+you know what the statistics are?’ Now, people are not in the habit
+of carrying statistics around, like cough-drops, and they will simply
+give up the battle on the spot. If they don’t, rattle off a lot of
+figures; they can’t refute them immediately, and if they attempt to do
+it afterward, you can just say, in a supercilious tone, ‘I thought we
+settled that matter yesterday.’”
+
+“Well, I declare,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “that is just my
+own father’s line of argument, and yet it never occurred to me that
+I could imitate it. I do hope you will take very good care of your
+health, Evelyn,” she added. “People who are very intellectual are _so_
+apt to die young.”
+
+“I shall,” said the president. “I’ve no notion of dying and having Tom
+a widower while he is still young enough to be attractive. It would not
+make so much difference after that, for I shall take care that he does
+not accumulate enough money to make him fascinating at seventy-five!”
+
+“Dear, dear,” sighed the blue-eyed girl, “I wonder why so few men have
+money until their hair is only a memory!”
+
+“Case of the wind being tempered to the shorn lamb,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “after all, a man must sacrifice something on
+the altar of success.”
+
+“Humph; isn’t it usually his wife?” said the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“Not if she is clever,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Girls,
+I once knew a woman whose husband made a fortune in two years, and
+he wouldn’t give her more than the merest pittance for dress and
+entertaining. In fact, the only bills he would pay, without grumbling,
+were those of the doctor. And what do you think she did? She selected
+the doctor whose bills were the most outrageous, and settled herself to
+be a chronic invalid. She said she was determined to get something out
+of her husband’s fortune.”
+
+“Good,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “I do hope she
+really enjoyed herself after that.”
+
+“I’m afraid not. You see, the doctor seemed anxious to earn his money,
+and insisted that she had some desperate disease. I doubt if she really
+enjoyed his subsequent visits.”
+
+“All her husband’s fault, too,” sighed the brown-eyed blonde, “and yet,
+I doubt if she reproached him for it. It seems to be a woman’s province
+to suffer in silence.”
+
+“Yes, I’ve often heard my mother make that very remark to my father,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I had rather not quote his
+reply. Girls, I heard the funniest story yesterday; Annie wouldn’t tell
+me who was the heroine of it, really, sometimes she is as provoking as
+a man. I’ll be even with her, however, for I’ll never rest until I find
+out who it was, then I shall tell everybody, and Annie will never be
+able to convince her that she didn’t tell the whole. It seems that this
+girl had quarreled with the man to whom she was engaged, and a week
+later she received a letter addressed in his handwriting. She did think
+of taking it to a mind reader, but it was near the end of the month,
+and she hadn’t the money, so—”
+
+“By the way, Emily, dear, when can you come to lunch with me?” broke in
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “I don’t see half as much of you as I’d
+like to, and—”
+
+“Any day you like, dear. Where was I? Oh! She hadn’t the money, and the
+tea kettle happened to be handy, so she—”
+
+“But, why not open it with a hair-pin, like any other letter?” asked
+the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“She wanted to return it unopened if she didn’t like its contents. It
+proved to be perfectly horrid; he not only didn’t acknowledge that he
+was in the wrong, but he actually brought forward facts to prove that
+she was! Of course, no girl would endure that, so—”
+
+“Do you mean to say that Annie told you that?” asked the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I didn’t think it possible that any girl—”
+
+“Oh, I don’t see any harm in that; of course every girl wants her own
+way. Well, she sealed up the letter again, wrote on it, ‘Returned
+unopened’ and sent it back.”
+
+“H’m,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I was thinking that might
+have been Clarissa, but she is too intellectual to do anything so
+clever. Anyhow, I’m glad she got the better of him.”
+
+“But she didn’t, dear. She discovered, after the messenger had been
+gone an hour, that she had sealed up the envelope without replacing the
+letter in it! Can any of you guess who it was that—”
+
+“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but if I had done such a thing, I
+should never have trusted Annie with it. Why, are you going, dear?”
+
+“I’m going over to Annie’s this very minute,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I—I have something to say to her that will touch even
+_her_ hardened conscience!”
+
+“So it was Marion, after all,” mused the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, after the door had closed behind her friend; “well, at any rate,
+after this Annie will tell me the whole of a story when she begins it.”
+
+“I must say, though, that if I was in her place it would be a long time
+before I began one,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“So you, too, have been confiding in Annie?” said the blue-eyed girl,
+sweetly. “By the way, I am to stay over night with her, but I promise
+you that whatever she may repeat will be safe with me.”
+
+“While we are discussing currency problems, I want to say what a
+nuisance the check system is,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+“I always did hate to get my money in that way, and I had an experience
+the other day which surely ought to cure my father of giving them to
+me.”
+
+“Mercy, you weren’t suspected of being a forger, were you?” asked the
+president, turning pale.
+
+“N—no, I believe not, but—it happened that my father gave me a check
+when I was going shopping, and I found before I cashed it that I must
+have five dollars more. Father had gone to Indianapolis, and mother,
+well—the fact is, that she will not loan me money any more, because
+I sometimes forget to return it. I didn’t know what to do until I
+suddenly remembered that Ned Goldie was the person who had to cash the
+check for me at the bank; then I knew I was safe. Pshaw, it just shows
+that you can never depend on a man!”
+
+“He surely did not refuse to cash it?” asked the president.
+
+“N—no, but he—girls, I’ll tell you just what I did. I said, ‘By the
+way, Mr. Goldie, just give me five dollars more, will you? Father can
+make it right next time he comes in.’ And, if you will credit the fact,
+he actually said he couldn’t do it. A man with whom I had danced the
+german the evening before!”
+
+“I never believed Ned Goldie would be so stingy,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “What excuse did he make?”
+
+“Said it was against the rules of the bank, but he would be delighted
+to _lend_ me the extra five dollars. Did you ever hear of such
+impertinence in your life? As soon as my father comes home, I shall
+tell him that he must transfer his account to another bank, for after
+this I feel that Mr. Goldie is not a person to be trusted with money!”
+
+“Dear, dear,” said the president, gravely, “that is very bad. Don’t
+mention it outside of the club, girls; for if the bank directors found
+that he was being rude to the daughter of one of their customers he
+would lose his position at once. And there may be some apology or
+explanation he can make to your father, too, dear; though I confess I
+don’t see what it can be. Well, girls, I’m afraid we must adjourn, and
+I must say frankly that I am pleased with the work we have done to-day.
+The only reason that I suggested such a weighty topic for discussion
+was, that Tom had declared that the club was unable to grapple with it.
+After that, of course the only thing possible was to show him that he
+was wrong.”
+
+“Which you can now do conclusively,” said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“and I am quite sure he will be surprised at the novelty of some of the
+arguments advanced this afternoon!”
+
+“What is it, dear?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin, as she
+and the blue-eyed girl turned the corner. “You have been so bright and
+cheerful to-day, that I am sure something is seriously wrong.”
+
+“Indeed there is. Jack has behaved abominably! It was enough when he
+told Effie that Frances is the most amiable girl he ever knew; but—”
+
+“That proves conclusively that he is not engaged to her, dear. No man
+ever knows anything about a girl’s temper until he _is_ engaged to her.”
+
+“Oh, if you want to defend him, I shall say no more; but I did think—”
+
+“But, I don’t want to defend him. I only—”
+
+“Then, all I’ve got to say, Emily Marshmallow, is that you are
+prejudiced against the poor fellow. I might have known that from
+the start. I only wish I had not taken your advice and broken my
+engagement.”
+
+“But, you didn’t do it on my advice,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “it was all done before you said a word to me about it.”
+
+“Well, anyhow, I knew you would advise me to do it; and now you are
+not satisfied with what I’ve done. But go on, don’t spare me—I am too
+miserable to care to defend myself! I—I don’t believe I shall live very
+long, anyhow. I shall tell them to give you my marquise ring, as a
+token of forgiveness, when I’m gone. I hope you will remember me when
+you look at it—and be sure to notice if the stones are quite secure in
+their setting.”
+
+“I w—will; I promise you,” sobbed the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“but don’t you think a trip—well a trip to Old Point Comfort might save
+your life. They tell me it is very gay there now!”
+
+The blue-eyed girl shook her head. “Nothing can save me now, dear; why
+I can hook all my gowns now without holding my breath, and yesterday I
+ate no luncheon at all—took nothing between breakfast and dinner but a
+couple of cream sodas, a box of caramels, and a cup or two of afternoon
+tea. You know nobody can live long at that rate. Well, I am sorry for
+Jack Bittersweet when I am gone; a lifetime of remorse and—and Frances
+is not a pleasant thing to look forward to!”
+
+“You haven’t told me yet about Jack, dear, so—”
+
+“True; and some one should know the true story when I am no more. Here
+is the place where they make such nice chocolate; let us stop in and
+drink a cup while I tell you. You take the chair facing the mirror,
+dear,” she said, as they selected a table, “my personal appearance is
+no longer a matter of importance to me.”
+
+“You said that Jack—”
+
+“Has behaved abominably. It is a long story, but I—I shall probably
+never tell you another long story, so you can afford to listen to this
+one. You know the little beggar boy with the beautiful brown eyes that
+I told you about a week or two ago?”
+
+“Yes; but about Jack. I—”
+
+“This is about Jack. I told you how I sympathized with that boy’s sad
+story, and went with him to investigate it, didn’t I?”
+
+“Yes, but you never told me whether his home was—”
+
+“I didn’t get there. He led me through the most awful slums, telling
+me all the time how his father would beat him, when he failed to bring
+money home, and how he knew I was the beautiful lady he had dreamed
+of, as soon as he saw me.”
+
+“Well? Go on, dear.”
+
+“Oh, nothing; only the horrid little wretch suddenly dived down an
+alley and disappeared; and, oh, Emily, I—I believe he made a face at me
+as he went! Worse yet, when I felt for my pocketbook it was gone, and I
+had to walk all the way home!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, had he taken it?”
+
+“I surely had not given it to him. I had almost forgotten the affair,
+when the cook came up yesterday to tell me that he was in the kitchen,
+and had brought my pocketbook back, with a long story about having seen
+another boy take it. Said he had followed him, when he left me, and
+taken it away from him, in turn.”
+
+“Well, I declare; and there was all your money intact after you had
+doubted his honesty!”
+
+“Not a cent of it, dear; and the cook said he was wearing a nice new
+suit. I told her she had better go back to the kitchen, and count the
+spoons, and I called loudly after her, ‘Tell him I never want to see
+his deceitful face again!’ The housemaid had come to the door of my
+room, too, and was trying to put in a word, but I wouldn’t listen to
+her.”
+
+“Trying to excuse the little wretch; the idea!”
+
+“That was what I thought. But, oh, Emily, just then the front door
+closed with a bang which shook the house to its foundations, and then I
+noticed for the first time that the housemaid was trying to give me a
+card!”
+
+“Good gracious, Dorothy, you never mean to say—”
+
+“That it was Jack’s! Indeed I do. He had heard me scream over the
+bannister ‘Tell him to go away; I never want to see his deceitful face
+again.’ And he—he must have thought I meant it for him. Oh, Emily, was
+there ever such a miserable girl as I!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+The Pioneer New Woman
+
+
+“I think the topic for to-day’s discussion should be ‘The Pioneer New
+Woman,’” observed the president of the Teacup Club. “Have you all got
+that down in your note-books? You don’t know how it pleases me to see
+your methodical ways; it shows the real intellectual advancement of our
+club. Why, for my part, I have gained so much that I am not afraid to
+discuss any subject with any one.”
+
+“We have advanced,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “I feel it, too. By
+the way, has any one seen my note-book? I haven’t had it for three
+weeks—are you sure that none of you have gotten it by mistake? I forgot
+to put my name in it, and—”
+
+“I know where it is,” said the girl with the classic profile. “You
+loaned it to Kate—she told me so herself,—in order that she might read
+up on some of the topics we have already discussed, and so qualify for
+admission to the club.”
+
+“I shall blackball her, for my part,” spoke up the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “She is so frivolous that she would drag down our high
+standard. Besides, she once left me out when she gave a luncheon, and
+told people that it was because she had all the decorations in yellow,
+and feared they would not shade with my complexion.”
+
+“Oh, well, Kate is color blind, any way,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.
+
+“Yes, and she is a little deaf, too,” remarked the president, “and
+really does not know just how sharp her own speeches sound.”
+
+“Perhaps not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “but I shall
+blackball her just the same. By the way, Alice is giving a birthday
+dinner party next week—twenty-six covers, one for each year. Clever
+idea, isn’t it?”
+
+“For whose birthday?” asked the girl with the classic profile. “Her
+own? Ah, really, I knew she was forgetful, but this is carrying it too
+far.”
+
+“I wonder why otherwise sensible people will tell such stories about
+their ages,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“I’m sure I don’t know,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Neither do I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Of course, it doesn’t matter who knows my age, as yet,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Nor mine,” remarked the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Nor mine, either,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“No, indeed,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “I got twenty-two birthday
+gifts the other day on my twenty-second birthday.”
+
+“Are you twenty-two? Why, so am I!” cried the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“Just my own age, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“And mine; how odd!” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“That is one of the advantages of the new womanhood,” said the
+president; “its beautiful candor. Now, I tell everybody that I am
+twenty-two years old.”
+
+“I wish you would tell Mrs. Van Tompkins,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “She wouldn’t take my word for it the other day,
+though I told her that I couldn’t be mistaken, as you had told me so at
+least six times in the last eighteen months.”
+
+“Cora asked me the other day if there was any age qualification for
+membership in this club,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses, during
+the slight pause which followed the last speech. “She says she has not
+yet celebrated her twenty-first birthday.”
+
+“Born on the 29th of February, then, wasn’t she?” asked the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Yes, it is true that the new womanhood is breaking down old
+traditions. We are not at all jealous of each other now.”
+
+“Of course not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “we have
+learned to value our own attractions properly. Why, the other day I
+stopped Amy and Fred to tell her there was a dab of powder on her
+nose. Formerly another girl would have been jealous of her dazzling
+complexion, and let her go on as she was.”
+
+“How sweet of you,” murmured the girl with the eyeglasses; “and yet, I
+doubt if she was really grateful.”
+
+“That was not the question, dear; I—”
+
+“Oh, dear,” broke in the president, “if my watch is right it is time to
+adjourn, and yet. Why, here is Elise! What has made you late to-day?”
+
+“A discussion with a stupid man,” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
+“Only think, he actually said that no woman was mathematician enough
+to count up her own birthdays correctly. I was so enraged—why, he said
+that ‘I am twenty-two’ is the same thing to a girl as ‘Polly wants a
+cracker’ is to a parrot, or the Spanish fandango to a guitar player—but
+what on earth is wrong? You all look so queer.”
+
+“It’s nothing at all, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “We were just
+looking at your new hat, that is all. I think your watch must have
+stopped, Evelyn dear, for mine is only—”
+
+“Perhaps it has,” said the president. “Tom talks so much, sometimes,
+that I quite forget to wind it.”
+
+“Oh, well, it needs a rest sometimes,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I know that mine—”
+
+“Oh, dear!” said the president, “I know I am a fright to-day, and
+nothing but a sense of duty has brought me here. Why, I actually have
+not had a chance to curl my hair properly for six days, and—”
+
+“Been getting ready your new gown, have you?” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I only wish I had mine off my mind.”
+
+“It wasn’t my new gown,” said the president. “It was Tom. He has had
+a heavy cold, and the house smells so strong of camphor that there
+will not be a moth within a block of it this year. I don’t mind being
+bidden a tragic farewell at mid-day, but I do mind being waked up at
+midnight for that purpose.”
+
+“But it was nothing serious, was it?” asked the brown-eyed blonde. “I
+thought the other day, when he came to the top of the stairs and called
+to you that he was dying, that a man who was breathing his last would
+manage to do it with less noise.”
+
+“Oh, pshaw!” said the president. “That was nothing to the time he waked
+me up at one o’clock in the morning to tell me that he was dying, but
+if I let that mug-faced young preacher who used to come to see me,
+officiate at his funeral he would come back and haunt me. It took a
+hot-water bottle, a mustard plaster, two hot toddies, and the camphor
+to quiet him that time.”
+
+“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “I wonder why a man
+always thinks a cold or a boil fatal—when he has it?”
+
+“Perhaps he doesn’t himself,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “but
+he always wants the women of the family to act as if they did.”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “but do you know what
+Dolly does? As soon as her husband complains of being ill she begins to
+weep and tear her hair and lament that he will die, she knows he will.
+That frightens him, and when she insists upon putting him to bed, and
+giving him a bowl of hot ginger tea (which he detests), he pretends
+that he was only joking, and flees to the office, when she calls him up
+every half-hour to ask how he is. She says he seldom complains of his
+health nowadays.”
+
+“You know my sister Amelia, don’t you?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Well, her husband had a heavy cold last week. He waked her
+up at two o’clock to tell her that he was dying, and that he knew
+he had not been a good husband to her, and could not go without her
+forgiveness. She wept, and said that he had not been very nice to her,
+and had never given her half enough money. Upon this, the dying man sat
+up, and began to argue the case. From argument they passed to something
+warmer. He went down to the office next day, and hasn’t said a word
+about dying since.”
+
+“I wouldn’t mind Tom thinking he was dying once in awhile,” said the
+president, “if he’d only allow me the same privilege occasionally. He
+won’t, though; he comes in and says, cheerfully, ‘Oh, you’ll soon be
+all right. You should have seen how much worse I was once when I had
+it, and never missed a day at the office, either!’ The last time he
+did that my throat was too sore for me to reply properly, and I really
+thought I should die of rage.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “As if a
+woman couldn’t always stand more than a man, anyhow! For instance,
+I wonder how many of them could go out in thin shoes, and without
+overshoes, as we do. And yet you never hear a girl say that she has
+caught cold in that way.”
+
+“Never,” said the blue-eyed girl; “we have too much fortitude. My
+cousin Edith’s husband used to be always complaining of his health,
+until this last winter, I wondered what had caused his miraculous
+recovery, until she told me a few days ago. She was away from home, and
+received a telegram, saying that she must come at once if she wanted to
+see him alive. The message was delayed, being improperly addressed, and
+when she reached home, expecting to find him dead, he met her at the
+door. It seems that he had called in a new doctor, who was the cause of
+his miraculous recovery. He said he would never have another physician
+to prescribe for him as long as he lived.”
+
+“Completely cured, eh?” said the president.
+
+“Not that time. Next time he was ill, and the new doctor appeared, he
+turned out to be an old admirer of Edith’s. Her husband is frightfully
+jealous, and Edith’s potential second husband is a very real person to
+him. Edith, as nurse, always went out into the hall to talk with the
+doctor after his call. She says she is sure that she did not remain
+away so _very_ long; but when she came back, after the first visit, her
+husband sulked; after the second, he raved; and after the third, he
+got up, declaring he’d live, if only to spite them both. And now, the
+doctor points to him as an example of his remarkable healing powers,”
+she added.
+
+“Speaking of old sweethearts,” said the president, “what do you think
+happened to me the other day? I was calling on Mrs. Vansmith and her
+guest, as she had requested. Both of them happened to be out, and, to
+my annoyance, I found I had no cards with me. At last I found one of
+Tom’s in my card-case, and I left that, knowing that Mrs. Vansmith
+would understand.”
+
+“Well, and didn’t she?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Perhaps. But the visitors didn’t. It turned out that she used to
+be engaged to Tom; while I was in the kindergarten, I suppose. It
+seems that his card was handed to her; and you should have seen the
+unbelieving smile with which she listened to my explanation of the
+matter!”
+
+“You poor, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl, “you must have been as angry
+as if somebody had trodden on your gown. A rather unpleasant thing
+happened to Florence the other day, too; Molly was calling on her,
+and a note was handed in. She thought it was from Teddy Crœsus, and
+pretending that she had ink on her fingers, asked Molly to open it for
+her, which she did.”
+
+“How stupid of Molly; she might have known that it was some trick of
+Florence’s,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Was it a proposal from
+Teddy?”
+
+“It wasn’t from Teddy at all; handwritings are so much alike nowadays.
+It was a bill from the hairdresser, of whom Florence had bought those
+lovely little curls which cluster around her brow—and Molly read it
+aloud, as she had requested.”
+
+“But who told you about it?” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Molly. You didn’t suppose it was Florence, did you? I declare, it made
+me feel like trying to persuade both of them to join our club. There
+isn’t a girl in it that would do such a mean thing, and the example
+might—”
+
+“No, it wouldn’t; they are too frivolous,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Oh, girls, I sometimes wish that the men who dance with
+us could hear the serious discussions which go on in this club,—so
+harmoniously, too.”
+
+“True,” said the president, “not one unkind word has been spoken, even
+of the absent, since we organized. I wonder if as much can be said of
+any other club.”
+
+“I doubt it,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and it isn’t as if we couldn’t
+think of clever things to say about people, either.”
+
+“Of course not,” returned the girl with the Roman nose; “why, I know
+some things, even about the other members, which—”
+
+“So do I,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Why, I heard the
+other day that you—”
+
+“Of course I wouldn’t mention, for the world,” finished the girl with
+the Roman nose, in some agitation.
+
+“I thought not, dear; it would hardly be wise,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses, “for you, especially.”
+
+“I’m sure, I don’t see why I, es—”
+
+“Don’t you, dear? But, then, you never were clever,” said the
+president. “Yes, I am very proud of the amiability we have all
+displayed since joining the club. I must say that I didn’t expect—”
+
+“I don’t see why not,” said the blue-eyed girl. “As for me, I can get
+along with anybody, so I was not at all afraid.”
+
+“Yes, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “your tongue would be a
+protection, even if—”
+
+“Other people were even _more_ envious of me? That is hardly possible,
+dear; but I thank you for your good opinion of me.”
+
+“Don’t overwhelm me with gratitude, dearest; I really do not deserve
+it.”
+
+“But, luckily for you, love, people seldom get their deserts.”
+
+“Oh, girls, don’t quarrel,” said the president, wringing her hands;
+“I’ve always wanted this to be different from a man’s club, and now—”
+
+“Really, Evelyn, you seem to be the one who is doing the quarreling,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde, tartly. “As for me, I am naturally amiable,
+and—”
+
+“It is not your fault if your temper _is_ a bit soured by repeated
+disappointments,” broke in the blue-eyed girl; “of course not.
+Everybody says it is no wonder.”
+
+“I—I resign from this club,” sobbed the brown-eyed blonde. “I’ll not
+stay here another minute to be insulted!”
+
+“Girls, girls,” said the president, “do be reasonable. I—”
+
+“This is the first time _I_ was ever accused of being unreasonable,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose; “and all I’ve got to say is, that I
+pity Tom from the bottom of my heart, and—”
+
+“I don’t doubt but that you’d be glad to comfort him—if I was dead,”
+sobbed the president. “If this is all I am to get for keeping you at
+peace during the meetings, I’ll just resign, and let you run the club
+to suit yourselves. And a p-pretty mess you-you’ll make of it!” And
+she retired behind her handkerchief.
+
+“I’ll resign, too, this very minute,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “I knew just how it would be when Dorothy asked me to join the
+club, but—”
+
+“You were afraid to refuse, lest something happen, and you didn’t know
+all about it,” finished the blue-eyed girl. “Well, I wish to tender
+_my_ resignation from the club, to take effect at once.”
+
+“And so do I,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“And I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“I, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“W—why, then, there’s nobody left!” exclaimed the blue-eyed girl,
+gazing about the room in astonishment. “Oh, w—what will all the men of
+our set say when they hear of this!” she wailed.
+
+“I never thought of that!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I know
+well enough, though, without thinking,” she added.
+
+“They will say that women never _can_ agree among themselves,” sobbed
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and they will keep on saying it,
+in spite of the fact that it is a baseless libel!”
+
+“Of—of course, I am not an—angry, only hurt,” sobbed the president.
+
+“I am not angry at all,” said the blue-eyed girl, “only distressed that
+the others—”
+
+“I’m sure I—I haven’t a hard feeling against any—anybody,” wailed the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Mercy, no,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“If anybody is sorry for having hurt my feelings, I am quite ready to
+forgive it,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“And so am I,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Then, I don’t see that any of us need resign,” said the president.
+“Does anybody remember the topic under discussion?”
+
+“‘The Pioneer New Woman,’” said the blue-eyed girl, “and a very
+interesting topic it is, I’m sure.”
+
+“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, as she tucked her
+handkerchief into her belt.
+
+“One thing is always a mystery to me,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “why does no female creature ever acknowledge that she is a
+new woman until she is quite an old one?”
+
+“Oh, well, by that time her years will entitle her to a seat in a
+street car, even if she wears bloomers,” thoughtfully replied the
+president.
+
+“Who really _was_ the pioneer new woman?” asked the girl with the
+classic profile.
+
+“Eve; although, she did not call herself by that name, I believe,”
+returned the blue-eyed girl. “So far as I can see, the new woman is
+just like all the rest of us—she wants to get everything she can out
+of the world, and give as little as possible in return.”
+
+“And it is perfectly natural that she should,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “The only way we can make the men give us what we really
+want, is by asking for a great deal more, so that they will think
+themselves lucky if we compromise on what we originally decided to
+have.”
+
+“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the Roman nose, making an entry into
+her note-book, “I’ve been acting on that theory all my life, but I
+never thought to formulate it.”
+
+“Pardon me for the suggestion,” said the president, “but I hope you are
+not in the habit of leaving that note-book around where any man can see
+it.”
+
+“It wouldn’t make any difference if I did, dear. I went to such
+a fashionable school that no one but myself can ever read my
+chirography—I can’t myself, if it was written long enough ago for me to
+have quite forgotten what I said.”
+
+“Then, you needn’t be uneasy about any old love letters which have not
+been returned,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Not at all. Nobody could tell whether I had written a promise of
+undying affection or a recipe for hair tonic.”
+
+“I do wish my father had sent me to the same school,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, sorrowfully.
+
+“Pshaw, old letters don’t tell half as many tales as old photographs,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses, sighing. “I know a girl who had been
+engaged to a man who returned everything she had given him except one
+photograph. She couldn’t refuse to let him keep it when he begged so
+hard.”
+
+“He had probably lost it, and didn’t know how to account for its
+absence,” said the president.
+
+“No, he hadn’t. Well, six years later, she became engaged to another
+man. I fancy she must have told him some stories about her age.”
+
+“It’s always better to understate rather than overstate a case,” said
+the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“So my old nurse used to say. Well, when she was about to be married,
+her old lover sent her a beautiful present, and with it an envelope
+addressed to her fiancé.”
+
+“Which she should have opened herself,” said the president, promptly.
+
+“He happened to be present when the box was opened, dear. The envelope
+contained the photograph taken seven years before—”
+
+“Why didn’t she say that—”
+
+“It was a picture of her elder sister? She did, dear. What really
+caused the trouble was her own name, and the date on the back of it,
+coupled with the statement that it was taken on her twenty-second
+birthday!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, how sly men are?” said the president. “And to think
+that never, as long as she lived, could that girl tell him what she
+really thought of him!”
+
+“I know. She used to say that she sometimes regretted that she _hadn’t_
+married him.”
+
+“Oh, well, he is probably married to somebody else, by this time,
+anyhow,” said the president, “though I doubt if his wife would fully
+appreciate the enormity of his behavior, since it was toward another
+woman.”
+
+“Never mind,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “people are sure to be
+punished in some way or another. I wouldn’t get up early on Sunday
+morning, and go to church if I did not firmly believe that.”
+
+“Goodness me,” said the president, “it must be awfully late, girls, and
+I promised Tom to adjourn early and meet him down town. I do wonder if
+he has been waiting for me all this time!”
+
+“I’ve seen Jack,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, as the
+friends went down the stairs; “met him on the street this morning.”
+
+“And, I suppose you hurried right on, and never said a civil word to
+him,” returned the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Indeed I didn’t. I called after him to wait for me, and—”
+
+“And I suppose he thought that I had told you to talk to him, since
+you were so eager. You needn’t tell me a word that you said—I don’t
+want to hear anything about it. Did—did he look sort of hollow-eyed and
+worn?”
+
+“‘M—I can’t say that he did. But he said that he thought he must give
+up chafing-dish suppers.”
+
+“I should think he must have bad dreams,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+viciously.
+
+“He—he told me that he had called at your house the other day, and—”
+
+“I suppose you let him go on thinking that I meant that message for
+him. A nice friend you are, Emily Marshmallow!”
+
+“Why, Dorothy, I—”
+
+“You don’t surely mean that you explained it all, and actually let him
+think that I wanted to apologize! Well, if anybody had told me such a
+thing of you, I never would have believed it.”
+
+“No, I didn’t,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I didn’t
+say a word, for just then Frances joined us; and if _you_ are clever
+enough to get a private word with any man, after Frances sees him, I am
+not!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+Woman in Legislation
+
+
+“Let us discuss ‘Woman in Legislation,’ to-day,” said the president. “I
+had written you a note, Marion, to prepare a paper on it, but I found
+it in my desk this morning.”
+
+“Too bad,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I should have been
+delighted to do it.”
+
+“Why, Marion,” cried the girl with the Roman nose, “have you forgotten?
+You said you were too busy painting dinner cards to touch it. That was
+when I told you that Evelyn wanted you to do it, you remember.”
+
+“No, I don’t,” snapped the girl with the eyeglasses. “Of course I
+shan’t have a minute to prepare a paper for next week; but I should
+have been delighted to—”
+
+“Girls,” said the president, “only think! Tom says this club is
+actually making me masculine.”
+
+“Mercy, you must have convinced him that you had the better of him in
+an argument,” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No—but I forgot to mail some letters he intrusted to me the other day
+when he was going out of town. By the way, it seems to me that when
+legislation is in the hands of women. What are you girls whispering
+about over there in the corner?”
+
+“We are only comparing samples of bicycle suitings,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “Dorothy has a larger selection than I, and—”
+
+“Why, I have a lot of them, myself,” said the president. “Has anybody
+seen my hand-bag since I came in?”
+
+“Here it is,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I’ve just been
+comparing your samples with mine, and I find—”
+
+“Goodness me, I’m late,” said the brown-eyed blonde, as she bounced
+into the room. “I just stopped on my way here to look at a new design
+for bicycle suits, and—”
+
+“I’ve been trying for half a block to catch you, Frances,” said the
+girl with the classic profile, as she opened the door, in turn; “I’ve
+been looking at the new bicycles, and was detained longer than I
+expected.”
+
+“Oh, shall you get a new wheel this year?” asked the president.
+
+“No, dear,” returned the girl with the classic profile; “but, of
+course, I wanted to see what they are like.”
+
+“Naturally,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “My dears, you never
+heard of such luck as mine. You know papa said I shouldn’t have a new
+bicycle this year, if I had to walk—”
+
+“Oh, if you call that luck,” said the blue-eyed girl, “my father said
+the same thing.”
+
+“So did mine,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Wait until you hear the rest,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I
+had my old machine set in order, and expected to have to do with it
+all this season. The other day, I went into the store-room to have a
+look at it, and, to my surprise, found it all splashed with mud, the
+enamel scratched, and—”
+
+“The cook had been riding it, of course,” broke in the president.
+
+“I knew that at once, and I went to tell mamma she must discharge her
+on the spot. However, mamma was lying down with a headache, and as
+I had some shopping, a luncheon, two teas and a dinner on hand that
+day, I had no chance to speak to her. Two days later, I remembered it,
+and went in to look at it—I knew that mamma was so prejudiced against
+bicycling that I must make the case very bad to excite her sympathy.
+It was bad enough, by this time, too; one pedal was all bent, the
+handle-bar was broken, and the enamel was a sight!”
+
+“I hope you made your mother discharge that cook on the spot!” said the
+blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I rushed right up to mamma’s room to do it. I opened the door, and a
+familiar odor greeted me—a combination of arnica and witch hazel, and—”
+
+“You forgot all about the cook. Had your mother fallen downstairs?”
+
+“No; she hadn’t. The cook had been trying to teach her to ride my
+bicycle; she had a black eye, a sprained shoulder, and a skinned face.
+The cook had gone home with a dislocated collar-bone, and I had to wait
+on mamma, and do all the cooking for two days!”
+
+“And you call that luck!” groaned the president.
+
+“Not that, dear. But mamma gave me a beautiful new wheel for keeping
+the whole thing from papa’s ears. And I sold the old one for enough to
+buy me a lovely new suit,” she added, triumphantly.
+
+“I am glad _somebody_ has had a stroke of luck,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “As for me, I’ve just had an object-lesson in the selfishness
+of this world, which is enough to make a misanthrope of me for life.”
+
+“Mercy, has your grandmother decided to buy a wheel for herself instead
+of for you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“No. But you see it scratches the enamel to learn on a wheel—not to
+mention the other accidents which may befall it. Now, Nell’s bicycle
+is old, and I sent to borrow it to ride while I was taking my lessons.
+She actually refused it, unless I would lend her my new one while I had
+hers. Did you ever hear of such selfishness in your life?”
+
+“Never,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “By the way, I
+suppose Jack Bittersweet will teach you to ride?”
+
+“Why, yes; but how did you guess it?” There was a note of triumph in
+her voice.
+
+“Oh, that was easy enough. He is always teaching somebody, you know. I
+told him the other day that I was afraid people would soon think him a
+professional.”
+
+“B—but he told me that he only teaches people whom he—likes,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, faintly.
+
+“Why, of course, dear. But, Jack hasn’t a bit of discretion; he likes
+everything that wears petticoats, I verily believe.”
+
+“Oh—I— By the way, Evelyn, dear, what is to-day’s topic? You had
+started the discussion when I came, and I didn’t like to interrupt you
+to ask.”
+
+“It is ‘Woman in Legislation,’” said the president, after a peep at her
+note-book, “By the way, Frances, I know the cheapest place in town for
+arnica, if you want—”
+
+“Mine doesn’t cost anything, dear. Papa always has a bill at the drug
+store. I know the clerk, and he has promised if I use a very large
+quantity to put it down as toilet soap and postage stamps. Papa has
+never ridden you know, and he might not understand.”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What a comfort
+bicycling is, anyhow. For instance, if you meet a strange man, and the
+conversation lags—”
+
+“Get it on bicycles, and it runs smoothly enough,” said the president.
+
+“I wish _I_ could do the same,” wailed the brown-eyed blonde. “Well
+it is lucky for me that the dancing season is over, for my arms are a
+perfect sight.”
+
+“Oh, if it is only your arms!” said the girl with the Roman nose,
+cheerfully. “_I_ always fell on my face when I was learning. The only
+comforting thing about that was, that I soon became unrecognizable, and
+could fall right up and down my own street without a soul knowing who I
+was. It was very convenient, too, for they hadn’t far to take me when I
+had a really bad accident.”
+
+“How long did you have to wait to sit for your photograph?” asked the
+blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Six weeks, dear—and then it had to be a profile.”
+
+“Elizabeth had rather a hard time of it, too,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “she would learn in her lovely new suit, and by the
+time she could ride, she hadn’t enough of it left to make a bathing
+costume.”
+
+“Tom tells a rather good bicycle story,” observed the president. “He
+met a member of his club, who is a noted scorcher, the other day. He
+was wheeling along a very disreputable specimen of a woman’s machine.
+‘Hello,’ said Tom, ‘got yourself into trouble?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply,
+‘I ran into a woman up yonder, and I’m afraid it will be cheaper to buy
+her a new wheel than to have the old one repaired.’ ‘Humph,’ said Tom,
+who knows him pretty well, ‘it’s a wonder you didn’t just ride away
+and leave her, when you found what you had done.’ ‘I did,’ said the
+scorcher, ‘but it didn’t do me any good.’ ‘Policeman saw you, eh?’ ‘No.
+The woman turned out to be my wife!’”
+
+“Good!” said the blue-eyed girl. “I came very near not getting my
+bicycle last year. Papa said I should have one if I learned to make a
+good pie. I agreed to do it, but I had reckoned without the cook. She
+said flatly that she wouldn’t have me messing up her kitchen. Finally,
+I compromised by agreeing to trim her a hat, if she would make the
+pie. It was really quite the same you know.”
+
+“Quite,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“And did it turn out all right?” asked the president.
+
+“The hat did; but the pie—well, the cook had lived with us for three
+years, and that was the first time she had turned out an uneatable pie!”
+
+“But, why didn’t you ask your father to let you try again?” asked the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I did, dear; but I took no chances that time; I bought the pie from
+the Woman’s Exchange. And I must say that I think I quite deserved the
+bicycle after all I had been through to earn it.”
+
+“Indeed you did,” said the girl with the classic profile. “By the way,
+Emily, I hear that you and Dick had an almost fatal quarrel while you
+were both learning.”
+
+“We did,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “It happened this
+way: I was able to ride at least two blocks without assistance, so
+I got up very early, and went to the park alone to practice. I was
+getting along very well until I heard somebody coming up behind me at
+a terrible pace. That made me so nervous that I fell right off. The
+cyclist who had frightened me was Dick, and he actually kept right on
+without offering to help me!”
+
+“Perhaps he didn’t know it was you,” suggested the girl with the Roman
+nose.
+
+“Yes, he did; but he kept right on, and a perfect stranger had to take
+me and my bicycle home. Two hours later he appeared with his arm in a
+sling, and explained. He said it was first time he had ridden outside
+of the riding school, and he had gotten a terrific pace which he
+couldn’t have stopped if a rich uncle had been in his way. He said that
+if something in his machine hadn’t broken, he verily believed he’d have
+circled the globe without stopping!”
+
+“So you forgave him, didn’t you? You always were amiable,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Ye—es. Especially as he offered to have my bicycle repaired; papa
+having declared the last time that he wouldn’t pay another cent for
+repairs, if it stood in the attic all summer!”
+
+“That was good of you. Some girls would not have been so just,” said
+the president.
+
+“Oh, don’t praise me too much,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, modestly. “Nobody who knew me happened to be in sight when it
+occurred—else I might not have let him off so easily.”
+
+“Dear me, how modest you are,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I never knew a
+human being with so little vanity in my life.”
+
+“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Did I tell you
+about Florence’s latest trouble? No? Well, you know that horrid Mr.
+Brownsmith, who rides beautifully, begged to be allowed to teach her.
+She accepted, and as soon as she had learned to ride well, she wondered
+how to get rid of him.”
+
+“Why didn’t she ask her father to—”
+
+“Forbid him to the house? That’s just what she did. I believe you have
+heard this story before.”
+
+“Yes. And her father?” queried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Absolutely refused to do it. Said he was the finest young man he knew,
+and only wondered that he cared for her society.”
+
+“Well, I declare! And Florence?”
+
+“Would have had to treat him just like anybody else, if he hadn’t heard
+all about it, and stopped calling of his own accord. Now, every time
+her father sees him, he asks why he hasn’t been to the house for so
+long!”
+
+“How unreasonable men are to be sure—Florence’s father, in particular.
+Why, he actually refuses to speak to Dickey Doolittle, whose third
+cousin married a British baronet, and who has all his garments made in
+London!” said the president.
+
+“I know—he says it makes no difference to him _where_ Dickey gets his
+clothes; so long as he pays for them promptly,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“Which is the last thing Dickey would even think of doing,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Oh, well, he may _think_ of it,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “I suppose that even Dickey thinks sometimes.”
+
+“You have been reading the comic papers again,” said the president,
+severely. “Whenever I hear old jokes I—”
+
+“No, dear,” said the girl with the classic profile, sweetly, “but I had
+a long talk with your husband only yesterday.”
+
+“Dear me,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, rousing herself
+from a reverie, “I’m afraid I’ve not been paying attention to the
+discussion. I can’t even remember whether we decided that women should
+be legislators or not.”
+
+“I’m sorry to hear that,” said the president. “I fear it is too late
+to go over the discussion again for your benefit. I thought you were
+taking notes of it as we went along—I saw you jotting something down in
+your note-book.”
+
+“That was only my calculations for a bicycle suit. There must be
+something wrong about them, too, for I make it twenty-seven dollars,
+and I only have twenty-one dollars and thirty-eight cents to my name,
+even if somebody pays my car-fare home.”
+
+“I only make it twenty-six dollars and two cents,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “and I have allowed for everything just the same as you have.”
+
+“But then you are so economical that your sums in addition always come
+out less than mine, dear. I think you had better go over it again; or
+let Evelyn do it for you.”
+
+“I make it twenty-eight dollars and sixty cents,” said the president.
+“Try it Frances, and see if I am right.”
+
+“Oh, don’t,” said the blue-eyed girl, “if anybody else adds it up, it
+may come out thirty dollars, and then I can’t afford it at all. Well,
+I do hope one thing,—that when women are legislators they will arrange
+that we all have more money to spend.”
+
+“Of course they will,” said the president, “else why should they
+bother to be legislators at all?”
+
+“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“What a comfort you are with your knowledge of parliamentary usage,”
+said the president.
+
+“Yes, I have gained that by joining this club, if I have gained nothing
+else,” replied the girl with the Roman nose. “I observe, too, that papa
+and the boys are less inclined to engage in argument with me than they
+were before they knew the kind of topics we discuss here. Not that I
+give myself any airs over it, of course,” she added.
+
+“Oh, none of us do that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “But there is
+another benefit which I derive from the club. Mamma allows me to spend
+a good deal more money on my wardrobe, now that she is afraid that I
+may begin to look intellectual if I’m not well dressed.”
+
+“Oh, speaking of bicycle suits; did you ever hear what happened to
+Molly’s old one?” asked the blue-eyed girl. “No? Well, she was
+determined to have a new one this year, so she put the old one away
+without any moth-balls, and—”
+
+“It was completely ruined by the moths, so that she had to get a new
+one?” asked the president.
+
+“No, it was comparatively uninjured; but the moths from it had got into
+all her brother’s spring garments, which were hanging up near it. Molly
+is thinking of going away on a nice long visit about the time that he
+discovers it.”
+
+“H’m; if I know anything about men, she had better,” said the
+president. “Poor Molly, I suppose she had meant to coax him for another
+suit. How unlucky that girl is, and she doesn’t in the least deserve
+her ill-luck, either.”
+
+“No. She often says it would be easier to bear if she did. Now, last
+year that very same brother was always coaxing her to ask Ida to pay
+her a visit. Finally, he said he’d give her fifty dollars if she would
+do it, and she thought she might as well be good-natured and oblige
+him. However, she was busy, and put it off a week or two, and when
+Ida’s letter of acceptance actually came he had fallen in love with
+another girl, and let Molly do all the entertaining!”
+
+“Just like a man. Did he give her the money?” asked the president.
+
+“No. He compromised on half, because Molly had put off asking her. And
+Ida stayed two weeks longer than she had been asked for, and made eyes
+all the time at the man Molly really liked herself.”
+
+“Yes, poor Molly,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “she says
+the next time her brother offers to pay her for having a girl to visit
+her, she will send the invitation by telegraph!”
+
+“And demand payment in advance,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “of course
+he would be willing to pay for the telegram, anyhow.”
+
+“Yes, and take it to the office, too,” said the president, with a sigh.
+“Tom used to send off all my telegrams before we were married—he always
+said it was too far to the office for me to go myself. Now, he says
+that the exercise will do me good.”
+
+“I suppose he doesn’t want to pay for the message,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“Oh, I never pay for my telegrams, I always send them at receiver’s
+cost. People are so curious to know what is in a telegram that they pay
+without a murmur.”
+
+“H’m, I shall have to try that,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“But not on me,” cried the president. “I’ll never forgive you if you
+do. Oh, girls, did you hear the awful thing that happened to Milly
+when she sold her bicycle? No? Well, she only got ten dollars for it,
+because the man said it was in such an awful condition that he only
+took it to oblige her, and it would be a dead loss on his hands. He
+told her to come in in about ten days, and he’d have some second hand
+ones in such good condition that they would be the best bargains in
+town.”
+
+“That was very nice of him, since he made nothing on the transaction,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“So Milly thought. At the end of that time she went back, and found one
+that she liked very much, it being the same make as her old one. He
+wanted sixty dollars for it, but she beat him down to fifty, and took
+it home with her at once for fear he would change his mind. What do
+you think she found when she got home? That she had bought her own old
+machine back again!”
+
+“But how did she know that?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“By the number on the plate, goosie. He had put on new pedals, raised
+the seat a bit and given it a new coat of enamel—making forty dollars
+on the transaction! And when Milly wanted her husband to punish him for
+his rascality, he only laughed until she actually thought seriously of
+applying for a divorce!”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the blue-eyed girl. “One man will do a mean thing
+and another will uphold him. You don’t find women doing such things for
+each other!”
+
+“No, indeed,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “our own
+standard of feminine behavior is so high, that we hardly even give each
+other credit for the good things we do!”
+
+“I’ve often noticed that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “and I
+regret to see that men are unable to appreciate our lofty motives, and
+often set it down to envy.”
+
+“My goodness,” cried the president, with a guilty start, “it must
+be long past time to adjourn, and I don’t want the janitor to look
+at me as he did last time we were late. Why, he couldn’t have been
+more unpleasant if I had been his own wife! And the look which always
+reduces Tom to instant submission hadn’t the least effect upon him!”
+
+“I’ve been dying for an opportunity to speak to you all afternoon,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin, to the blue-eyed girl, as
+they turned the corner, “I met Effie Bittersweet to-day, and she spoke
+so nicely of you that I am sure she thinks you and her brother are
+about to become reconciled.”
+
+“It isn’t Jack this time, dear,” was the calm reply. “The fact is, that
+Clarence Lighthed has been paying me a good deal of attention lately,
+and she was afraid you would think her jealous.”
+
+“Clarence! Well, I never—how on earth did you manage it, Dorothy?”
+
+“Strange as it may appear, I didn’t manage it at all; he did it
+entirely of his own accord. But though that is the honest truth, there
+isn’t another girl of my acquaintance who would even _pretend_ to
+believe it if I told her.”
+
+“I suppose not, dear; and yet men must sometimes admire girls of their
+own free will. Well, Effie must be feeling very badly, then, for she
+said that of course she knew I would laugh at her for saying it, but
+for her part, she considered Dorothy Darling the prettiest girl in our
+set.”
+
+“Humph, I’ll remember that when Clarence calls to-morrow afternoon. You
+couldn’t persuade Effie to drop in with you for a cup of tea, could
+you?”
+
+“Ye—es, I suppose I could, if you will promise to put enough rum in my
+cup to fortify me for the walk home. And I have always wanted to own a
+hand mirror like that silver one of yours. Do you suppose anybody will
+ever give me one?”
+
+“You may have mine, if you will promise to bring Effie in at precisely
+half-past four; Clarence will be reading poetry aloud by that time.”
+
+“I promise; and I might just as well stop in and get the hand mirror
+now. You won’t want me to leave you a moment to-morrow.
+
+“Indeed, I shall not. By the way, of course I told you that I cracked
+the mirror breaking taffy the other afternoon! No? Why, I wonder how I
+could have overlooked the fact.”
+
+“Never mind, dear, Ned Crœsus will have it mended for me—and thank me
+for letting him do it, instead of Dick. By the way, how can you endure
+so much of Clarence’s society? You always said he was so stupid.”
+
+“That was when he used to talk of nothing but Effie. Any man would be
+stupid, if his only theme was another girl. You—you couldn’t let Jack
+know about Clarence, could you? If it was any one else Effie would tell
+him the first time she was provoked with him. Frances will be careful
+not to let him know, and men have such silly ideas about interfering
+with other peoples’ affairs, that I doubt if any of them say a word to
+him about the matter.”
+
+“I might. Yes, I know I could, if only I was sure that you would not
+blame me if it turned out badly.”
+
+“Well, Emily Marshmallow, to think of refusing to do a little thing
+like that for me—when I’ve just given you that lovely hand mirror,
+which I like better than anything I own. I just believe you want Jack
+Bittersweet yourself, and I’m sure you are welcome to him, for aught I
+care!”
+
+“Look here, Dorothy, I think you forget that Jack is two whole inches
+shorter than I; and if you think I am capable of caring enough for
+_any_ man to make myself look like a—a bean pole for the rest of my
+natural life, you are very much mistaken!”
+
+“Oh, well, if you are sorry to have hurt my feelings, of course I shall
+overlook it. I only hope, however, that you will not rely too much on
+my natural amiability and push me too far. If you should see Jack in
+the near future you might, as you suggested,—”
+
+“But, I didn’t suggest at all. You must just tell me what you want me
+to say to Jack and, if I get a chance, I—”
+
+“You are entirely mistaken. I don’t want you to say anything to Jack;
+after the way he has treated me, I have too much pride to raise a
+finger to bring him back. I only thought that, as you are a friend of
+his, you might like to warn him that there are others who appreciate
+me, if he does not.”
+
+“B—but I rather fancy that he will expect—er some kind of an
+explanation of the—the occurrence at your house last week. Suppose I
+just say—”
+
+“Well, then, all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet is too
+stupid to understand a simple accident, I don’t care if he never speaks
+to me again. Clarence Lighthed is one of the very nicest fellows I ever
+knew, and I am one of the hap—happiest girls in the world. Don’t look
+at me as if you thought I was crying! I am not—and if I was, it would
+be out of p—pure joy!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+An Executive Meeting
+
+
+“Why, Frances, is that you? And on your way to the Club, too,” cried
+the blue-eyed girl, as she caught up with the brown-eyed blonde, “how
+lucky I am; I shall have a nice long talk with you as we go along! How
+well you are looking to-day, quite fresh, I declare! Dear me, I should
+have put on my gloves before I left home, but I was in such haste that—”
+
+“By the way, Dorothy, it seems to me that you are not wearing as many
+rings as usual this winter. Surely, I miss the diamond you used to
+wear!”
+
+“Why, no I’m not; so much jewelry is always vulgar, and rings are _so_
+hard on one’s gloves. Mercy, we have walked a whole block, and you
+haven’t told me a bit of news!”
+
+“Haven’t I? By the way, I heard Ja—a man I know, say something about
+you yesterday which was quite a surprise. I don’t really know whether I
+ought to repeat it, or not.”
+
+“Oh, he wouldn’t have said it before you unless he expected you to
+repeat it, dear. You must tell me what it is, or I shall fancy it was
+not really unpleasant, and, really I’ve had so many compliments of late
+that it will be quite a change. I am actually afraid that Cla—a friend
+who thinks too well of me—will make me vain, and that—”
+
+“Impossible, dear. By the way, I hear that Clarence Lighthed comes to
+see you occasionally now, and—”
+
+“Not oftener than once in twenty-four hours, dear.”
+
+“Yes. And really he has been so devoted to so many girls that—”
+
+“It is a wonder that he has never thought of _you_! Why so it is, now
+that I think of it. But never mind, there may be a chance for you yet.
+Pardon me, you were about to repeat something you had heard about me,
+and I’m afraid I interrupted you.”
+
+“Was I? Dear me, I have quite forgotten what it was; nothing very
+important, I’m sure.”
+
+“Very true. By the way, I heard something about _you_ the other day,
+too. It was extremely complimentary—so much so indeed, that you will
+think I am trying to flatter you, if I repeat it.”
+
+“Indeed? Oh, I remember now what I was about to tell you. It was—so you
+really heard something nice about poor little me?”
+
+“Yes, I really did. I’ll tell you after you have finished your story. I
+really must not interrupt you again.”
+
+“Yes, Ja—I mean the man I know—said the other day that he thought
+you—now you mustn’t mind this, at all, Dorothy; I told him at once that
+nobody else had ever said such a thing of you.”
+
+“How kind of you to champion me, dear; I really did not expect it.”
+
+“Oh, yes; I often do it. He said—I wouldn’t repeat it to you, but the
+absurdity of the charge takes all the sting out of it. He said, ‘I
+consider Dorothy Darling the most heartless flirt I ever knew!’ Isn’t
+it too funny!” and she burst into a peal of laughter.
+
+The blue-eyed girl paused to pat a little dog before she replied: “How
+well you do tell a story, Frances, dear. Look at that poor, old blind
+man over yonder; let us cross over and give him some pennies,” and she
+was almost dancing as she crossed the street.
+
+“Perhaps he is an impostor, after all,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “By
+the way, you said somebody paid me a nice compliment the other day. Do
+tell me what it was, and if I ever get the chance—be it twenty years
+from now—I’ll do the same for you.”
+
+“Oh, yes, indeed. Old Miss Lucy Brownsmith said to me, only the other
+day, ‘Really, Frances is quite a nice-looking girl now that she has
+given up lacing so tightly.’ I knew you would be so pleased. Well,
+here we are at the Club; I am afraid that I must have walked too fast
+for you, dear; you look quite flushed.”
+
+“Oh, Emily, dear,” she whispered, as she embraced her friend in the
+cloak room, “Jack is wild with jealousy! He told Frances the other day
+that I was the most heartless flirt he ever knew!”
+
+“Then, he is ready to go half-way toward making up! Oh, I am so glad
+that I—”
+
+“Half-way? Do you suppose, Emily Marshmallow, that after allowing
+Clarence Lighthed to bore me almost to death for two weeks, I shall be
+willing to go half-way to make up with Jack?”
+
+“But you said the other day that unless you _did_ make up with him, you
+would learn to be a trained nurse and devote your life to others, and I
+thought—”
+
+“Never mind what I said the other day—that was before I knew how
+jealous Jack was. And all I’ve got to say, is this: if you expect me
+to make a fright of myself in a gray cloak and bonnet and cotton gown
+just to please _you_, you are very much mistaken!”
+
+The girl with the eyeglasses put her head in at the door, “Come into
+the club-room right away, girls,” she said. “Evelyn is here, and she
+has something of the greatest importance to tell us.”
+
+The president was evidently excited as she called the meeting to order.
+“I am just as angry as I can be,” she said. “What do you think I found
+in my mail to-day? A letter from a man who is old enough to know
+better, suggesting a topic for discussion by this club. That topic was,
+‘The Best Method of Keeping the Hat on Straight.’”
+
+“You don’t say so!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, it only
+shows that our mental advancement has made him uneasy.”
+
+“Of course,” said the president. “Then, as if that was not enough,
+he suggests a small mirror fastened to the inside of an umbrella or
+parasol as—”
+
+“Pshaw!” said the brown-eyed blonde, “a highly polished silver handle
+answers the same purpose and attracts less attention.”
+
+“Talk about hats,” said the girl with the classic profile, “men are
+just as fussy about their own. Did you ever see anybody put on a man’s
+hat to suit him?”
+
+“Never,” said the president. “I had an awful time when Tom’s arm was
+broken. I would put on his hat as carefully as I could—he always would
+tip it too far back himself—and yet, each time he would remove it, look
+suspiciously into the crown, and put it on again himself.”
+
+“As if it makes any difference how a man looks, anyhow,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “So long as they are nice and generous, no girl
+cares—”
+
+“Very true,” broke in the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and it
+is frequently the pocket of a last year’s overcoat which harbors the
+largest box of candy.”
+
+“I should like to know how a man manages to keep his hat on without
+veil or pins,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“He doesn’t always do it in a high wind,” said the girl with the
+classic profile.
+
+“And yet he always wonders why a woman holds her hat on when she is
+driving,” remarked the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“You know what a fuss men always make about big theater hats,” said
+the president. “Well, thinking to please Tom, I got a tiny bonnet,
+which was so becoming that it attracted as much attention as a regular
+mountain of feathers and velvet.”
+
+“And wasn’t he pleased?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Not when the bill came in, and he found that it cost rather more
+than a large hat. I said that he ought to be content to pay for the
+principle of a thing. He replied that it looked as if the interest was
+all about all he could afford. I suppose he thought that was sarcastic.”
+
+“Men have such queer ideas of humor, anyhow,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “why, I know a man who once laughed heartily at a
+joke on himself.”
+
+“Perhaps he owed money to the man who made it, or wanted his vote for
+something,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Well, I’d like to know who first invented hat-pins,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I am sure it was not a woman, because—”
+
+“It was a man, and he was either an old bachelor or a bigamist,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I had two pins running straight into my
+scalp all during service on Sunday. Dick was with me, too, and it was
+so hard to look saintly when—”
+
+“Men always ask why we don’t tie our hats on, when we complain of
+pins,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Wouldn’t we
+look nice with our jaws tied up like those of a small boy with the
+toothache?”
+
+“To say nothing of having our hearing so impaired that we couldn’t be
+sure whether compliments whispered into our ears were intended for us
+or were merely remarks made about other girls,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.
+
+“Well, girls,” said the president, “I see you all resent it, as I do;
+and I’m just going to write that horrid man a letter telling him that
+the Teacup Club has too many serious topics to discuss to waste time
+upon anything relating to millinery.”
+
+“Speaking of millinery,” said the blue-eyed girl, “did you ever see
+anything as sweet as the new hats! I went with Elizabeth to select the
+ones for her trousseau the other day, and it did seem hard to me that
+a girl only has a chance _once_ in her life to buy as many hats as she
+really wants, and—”
+
+“Not to mention the fact that it is just at the time when she is so
+much interested in her future husband that she can’t give her whole
+mind to the subject,” broke in the girl with the eyeglasses. “Now, if
+she could only choose her trousseau a year after her marriage, instead
+of before.”
+
+“Yes; or even six months,” said the president. “Well, my new hat
+must cost five dollars less than I had hoped. I borrowed that amount
+from Tom last month; and—will you believe it?—he took it out of my
+allowance for this month, in spite of the fact that I told him I had
+spent it for his birthday present.”
+
+“But why didn’t you take it out of your housekeeping allowance? You
+usually do,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Because I had already taken enough for a half-dozen pairs of gloves
+out of that. It happened that he had not given a single stag dinner
+during the month, so I could not filch too much without discovery. When
+he gives a dinner, I can always pay myself well for the trouble of it.
+If he complains of the bills, I just say, ‘Yes, dear, I see that we
+cannot afford any more stag dinners,’ and that settles it at once,” she
+added.
+
+“I should think it would,” said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully. “Did
+you tell Tom how mean you thought it of him to expect you to pay back
+money that you had borrowed?”
+
+“I did. I said, ‘I wouldn’t be as selfish as you are for anything!’”
+
+“And did that make him feel badly? I should think so.”
+
+“Not a bit. You don’t know Tom; he just laughed as if it was funny.
+Luckily, I had given him a silk umbrella for his birthday, and as he
+has two already, and this one is—er rather small, I shall get a good
+deal of use out of it myself.”
+
+“And you hadn’t one at all, had you?” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I remember the day you lost yours.”
+
+“Yes. Wasn’t it nice of me to buy one for him when I really needed it
+for myself? But one can’t expect a man to appreciate generosity.”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “what do you
+think I heard to-day?”
+
+“I don’t know what _you_ heard,” said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“but I heard that Clarence Lighthed has just inherited a fortune from
+an uncle whom he had never seen! You know he is my cousin, and—”
+
+“Have you just heard that,” said the blue-eyed girl, “He told _me_
+about it a week ago—the day you said he was stupid, Emily. I knew at
+the time that you would feel badly when you discovered that it was
+only—er—grief for the death of his uncle, which made him so quiet and
+thoughtful. Poor fellow, it must have been _such_ a shock to him!”
+
+“How kind of you to comfort him in his sorrow,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, in sarcastic tones.
+
+“Yes, dear—especially as he could have his choice of comforters. I
+think you said that you, too, have a piece of news, Emily.”
+
+“Why—er—yes, I heard that Effie Bittersweet is on the verge of nervous
+prostration.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl said never a word; she looked out of the window
+opposite her, and there was a soft, sweet smile on her face. Perhaps
+she failed to see the glances that were exchanged by the others.
+
+“Oh, girls, have you heard the awful thing that happened to me
+yesterday?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses. “No? Then, I had
+better tell you all about it myself. I had an engagement with Harry;
+we were to call on his aunt who lives in Rogers Park—nothing very
+exciting, you know. Well, Mr. Doolittle came in early to ask me if I
+wouldn’t go to the matinée with him. Now, I knew Harry would take me to
+see his aunt any day, and Mr. Doolittle might never ask me to go to the
+matinée again, so I accepted his invitation at once.”
+
+“You would have been very stupid if you hadn’t,” said the president.
+
+“So I thought. Then, I told him that I must stop in at the drug store
+and send off a telephone message. You see, I didn’t want to give Harry
+all the trouble of coming up in vain.”
+
+“You are always so thoughtful,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I try to be. I called Harry up, but he was not in, and I told the
+office-boy to tell him that I was ill, and could not go with him to
+Rogers Park, but hoped to be out in a day or two. The boy was as stupid
+as he could be; I had to repeat the message twice, and even spell my
+name. Oh, it was awful!”
+
+“What? his stupidity?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No; my own. As I was going out, the clerk stopped me, and said, ‘You
+needn’t have taken all that trouble, Miss Marion; you were telephoning
+to Mr. Vansmith, weren’t you? Well, that was he that just went out;
+he was standing about three feet away from you all the time you were
+trying to make the person at the other end of the line understand!’”
+
+“Well, I hope your father is satisfied _now_,” said the president. “You
+have been trying to get him to put in a telephone all winter.”
+
+“Humph; you don’t know my father very well, dear. When I told him about
+it, he only said that he was more fully satisfied than ever that women
+were not to be trusted with telephones!”
+
+“Then there was that horrid drug clerk,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “why didn’t he stop you when Harry came in, instead of
+letting you—”
+
+“The fact is, that I knew he was trying to attract my attention all the
+time, but I thought that it was only somebody else who wanted to use
+the telephone in a hurry, and I took my own good time.”
+
+“He might have known you would have done that,” said the girl with
+the classic profile. “Girls, I often wonder why drug clerks are such
+gloomy, misanthropic creatures?”
+
+“Dear knows,” said the president; “I’ve often noticed it, though.
+And how cross a clerk in a shoe store always is! Strange, too, when
+they have such light, easy work. I tried on seventeen pairs of boots
+only yesterday, and I never was so tired in all my life; yet I was as
+amiable as possible, and the clerk, who had nothing to do but wait
+on me, was so rude that I thought seriously of having the proprietor
+in to hear of it. However, I compromised by going out without buying
+anything.”
+
+“It was very good of you, I’m sure,” said the blue-eyed girl. “You
+know Marie sends to Paris for all her shoes. I never saw such beauties
+in all my life as she wears.”
+
+“H’m. I know she _says_ so,” returned the girl with the Roman nose,
+“but—look here, if I tell you something, will you promise never to tell
+it as long as you live? Well, then, I spent the day with Marie last
+week. She had a lovely new pair of shoes, and I tried my best, without
+asking directly, you know, to find the name of the Parisian boot-maker,
+and how much she paid for them.”
+
+“Of course you didn’t find out,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “Marie can be as impervious to a hint as a man.”
+
+“M’hm. Well, she got ready to go out with me, and just as we were ready
+to start she was called out of the room. Her boots were all in the
+closet, and I—well, somehow I just happened to be near the door, it was
+ajar, and I stooped down to look at the maker’s name on them, when—oh,
+girls, the door behind me suddenly flew open!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, it was Marie herself! What did—”
+
+“No, it was the maid. She said: ‘Will you please tell Miss Marie, when
+she comes in, that Cashly has sent up for the pair of boots she didn’t
+take. The boy is waiting in the hall.’”
+
+“Well, I never,” said the blue-eyed girl. “But I’ve always said that if
+I sent to Paris for my boots I’d have better looking ones than _she_
+gets!”
+
+“But then Marie gets a great deal for her money, dear, even if the
+boots themselves are not of a superior quality,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.
+
+“Very true. By the way, who went to Marie’s tea yesterday?” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin; “I did not. Since the founding of
+this club I have cared less and less for gossip and society, and—”
+
+“Then you didn’t mind not receiving an invitation to Marie’s after
+all!” said the brown-eyed blonde. “I must tell her that. She said
+yesterday that she didn’t expect you to speak to her for a month.”
+
+“By the way,” said the girl with the Roman nose, hastily, “Dick made
+rather a good suggestion yesterday. He said why not have a phonograph,
+or even a stenographer, in the room while we are discussing a topic;
+then we could have copies made, and—”
+
+“That reminds me,” said the president, and she rapped loudly for order.
+“Girls, do be quiet. We have a very important question to decide
+to-day. A number of men have expressed a desire to become members of
+this club, and—”
+
+“I vote against it,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “We can all
+express our real opinions now, knowing they will go no further,
+whereas—”
+
+“No club man can ever keep a secret,” broke in the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “As for us, we would die rather than divulge—”
+
+“They are so curious, too,” broke in the girl with the classic profile.
+“We have all talked so much about our meetings that they want to know
+how they are conducted, that is all.”
+
+“Yes, that is just it,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “and once in they
+would spoil all the originality of it by having rules and all that.
+Then they’d go away and say that we couldn’t get along without them.”
+
+“The idea!” said the president, “when that’s the very reason I set our
+time of meeting in the afternoon!”
+
+“Look here,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “of course we don’t
+want to offend them. Why not have a ‘man’s day’ once in a while?”
+
+“So we might,” said the president; “but we had better wait until we get
+all our new things. Well, I suppose, since we are all agreed, that we
+had better not waste time in voting on it. I’m awfully glad to see you
+here, Elise; I was afraid you would not be able to come.”
+
+“Oh, I was determined not to miss it,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “I left word for them to tell the doctor I was asleep if he
+called in my absence. I have been troubled with insomnia, you know, and
+he would tell them not to disturb me. Of course, he gave me strict
+orders not to go out, but he—”
+
+“Will never know that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh, such a time as
+I had last fall when I was ill! You see, papa was going to make me go
+to Philadelphia to stay with old Aunt Borely. I—I was not very well,
+anyhow, so I took to my bed.”
+
+“Yes, and you had that nice young doctor, too,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Oh, why am I so brutally healthy!”
+
+“I did, and he cured me of my particular ailment,” went on the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I had a most becoming light in the room the first
+time he called, and what do you think he did? Pulled every window-shade
+up to the top, until I looked a perfect fright—and he young enough to
+know better!”
+
+“Pshaw!” said the girl with the classic profile. “All doctors are
+horrid. Why, I once had such a handsome one that he sent my pulse away
+up every time he felt it. I did look so horrid that one day I—I put on
+a little rouge just before he came. In consequence he said I had a
+high fever, and put me on a milk-and-water diet for three days, besides
+giving me—”
+
+“Like the mean thing I had last year,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I had a cough, and wanted a trip to Florida; instead, I got
+a pair of overshoes, a lot of flannels, and a mackintosh.”
+
+“Of course,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, I don’t believe
+my doctor is a good one; he—”
+
+“Is too ugly to be a really good one, anyhow,” broke in the blue-eyed
+girl. “Fancy being delirious, and seeing that creature enter the room!”
+
+“By the way,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I wonder why
+ugly men are always having their photographs taken and expecting one to
+keep them hanging up where one can see them constantly!”
+
+“Perhaps,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “they hope it may be a case of
+
+    “But seen too oft, familiar with its face,
+     We first endure, then pity, then”——
+
+No, I don’t mean that,” she broke off, blushing.
+
+“I should hope not,” said the blue-eyed girl, in shocked tones. “I
+should be sorry to think that any member of this club—”
+
+“The very queen of clubs,” broke in the president; “that is what Tom
+calls it—when he is in a particularly good humor, I mean. I think we
+had better adjourn now,” she added; “Elise really ought not to be
+out late, and I am wild to tell Tom that men will not be admitted to
+membership. Doesn’t the doctor do that pain in your chest any good,
+Elise?”
+
+“You don’t suppose that I told him anything about that, do you?” cried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I hope I am not so silly as that—with
+Elizabeth’s wedding coming off in a week, and my lovely low-cut gown
+all ready to wear to it!”
+
+“Just wait one moment,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+haven’t got to-day’s topic down in my note-book. What did you say it
+was, Evelyn?”
+
+“Oh, my goodness!” cried the president, turning pale, “here we have
+had a meeting, and I have forgotten to suggest any topic—and not one of
+you thought to remind me of it! Oh, I am afraid that all my efforts to
+advance you intellectually are wasted, after all!”
+
+“Never mind,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “this has been an
+executive meeting, anyhow.”
+
+“Why, so it has,” said the president, kissing her; “what a comfort you
+are, Marion dear. Tom’s handsome cousin is coming home from Montana
+next week with a lot of money, and you shall be the very first girl to
+have an introduction to him!”
+
+“Have you seen Jack Bittersweet lately?” asked the girl with the
+eyeglasses, as she linked her arm in that of the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, after the meeting had dissolved.
+
+“Yes, he came to see me yesterday. I was in agony all the time he was
+there, lest Dorothy come in. I knew she would never believe that it was
+the first time he had done it since they quarreled!”
+
+“Of course she wouldn’t. Did he ask your advice?”
+
+“Yes. So does she—but neither of them take it.”
+
+“You don’t expect that, I hope. Well, did you find out if he still
+cares for her?”
+
+“He does. I sat on the sofa, in my prettiest house-gown, and he took a
+chair six feet away. He didn’t even tell me that fewer men would go to
+the dogs if there were more women like me in the world!”
+
+“Well, I only hope that they will soon come to their senses, that’s
+all. Dorothy looks like a ghost, and as for Jack—”
+
+“If they don’t,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, savagely,
+“I shall just have to spend a month or two in a sanatarium. And I’m not
+sure that that will save my life,” she added.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+On the Use and Abuse of Political Power
+
+
+“The absurdity of some people!” said the president, pausing as she
+was about to call the meeting to order. “What excuse do you suppose
+Elizabeth gave for not asking me to look at her pretty things? She said
+she fancied I had grown too intellectual to care for gowns and hats!”
+
+“How ridiculous! She had probably heard that you do not intend to send
+her a wedding present,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“I haven’t told a soul but the members of this club that I shouldn’t
+give her one,” said the president.
+
+“Then she couldn’t possibly know it,” said the blue-eyed girl, hastily.
+
+“What enrages _me_, is the insinuation that I have ceased to care for
+pretty things, just because I study politics, and—er—other things. I
+don’t see why intellectuality has anything to do with doing up one’s
+hair with three hairpins, or—”
+
+“Wearing gowns which are frayed around the bottom,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “neither do I. And, yet they seem to be somehow
+connected in people’s minds.”
+
+“Very true,” said the president. “Girls, the editor of a literary
+journal has asked for some of the papers which have been read before
+this club. He says—”
+
+“Mercy, what answer shall you make?” cried the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.
+
+“I told him that I could not think of such a thing. I always disliked
+notoriety. It was very kind of him, though, and he even offered to let
+the authors of the papers have copies of their effusions at reduced
+rates, provided they took over a hundred.”
+
+“Which, of course, they would,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Well, you
+were quite right to refuse, Evelyn. I, for one, have such a horror of
+publicity, and, besides, it would be quite expensive sending copies to
+all one’s acquaintances.”
+
+“True,” said the president; “we are all in accord, as usual. Let us
+discuss, ‘The Use and Abuse of Political Power,’ to-day. It is a
+subject which is of the greatest importance to all of us, and—”
+
+“How do you spell ‘political?’ With one _t_ or two?” asked the girl
+with the eyeglasses, as she opened her note-book.
+
+“With one—no, two. Pshaw, I can’t remember. Just write it indistinctly.”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy,” whispered the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I saw
+Dick this morning, and he says Jack told him yesterday that he didn’t
+really know what your quarrel was about, but he meant to go and see you
+to-day, and ask you to forgive him!”
+
+“I shall,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and I don’t mind confessing to
+you, Emily, that I, too, may have been just the merest possible bit in
+the wrong. I’ve felt it right along, but I couldn’t admit it, until he—
+What shall I wear when he comes to see me?”
+
+“You might wear the blue gown he always admires so much.”
+
+“So I might. You know I wore a blue gown the day he asked me to marry
+him, and he said I must keep it always. Of course, this isn’t the same
+one, but I am careful to have each succeeding one the same color, and
+he doesn’t know the difference. Perhaps I have told you this before.”
+
+“I think you have, dear—once or twice,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, demurely.
+
+“Yes. I don’t mind letting you know, Emily, that I have missed him a
+good deal. Why, I had his photograph—the one I pretended to have lost,
+so I needn’t send it back—out when you knocked at my door to-day. You
+couldn’t have helped seeing me thrust it under Clover’s cushion, if you
+hadn’t thought something was wrong with your boot heel, and stooped
+down to see.”
+
+“You don’t say so. Well, all I’ve got to say is, I wish I might see
+Frances’ face at the wedding!”
+
+“You shall, dear. I’ll ask her to be bridesmaid, and you, as maid
+of honor, can have a good chance to watch her. You have been such a
+faithful friend to both Jack and myself that you deserve at least that
+much satisfaction.”
+
+“Look here, Emily and Dorothy, I am afraid you are not attending
+strictly to the discussion,” said the president. “The topic is—
+Frances, what on earth has made you so late?”
+
+“It was all an accident,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “I stopped
+for you, Dorothy, on my way to the club. The maid said you had gone
+already, and I was just coming away when I noticed that your little
+dog—what is his name? Rover? Ah, Clover! I knew it was something like
+that—was chewing something at the back of the hall! I went to see what
+it was, and—”
+
+“Oh, my goodness gracious! Not my new sixteen-button gloves,” wailed
+the blue-eyed girl. “I’ll give that dog away to-morrow!”
+
+“No, dear, not your gloves. It was a photograph. Just as I was trying
+to get the pieces away from him, Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—came up the
+steps with a huge bunch of violets. He must have seen me standing in
+the hall; you know the door was open.”
+
+“Yes, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “that checked
+gown of yours speaks for itself!”
+
+“I—ah, where was I? Oh—he succeeded in getting the fragments away
+and—really, it was too funny! It turned out to be a photograph of
+himself! I told him that I was almost sure that you didn’t give it to
+the dog purposely, Dorothy; but I am afraid I didn’t quite convince
+him.”
+
+“Indeed; and where are the violets?” asked the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “you don’t seem to be wearing them!”
+
+“Why, er—no. Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—threw them at the dog. You will
+find them right by the stairway, Dorothy, dear; but I’m afraid they are
+not in very good condition. What is to-day’s topic, Evelyn?”
+
+“‘The Use and Abuse of Political Power,’” said the president, in a
+faint voice. “Will somebody open the window, please; I need air!”
+
+“Oh, Evelyn,” said the girl with the Roman nose, after the president
+had announced that she felt better, “I do hope you are not sitting up
+at night studying, and that sort of thing.”
+
+“Why, er—no, I believe not. The fact is I’ve been going to a good many
+dances of late on Tom’s account.”
+
+“But Tom doesn’t go, does he?”
+
+“No. B—but everybody knows how fond of dancing I am; and if I didn’t
+go they would say he kept me at home. I don’t want Tom to pose as a
+tyrant, you know!”
+
+“Of course not. You—”
+
+“Yes. The only thing which makes me feel uncomfortable is the angelic
+way in which he bears my absence. It isn’t like Tom, and—”
+
+“Clarence—my cousin you know—was saying only the other day, that he
+thought you an angel to allow Tom and his friends to smoke in the
+drawing-room, just because you happened to be out,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I wonder if that—”
+
+“To smoke in the drawing-room!” shrieked the president, turning
+pale. “I’ll go home this minute, and tell him what I think of such a
+proceeding. No, I won’t, either; he is at the office, and it would not
+do any good! I never suspected such a thing and—”
+
+“Oh, well, then the smoke couldn’t have done the rugs and curtains much
+harm, after all, if you never noticed the odor.”
+
+“It’s the principle of the thing, my dear. What hurts me, is the fact
+that my husband respects my wishes so little, when I only go to dances
+to keep people from thinking ill of him, too! Well, one thing sure,
+I’ll have all new curtains and carpets—since mine are ruined with
+smoke—if he keeps on talking about hard times until he is black in the
+face!”
+
+“I wonder why men are always talking about hard times,” said the girl
+with the classic profile; “women never say anything about them.”
+
+“Unless they are driven to it,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “My sister’s husband wanted to have his mother come for a nice,
+long visit, but she told him that she hardly thought they could afford
+it in such hard times. You see he had just made that excuse for not
+doing up the house.”
+
+“With the result?” queried the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“That he decided to have the house done up at once! And, after all, the
+old lady only stayed about a week. Helen says she can’t imagine why she
+went, unless, she was offended at her suggestion that she might like to
+take a course at the cooking-school while she was here.”
+
+“Well, I don’t blame Helen, at all,” said the blue-eyed girl. “No man
+has a right to be dyspeptic before he is married, and her husband was.
+Everybody ought to have a fair chance, and Helen’s cooking might not
+have given it to him for years.”
+
+“At any rate, he can’t blame _her_ for his dyspepsia—and that is
+something,” said the president. “Girls, does any one know why Josephine
+has given up her lessons at the cooking school?”
+
+“I suppose she has made one really good loaf of bread, and doesn’t want
+to tempt fate again,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“That is not the reason,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “she is
+engaged to a man who knows how to cook, so there is no use for her to
+waste any more time over it. She is studying political economy now.”
+
+“And a very good thing, too,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “for the way money is wasted on elections, is really shocking!”
+
+“Hear! hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose. “Of course I don’t
+want to have men as members of this club, but I can’t help wishing
+sometimes that a few of them might hear Emily and Evelyn when they are
+attacking political abuses and monopolies.”
+
+“For my part, I don’t see why they haven’t thrust the privilege of
+suffrage upon us long ago,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Then
+they would have somebody to blame, when civic and national affairs go
+wrong!”
+
+“Pshaw,” said the president, “that isn’t necessary at all. They can
+come home and scold because dinner is late, or the hall gas is unlit,
+and so relieve their feelings just the same.”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t want to vote,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “It is ever so much nicer to do as the men do with our
+housekeeping—just criticise that which we can never display our
+ignorance by attempting to do ourselves.”
+
+“That is only your sweet modesty, dear,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “What do you think Mr. Bonds said the other day! Ah, I was so
+indignant! He said it was a mistake to say that women could not throw
+stones.”
+
+“I don’t see why you were indignant at that,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “It seems to me—”
+
+“It wasn’t that. It was what came afterward. He said he knew it was a
+libel for they could—at each other! And every man in the room laughed
+as if he had said something clever!”
+
+“I declare,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “it is enough to make a
+man-hater of me. If only people would not say that it was because of
+some particular man who failed to admire me—”
+
+“There is no danger of it being laid to the door of any _one_ man in
+your case, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Is that your new gown that
+you are wearing to-day, Frances, dear?”
+
+“Why, yes. Quite a novelty, isn’t it. How do you like it?”
+
+“Very much indeed, dear. I stopped and looked at it hanging in the
+cleaner’s window the other day, and thought how well it looked. You
+remember, don’t you, Dorothy, my calling your attention to it?” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Quite well. I thought at the time that it was well she had not
+attempted to clean it herself. By the way, Helen’s little boy said such
+a clever thing the other day. We were speaking of favorite perfumes,
+and how nice it was to always use the same one, and he said: ‘I know
+what is Miss Frances’ favorite perfume. Her gloves always smell of it.’
+‘And what is it?’ Helen asked. ‘Gasoline,’ said the dear little fellow.
+Did you ever hear anything so clever in your life?”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily, “speaking of gloves: I had
+a letter from Pauline the other day, and such a heart-rending thing
+had occurred to her. A nice man was buttoning her gloves one day, and
+he said she had the hand of a fairy—Pauline seemed to think that an
+original remark.”
+
+“Perhaps it was the first time she had ever had it said to her,”
+replied the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Um—perhaps it was. She said carelessly, ‘Do you think so? Why, I
+consider it quite large. I wear a number six.’ She was sorry for that
+afterward.”
+
+“I suppose he looked in the other glove, and—saw that she had made a
+mistake,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No, dear. But, shortly after that, they made a bet of a dozen pairs
+of gloves, and Pauline won. Oddly enough, she didn’t know it until the
+gloves arrived. They were number six, and—”
+
+“Pshaw, she could exchange them for a larger size; he would never know
+the difference,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Not in this case, dear. He had had her monogram embroidered on the top
+of each pair. And now he is offended that she does not wear them!”
+
+“How exactly like a man,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Now, I have too high a regard for truth to—”
+
+“Waste it on such a little thing as that? I know,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Well, I hope Pauline’s mishap will be a warning to you.”
+
+“She might say that she could not accept such a gift from a masculine
+friend,” thoughtfully suggested the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“But she had thanked him very prettily, and said they were just her
+size, and how did he know it? before she discovered that she could not
+exchange them! Oh, I just don’t see any way out of it. I told Tom about
+it, and he said, ‘Pshaw, let her tell him the truth, and be done with
+it.’ And yet Tom is very clever—for a man.”
+
+“Indeed he is,” said the blue-eyed girl, warmly, “he is one of the few
+people who always understands a joke when I tell it. Just because I
+leave out a little bit of it, some people—”
+
+“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the classic profile, “I’ve been
+waiting for a good chance to tell you that Eunice is married!”
+
+“Is it possible?” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I remember that
+she always said people ought to know each other very well before they
+_were_ married. That was why she went for a long visit to that Kansas
+girl whose brother was so much in love with her. She married _him_, I
+suppose.”
+
+“Why—er—no. You see, he asked her, and she said she could not give him
+an answer until she concluded her visit. They would know each other
+much better then.”
+
+“And she refused him, after all?” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Well, no. For some reason he failed to renew his offer, after her
+visit was over. She had known the man she married exactly three weeks
+when they became engaged.”
+
+“And the engagement lasted?”
+
+“Just a month, dear. And she was so busy all the time with the
+trousseau that she hardly had time for a word with him.”
+
+“Perhaps it was just as well,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Has the man
+she married any money?”
+
+“I suppose so. He was thirty-four, and a bachelor. A very poor man
+would have married long before he was as old as that. By the way,
+speaking of the abuse of political power, Mr. Dickenharry tells Nell
+that if he is really elected to the office he hopes for, she will have
+to ask all sorts of people to her receptions, in order that—”
+
+“And what did Nell reply to that?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Oh, she just smiled and let it go. It will be much easier to manage
+all that after they are married. She says he is so busy now that she
+doesn’t like to thwart him unnecessarily. Nell is always so thoughtful
+of the feelings of others.”
+
+“Indeed she is,” said the president. “Anyhow if she is obliged to ask
+all those awful people to her receptions, she can snub them thoroughly
+if they accept. Oh, she is just the ideal wife for a politician; how
+she will help him!”
+
+“That is just what she says herself,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin, “and she also says that she wants to join this club as soon
+as her trousseau is off her mind. She thinks our debates on political
+subjects will be of great benefit to her. In the meantime, she wants me
+to make notes of the discussions, and let her have them.”
+
+“Yes, and let Mr. Dickenharry make use of all our original ideas in his
+speeches!” cried the president, hotly. “I am surprised at you, Emily,
+for—”
+
+“Oh, I didn’t say I meant to do it, dear; I only said she wanted me to.
+It is so much easier to promise a thing, and then forget it, you know.
+Girls, I went to see dear old Mrs. Pepperly yesterday, and—”
+
+“What, that cross, disagreeable woman!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.
+“What on earth made you do such a thing?”
+
+“Oh, I always liked her, dear. When I got there, I was _so_ surprised.
+Her son is home from Mexico on a visit, and—”
+
+“Why, don’t you remember, Emily, I told you that on Sunday?” said the
+president. “I mentioned that he had made a lot of money there, and—”
+
+“How strange of me to forget it; I believe I do remember it now. We
+used to be quite friends before he went away, too; which makes it all
+the stranger. Do you know, I’m afraid I shall have to accept one of
+those lovely Mexican opals he brought with him, or hurt his feelings!
+I’d hate to do that, too, when I haven’t seen him for so long.”
+
+“By the way, what is Mrs. Pepperly’s number?” asked the brown-eyed
+blonde. “I—I have been meaning to call on her for ever so long. What a
+clever, original woman she is!”
+
+“Yes, do go. She said she expected you would come to see her now.
+I’m afraid you will not have an opportunity to see the opals though.
+Her son has given all the rest of them to her, and they are at the
+jeweler’s being set. And, by the way, he insisted so that I had to let
+him have mine set for me. I don’t know what Dick will say, but really
+I could not hurt the feelings of such an old friend by refusing—and of
+course he knows nothing of Dick!”
+
+“For my part, I consider opals unlucky,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I wouldn’t wear one for anything!”
+
+“I’ve heard others say the same thing, dear,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “but luckily they were people who were not
+likely to have the chance! So far as I am concerned, the good luck
+of receiving such a handsome present will quite overbalance anything
+unpleasant which might follow!”
+
+“Nobody ever had such ill luck as I have, and I never owned an opal
+in my life,” wailed the girl with the classic profile. “You know how
+unpleasant my Aunt Clara is, don’t you? Well, the poor old soul seemed
+so lonely in that great big house that I asked her to make me a nice
+long visit, knowing that she intended to go abroad soon, and—”
+
+“She might take you along. Good!” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“Did she accept?”
+
+“She did. Said she would stay three whole months. At the end of that
+time, she expects to marry a delicate clergyman with three grown
+daughters, and take the whole party to Europe.”
+
+“And that is all the compensation you receive for thinking of others!”
+cried the girl with the Roman nose. “Shall you let her come?”
+
+“I shall not. I shall tell her that unless she hears from me within two
+weeks, she may know that I am down with a threatened attack of scarlet
+fever. She has a horror of illness, and wild horses couldn’t drag her
+here after that. But I shall have an exciting time with my sire, if he
+ever finds it out!”
+
+“Humph, your father may never find it out,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses; “and if he did, you could simply say that you really
+thought you were getting scarlet fever, and only concealed the fact
+from him to save him anxiety.”
+
+“Pardon me, but you forget that I am a younger daughter. Papa has
+already had so much experience with my sisters that I have to be very
+careful in my explanations. This thing of being the third daughter is
+as bad as marrying a widower—worse, for that is voluntary.”
+
+“Not always—on the part of the widower,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+“Dear, dear, how queer some things are! I know a pair of twins, and one
+of them is called an old maid, the other a young widow. If anybody can
+explain—”
+
+“Pshaw, I know a brother and sister who have hair of the same identical
+shade. He is called red-headed while she is a Titian blonde,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“And I went to school with a girl who was always called snub-nosed
+by everybody but the man she married,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “he said her nose was ‘tip-tilted, like the petal of a
+flower.’ Can you explain that?”
+
+“Yes,” said the president, shortly, “she has money. Oh, girls, I went
+to the photographer’s last week, and I haven’t had the courage even
+to snub my sister-in-law since I got the proofs. Indeed, sometimes I
+almost feel grateful to Tom for marrying me—though of course I don’t
+let him know that. You have no idea how I felt when—”
+
+“Oh, yes, I have,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a shudder. “I once
+knew an awfully nice man, who turned out to be an amateur photographer.
+He took two hundred and seventy-five pictures of me one summer, and I
+used to know just who my enemies were. They would pretend that they
+recognized me in them all!”
+
+“That’s nothing,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I once
+appeared as Cinderella at a charity entertainment, and an amateur
+photographer took a picture of me in costume. My foot was thrust
+forward, and oh, girls, it looked the size of a pumpkin. And the
+photographer actually took credit to himself because the face was an
+excellent likeness!”
+
+“I was once photographed by an amateur,” said the brown-eyed blonde;
+“he said my picture was his masterpiece. I always keep it on my
+dressing table during Lent,” she added.
+
+“I once knew an amateur photographer quite well,” said the girl with
+classic profile, “but for each photograph he took of me I made one of
+him!”
+
+“With the result—” said the president.
+
+“That he gladly bartered his collection for mine. Somehow, we haven’t
+been very good friends since. I often think things might have turned
+out very differently if he hadn’t bought that camera;” and she sighed,
+softly.
+
+“Well, girls,” said the president, “I am afraid that we must adjourn,
+though I had hoped we might find time for a social session after
+the day’s work was concluded. However, I promised both Tom and the
+dressmaker that I’d meet them at five o’clock. She won’t wait, and he
+will; so I—”
+
+“But why not make him go to the dressmaker’s with you,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Because I want to tell him just what I think of his behavior—smoking
+in the drawing-room, just because I happened to be out. If he once
+heard Madame contradict me in the way she does, I could never hope to
+produce any impression on him again.”
+
+Emily and Dorothy walked home in silence, and the former noticed, with
+alarm, that Dorothy did not attempt to protect her skirts from the mud.
+When they reached her door, she turned and said:
+
+“If I am not here when you come to-morrow, you may know that I have
+gone to take up social settlement work, and devote my time to the poor.
+If you never see me again, you may know that I forgive all my enemies.
+It may make Frances feel better, though I must say that she does not
+deserve it.”
+
+“And Jack, dear; what shall I say to him?”
+
+“If it is any comfort to him, you might say that I do not regret
+my fruitless efforts to make peace with him. I hope you will think
+of me sometimes at work among the poor and the afflicted. And now,
+good-bye—perhaps forever!”
+
+Emily had walked perhaps a block, when she heard her name called once
+more.
+
+“Yes, what is it,” she said.
+
+“If you know any one who wants a nice little dog, send him to me. I—”
+
+“What! You surely don’t mean Clover?”
+
+“I just do. After what has happened to-day, I never want to see the
+little beast again! And, Emily—!”
+
+“Yes, dear.”
+
+“If you were in my place, would you wear the blue or the geranium pink
+gown at the dance to-night?”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+Woman as a Parliamentarian
+
+
+“Oh, dear me,” said the president, “I don’t see why men can never
+understand things.”
+
+“H’m,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Are we to understand that you have
+just discovered that fact?”
+
+“Of course not,” said the president, “but I’ve just had an argument
+with my husband—that’s why I am late to-day, girls. He will insist that
+this club ought to have a constitution and by-laws, and a lot of other
+unnecessary things, in spite of the fact that we get along nicely just
+as well without them.”
+
+“I suppose he would like to draft them for us,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “That is always the way with men. When they see
+women doing anything well they always want to come in, and take the
+credit of it.”
+
+“So they do,” said the girl with the classic profile. “I suppose he
+would want us to have parliamentary rules, too—as if anybody would obey
+them! Anyhow, it is only a man who can do but one thing at a time. I
+suppose it is necessary in a club of men that only one person have the
+floor at a time, and all that sort of thing.”
+
+“I suppose it is,” said the president, “no man that ever lived could
+tell what anybody else was saying while he was talking himself. Well, I
+only wish they could see how orderly our meetings are, and how well we
+keep to the subject in hand, without any rules or regulations. By the
+way, let us discuss ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ to-day. What do you
+say?”
+
+“Oh, pshaw,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “you said the subject
+was to be ‘Woman as a Factor in the Business World,’ and I was to speak
+on it.”
+
+“Oh, well, you can use the same line of argument, anyhow; I forgot to
+tell you that I had changed my mind. Girls, do be quiet while she
+reads her paper on—”
+
+“Oh, but I am not prepared, anyhow,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“I was obliged to stop in the midst of it to write the invitations for
+my five o’clock tea. A nice job it was, too, for I just couldn’t get
+all I wanted to say on a card!”
+
+“Why, I heard a man saying only the other day, that you write the most
+charming notes he ever read,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Thank you for telling me, dear. I shall use the telephone exclusively
+after this—the idea of living to know that everybody says when you are
+spoken of, ‘Yes, what charming notes she does write.’ Think of knowing
+that you are expected to be brilliant when you write to say you can’t
+come to dinner because your face is swollen, or to ask how to take
+coffee stains out of your new evening gown.”
+
+“I know all about that,” groaned the brown-eyed blonde; “once in an
+evil hour somebody called me ‘vivacious,’ and I’ve cultivated three
+wrinkles in trying to live up to it. Think of having to be vivacious at
+a church sociable, or when the man to whom you have just been revealing
+your views on the subject of friendship turns out to be engaged!”
+
+“Awful!” shuddered the girl with the eyeglasses, “but pity me,
+all of you. People who like me always say that I am a delightful
+conversationalist; those who do not, simply remark that I talk all the
+time. Sometimes, when I am low-spirited, it seems to me that there is
+not much difference between the two.”
+
+“Yes, but think of me!” moaned the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Somebody once discovered that I had a ‘little head running over with
+curls,’ I calculate that I have spent a fortune in patent curlers and
+alcohol lamps since then!”
+
+“I suppose that is why you wouldn’t go to the seashore with me last
+summer,” remarked the president. “Well, for my part, I only wish I knew
+who it was that first called me a ‘nice little woman’—it’s as bad as
+being named Smith or living in a row!”
+
+“Pshaw, I wouldn’t mind that a bit,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “there’s nothing like a reputation for amiability—you can be as
+ill-natured as you please, once it is gained.”
+
+“Humph, you seem to forget that I have a husband to remind me of
+things,” said the president. “Well, there is one person I don’t envy,
+and that is Barbara.”
+
+“Humph, I don’t think she is so beautiful,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “for my part, I think her nose might be called a snub.”
+
+“Neither do I,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “the lower
+part of her face is actually coarse.”
+
+“Say what you please,” said the president, “she has the reputation of
+being a beauty, and if she doesn’t look as well as usual she just has
+to stay at home. She has a cold now, and her complexion is awful.”
+
+“Is it?” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I must certainly stop in
+to see her to-day. I never saw her when she had a really bad cold.”
+
+“And so shall I,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “she really ought not to
+be neglected when she is ill.”
+
+“I shall go, too,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “And by
+the way, Dick has been teasing for an introduction to her for ever so
+long. This will be the very time to take him to call on her—when she is
+certain to be at home, I mean.”
+
+“I understand,” said the president; “it is very thoughtful of you to
+want to cheer up the poor thing. Girls, shouldn’t you love to see her
+face when she finds that Emily has brought a strange man to call when
+her complexion is in such a condition.”
+
+“Oh, I don’t suppose that she will mind Dick,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde; “nobody else does, you know.”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, sweetly. “Of
+course he has eyes for nobody else when I am in the room; but I did
+not expect you, Frances, to acknowledge as much.”
+
+“Why, Dorothy,” cried the president, “here you are, at last! It isn’t
+like you to keep anybody waiting—that is, of course, except a man; they
+are accustomed to it, and—”
+
+“Why, does Dorothy ever keep a man waiting?” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, elevating her eyebrows. “I had understood that she usually met
+them in the front hall when—”
+
+“Yes, dear, but then I am always dressed to see masculine callers. I
+have so many, you know. Why, Evelyn, I would not have been late for the
+world, but my new gown—”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t blame you for it, dear. I couldn’t have helped making
+a dramatic entry in such a poem myself.”
+
+“But it wasn’t that which made me late, dear. I fancied there was a
+tiny wrinkle in the back of the waist. After examining it in every
+mirror in the house, I discovered that it was only the way I twisted
+my shoulders to look at it, which made the wrinkle.”
+
+“Well, I am glad that your mind is at rest about it, anyhow,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses, “one’s back is so defenseless. Annie once sat
+behind me at the theater, and I endured agonies lest the bow at the
+back of my collar was crooked. When we came away, I found that she had
+actually been so absorbed in the people on the stage that she didn’t
+know I was there. I had been wanting to see that play for months, and,
+to save my life, I couldn’t have told you a thing in it after I saw it.”
+
+“I know just how you felt,” said the president, “I once went to a
+matinée with Eustace just before Tom and I were married, and I expected
+to have great fun, because there was so much danger of being found out.
+Toward the end of the first act, I heard that horrid Miss Blanque in
+the seat back of me, saying, ‘Oh, Tom, what would she say if she knew!’
+I can tell you that my blood boiled when I thought of such duplicity,
+and I was tempted to turn and wither them on the spot with a single
+glance!”
+
+“And did you?” eagerly asked the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Why—er, no. I thought Tom might ask why I had come with Eustace,
+though that was very different.”
+
+“Very different, indeed,” said the blue-eyed girl. “And did you—”
+
+“Oh, I didn’t enjoy that play a bit. I told Eustace I had a headache at
+the end of the second act, and—”
+
+“No doubt by that time it was true enough. Such duplicity in one whom
+you trusted was—”
+
+“Yes. And he had always said he did not admire Miss Blanque at all.
+Well, I went home and wrote him a scorching note. I said that but for
+Eustace, I should never have discovered that he was flirting with
+another girl while pretending to think of nobody but me!”
+
+“That was quite right. I hope he was ashamed of himself!”
+
+“Well, no; he wasn’t. He had been at a stockholder’s meeting all that
+afternoon. My own father was there, and he called him as a witness! And
+I actually had to explain why I had gone to the matinée with Eustace!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, how awful!” cried the girl with the Roman nose. “But
+you said you heard Miss Blanque call him Tom!”
+
+“So I did. It was Tom Dashaway who was engaged to Elaine. And wasn’t it
+a joke? She never found him out at all!”
+
+“It is awfully hard to get ahead of a man,” sighed the girl with the
+classic profile; “and it is the irony of fate that when one _does_
+succeed in doing it, the victory is usually of such a character that,
+in order to retain it, one must say nothing at all about it!”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, I am so enraged
+with Harold that I feel ready to die! I had an engagement with him on
+Saturday afternoon, and I forgot all about it and went out with Marie.
+I never thought of him at all until I saw him coming up the street,
+and then I dragged Marie into a shop. I was so excited that she thought
+a mad dog was coming, and almost created a scene!”
+
+“And did he recognize you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I’m afraid so. He didn’t come, as usual, on Sunday; and I took the
+dilemma by the horns, and wrote him a note, saying that I remained at
+home all Saturday afternoon expecting him; and why didn’t he come, as
+he had promised?”
+
+“Good idea!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “then, he would
+think he had mistaken some one else for you. You could pretend to be
+very much offended at that, and so snatch victory from the very jaws of
+defeat.”
+
+“So I thought. But his reply—oh, I knew I should die of rage! It
+said: ‘My dear Miss Marion: Pray pardon me for quite overlooking my
+engagement with you on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I know you were at
+home—for I saw you at the window as I passed!’ And as long as I live, I
+shall never be able to tell that man what I really think of him!”
+
+“Never mind, you can tell everybody else—and that is almost as
+satisfying,” said the president; “more so, perhaps; for then you need
+not hear what he has to say in reply.”
+
+“I am so glad to see you looking so well to-day, Dorothy, dear,”
+whispered the girl with the dimple in her chin; “it pleases me to see
+that you still take an interest in dress, and—”
+
+“Pray, why shouldn’t I take an interest in dress? Really, Emily
+Marshmallow, you are the queerest girl I ever did see! Here, you see
+me trying to conceal my poor broken heart with smiles, and then you
+begrudge me the slight pleasure I take in appearing decently clad. And
+when I mean to go and teach in a free kindergarten—well, next week,
+and wear a black gown with white collar and cuffs for the rest of my
+natural life!”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t mean to begrudge you anything, dear. And Jack says
+that he is sure that if you would just see him, he could explain the
+whole thing—”
+
+“Of course, you have been on his side all along. That is the way of the
+world; everybody sympathizes with the one who is in fault, and—”
+
+“He said that he was hurrying to catch up with you on the street
+yesterday, and that Frances—this is what he says, dear—not knowing what
+he was doing, called him to rescue her hat, which had blown away. By
+the time he had done it, you were out of sight. You see, Dorothy, he
+seems to fancy that you are—well, rather nice to Clarence, and—”
+
+“Oh, I thought Clarence was coming. So I am rather nice to the one
+human being who really understands me, am I? Well, you may just tell
+Jack Bittersweet that I shall keep on being nice to him as long as I
+choose—and he might know me well enough by this time to be sure that I
+shall keep my word!”
+
+“Dear me, Dorothy, you surely are not crying, are you?” cried the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Do tell me what is wrong; perhaps I can help you.”
+
+“I am afraid not, dear. I was just telling Emily that there is so
+much trouble in the world that I sometimes feel actually guilty when
+I think of my own absolutely cloudless existence! By the way, have
+you heard that Clarence Lighthed has just bought that pretty place in
+Astor Street, which was for sale? He must think that my knowledge of
+architecture is valuable, for he told his agent to make an offer for it
+just because I admired it so much!”
+
+“Poor Effie Bittersweet,” said the president. “I—ah, I don’t know
+what has made me think of _her_ just at this time, but Madame told me
+yesterday that she had been obliged to alter all her gowns for her.
+They are a full half-inch too loose, she says!”
+
+“Really? Is Effie ill?” cried the blue-eyed girl, in surprise. “How odd
+that you never thought to mention it, Frances! I should have gone to
+see her immediately, had I known it. Pray, tell her so when you see her
+next.”
+
+“If you are so anxious to see her, why not go with me, and tell her so,
+yourself,” said the brown-eyed blonde, dryly.
+
+“In this gown? and when all of hers are at the dressmaker’s! I couldn’t
+think of doing such a mean thing. I only thought that as you are always
+at her house, you could take a message for me; that is all.”
+
+“Tom says Clarence asked him the other day, if he didn’t consider that
+the best thing a fellow could do was to marry some nice girl, and
+settle down,” said the president, suddenly.
+
+“Yes? And what did Tom say?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“He must have said ‘yes,’ dear; otherwise he wouldn’t have dared to
+mention the occurrence to me at all.”
+
+“What _I_ am wondering,” said the blue-eyed girl, innocently, “is: what
+on earth made Clarence ask him such a question?”
+
+“Sheer curiosity, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly; “what
+other reason could he possibly have had? By the way, girls, have you
+noticed that Marie is showing great strength of character lately? She
+has broken with Mr. Mushley, and actually refused to send back any of
+his presents. She says the sight of them could not fail to remind him
+of his loss, and she would rather have people speak unkindly of her
+than cause him unnecessary pain!”
+
+“How sweet of her,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I only hope he
+will appreciate her consideration. Girls, what do you think Elizabeth
+told me the other day? Why, that all the photographs of girls my
+brother saw when he called on Fred belonged to a man with whom he used
+to room, and he was only keeping them until he happened to run across
+him again.”
+
+“And she believed him?” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+scornfully. “How silly some girls are, to be sure! They believe
+anything a man tells them. To be sure, Dick was telling me the truth
+when he said that he only wrote all those sonnets to Clara as a joke;
+but that was very different.”
+
+“Very different,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Girls,
+I heard to-day that Jack Bittersweet is thinking of throwing up his
+partnership, and emigrating to Australia. I beg your pardon, Dorothy,
+did you speak?”
+
+“Yes, dear, I was about to say that I think ‘Woman as a
+Parliamentarian’ is the most interesting topic we have ever discussed.
+By the way, I wonder if the climate of Australia is as unhealthy as
+some people think! I—I am so fond of Effie that I should hate to have
+anything happen to her brother.”
+
+“I think Effie could bear it, dear,” said the president, “even in her
+present state of health. She says Jack is so cross that a hyena would
+be amiable by comparison.”
+
+“Jack Bittersweet cross!” cried the brown-eyed blonde. “Why, he is one
+of the nicest fellows I ever knew, and—”
+
+“But after all, you are hardly a judge of masculine dispositions,
+dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Your acquaintance
+with the sex has been so limited, you know. Oh, Evelyn, I’ve been
+intending to ask you if we can’t take up theosophy, and discuss it
+thoroughly at one of our meetings in the near future. I am so anxious
+for a thorough knowledge of it.”
+
+“Indeed we can,” cried the president, heartily. “You don’t know how
+pleased I am to hear you say that, Emily,—well, if there is one thing
+this club can safely pride itself upon it is its thoroughness; and I am
+sure that is more than most organizations can do—!”
+
+“I know it,” said the blue-eyed girl; “why, my father belongs to a
+club which has taken six months to study the financial problems of
+Europe and the United States. They are not yet through discussing the
+subject—and yet they have the temerity to call themselves students!”
+
+“I hope you have pointed out to them the superiority of our system
+over—”
+
+“Well, no, dear; somehow it does not seem wise to discuss such a
+subject with one’s father. Dear, dear, do you suppose that girls were
+so very different in the days when our fathers were young?”
+
+“Humph, no,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “but they were much
+more afraid of remaining single. Besides, our fathers were young, too,
+in those days, and ever so much easier to please. Still,” she added,
+thoughtfully, “I don’t know that it is altogether that. No one is so
+easily subjugated as an elderly man who has become a widower. It is so
+long since girls have really tried to make themselves agreeable to him,
+that all their little ways are new to him.”
+
+“H’m, yes—unless he has grown daughters of his own,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“I don’t see what difference that makes. They don’t try their little
+ways of—of being nice on _him_; and seeing them tried on some one else
+is very different.”
+
+“Isn’t it?” said the girl with the classic profile. “Now, for instance,
+it is very interesting to have a man pay one compliments; but how it
+does bore one to hear him say the very same things about another girl!”
+
+“Doesn’t it? and yet, such is the selfishness of man, that he expects
+one to be as much interested,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, “you know that
+old Mrs. Myllons is always making presents to Barbara and me! Well, one
+day in the beginning of the season she called for me to go shopping
+with her. Of course, I went. Now, it was not long after Barbara had
+encouraged her to give me that awful picture of Burns, and I was as
+eager for her to select a present for Barbara as for me. I knew I could
+direct her choice in either case. To my joy, she stopped to look at
+silks, and her choice fell upon a hideous piece of green which would
+demolish Barbara’s complexion completely—and I really think that girl
+would sooner part with her life than her complexion. I managed to
+convey to Mrs. Myllons my personal preference for a lovely pink which
+cost a dollar less a yard, while encouraging her to buy the green. You
+see she was planning her reception, and Barbara and I were to assist
+her on that occasion.”
+
+“So she took it, did she?” said the president. “I only hope I may see
+Barbara in the green!”
+
+“You never will,” wailed the girl with the dimple in her chin—“it was
+for me! Mrs. Myllons sent it with a lovely note complimenting me on my
+unselfishness in wishing Barbara to have the handsomer piece. I dare
+not refuse to wear it at the reception; and my own father actually says
+it serves me right for trying to play a joke on Barbara!”
+
+“You must not expect sympathy from your father, dear,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose; “he will expect you to wear that gown all season,
+to save buying another. And nothing will ever happen to it, either,”
+she added. “It is only the gown that is dearer to you than life itself
+which has a fatal attraction for cups of coffee or fowls carved by
+inexperienced hosts!”
+
+“Did I ever tell you of the awful thing which happened to me last
+winter?” said the girl with the classic profile. “I believe not,
+though; we hadn’t started our club then. Well, I just had to have a
+new gown, and I was so afraid that my father wouldn’t give it to me
+that I got it without saying a word to him. I knew that even if there
+was a cyclone over the bill I’d have the gown anyhow. That being the
+case, I got a much handsomer one than I would have chosen under other
+circumstances.”
+
+“Quite right,” said the president; “if there must be an unpleasant
+scene, better have it over something which will fully repay one.”
+
+“So I thought. Well, the gown only came home the evening of my sister’s
+dance; and I really wanted to enjoy that, so I decided not to give papa
+the bill until the next day, though the dressmaker was in a great hurry
+for her money.”
+
+“They always are,” sighed the president.
+
+“Yes. I was having a lovely time until supper was served, and then
+Mr. Rocksby emptied a plate of lobster salad over the whole front
+of my new gown! Florence was near; she never got farther away from
+him than—than she could help; and—well, you all know how he admires
+amiability! He apologized profusely, and I, smilingly, said, ‘Oh, it
+doesn’t make the least difference. The gown is of no value at all, and
+I should probably never have worn it again, anyhow.’”
+
+“How lovely of you!” said the blue-eyed girl. “It must have made a deep
+impression upon him.”
+
+“H’m, I don’t know about that; but it did upon me. I happened to turn
+my head just then, and papa was at my elbow! I’d rather not tell you
+the things he said when I gave him the bill for that gown the next
+morning!”
+
+“We can all guess,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a shudder. “But
+wasn’t Mr. Rocksby awfully nice to you after that?”
+
+“No, he wasn’t. He said that the girl who cared nothing for the
+destruction of such a handsome gown was too extravagant to make a good
+wife for a poor man! And the hardest part of it all was the fact that
+he must have lots of money, else he never on earth would speak of
+himself as ‘a poor man!’”
+
+“Let us hope your father never found that out,” said the president, in
+devout tones.
+
+“But he did. He overheard Mr. Rocksby saying it to Florence; and that
+was one of the things he mentioned when I gave him the bill.”
+
+“You poor dear!” said the president. “I declare it really depresses
+me to hear of such persistent ill-luck. Well, girls, since we have
+thoroughly exhausted our subject, I think we may just as well adjourn.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl went home with the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+and after they had begun to sip their tea, she said:
+
+“Is it true that Jack intends to go to Australia unless our quarrel is
+made up?”
+
+“He—he _says_ he will,” was the cautious reply.
+
+“Then, I want to know what you intend to do in the matter?”
+
+“What I—intend to do in the matter?” she gasped.
+
+“Yes. Of course it is thoroughly in your hands. I have not made a
+single move without consulting you, and being guided by your advice.
+And if the quarrel is never made up, and I die of a broken heart, it
+will be entirely your fault!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+The Club Investigates Theosophy
+
+
+“We will discuss to-day: ‘What Theosophy Really Teaches,’” said the
+president, as soon as she could make herself heard. “You expressed an
+earnest wish to study it,’ Emily, and—”
+
+“Did I?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin, looking surprised.
+“I had quite forgotten it. However, I have been so busy with my new
+hats and the chairmanship of a committee appointed to instruct tenement
+house mothers as to the best method of bringing up children, that I
+have had no time for anything else.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the classic profile. “How grateful
+those poor ignorant people must be for your instruction!”
+
+“M—I don’t know about that. At times, I am very much discouraged. One
+woman said she would gladly allow her children to wear two fresh aprons
+a day, if I would pay for the washing of them. Another said that she
+had already raised six children without my assistance, and she believed
+she could worry on without it a bit longer. Still another was so stupid
+that she couldn’t be made to understand how I, who had never had any
+children, was able to offer her such valuable suggestions.”
+
+“As if it depended on experience,” said the president. “The theory is
+ever so much more important.”
+
+“That was what I said to the woman who— You knew that I had resigned
+from that same committee, didn’t you?” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.
+
+“Why, no; this is the first I have heard of it. And you were so
+enthusiastic, too! What on earth has made you change your mind?”
+
+“A woman. She—”
+
+“Oh! I thought, perhaps, it was a man,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“No. I am not as easily influenced as you are, dear. This woman lived
+up six flights of the dirtiest stairs I ever saw. I wondered at the
+time why she didn’t ask the landlord to have an elevator put in;
+probably she hadn’t thought of it. She lived in two rooms, and you
+never saw such awful poverty in your life. I thought, as she was so
+awfully poor, she couldn’t have much feeling, so I told her plainly
+that she could never expect her children to love and honor her if she
+did not at once give them each a hot bath, and put up fresh curtains
+and a pot or two of flowers in the windows. Everybody knows how cheap
+curtains are nowadays—not the real lace ones, of course, but—”
+
+“Tamboured muslin and all that,” said the president. “Was she grateful
+for your interest in her?”
+
+“I fear not. She looked at me, earnestly, and said: ‘You’ve been to one
+of them, haven’t you? I’ve always wanted to see somebody that had!’”
+
+“Was the woman mad?”
+
+“I was afraid so, and I began to back out of the door, when she called,
+‘Mary Ellen! oh, Mary Ellen! come right in here this minute! Here is a
+lady who has been to one of them there beauty doctors we was talking
+about yesterday! She must be awful old, for she’s brought up a lot of
+children; and come here to teach me how to raise mine; and if that
+beauty doctor ain’t fixed her up so she looks real young!’”
+
+“And did Mary Ellen come?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+sympathetically.
+
+“I don’t know. I didn’t wait; but I am almost sure I heard several
+people laughing as I came down-stairs. After this, I shall devote my
+energies to foreign missions or something like that. If the heathens
+are not grateful for my efforts in their behalf, they at least express
+themselves in a tongue I don’t understand; and they are too far away
+for me to hear them, even if I _could_ understand!”
+
+“Their ingratitude is awful,” wailed the president. “Well, I’m glad
+you have told me all this. Otherwise, I never could have had courage
+to tell you my last experience with visiting the dwellers in the slums
+as a member of the ‘Society for Procuring Better Ventilation in Other
+People’s Bedrooms!’ I called on one woman, who really seemed impressed
+by my arguments; she was quite polite, and never took her eyes off my
+bonnet all the time I was talking to her. I was so pleased with her
+that I gave her my address, and told her I would let her have a lot of
+pamphlets on the subject, if she would send for them. I knew I could
+not get one of my maids to carry them into that district, and besides
+her husband could easily come for them. He was a street paver, and no
+doubt would be glad to get the exercise.”
+
+“Of course,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Did he come?”
+
+“No. But she herself walked in on my reception day a few weeks later.
+She wore a bonnet which was a perfect caricature of mine. She said she
+hoped I would forgive her for delaying the returning of my call so
+long; and didn’t I think my reception-room was too warm to be quite
+healthy?”
+
+“Did you ever hear of such impertinence! and in your own house, too!”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What did the other members of the
+society say?”
+
+“I don’t know. I resigned, by telephone, as soon as Tom and the doctor
+succeeded in bringing me out of my fainting fit.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+sympathetically. “And yet, people complain that we take so little
+interest in the poor! Only a real philanthropist can appreciate the
+rebuffs we receive. The only thing which helps us to bear them, is the
+knowledge that we are doing such incalculable good.”
+
+“It is very sweet and good of you to feel so,” sighed the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I don’t know that I am quite so magnanimous, myself. Oh,
+Catharine, dear; you were speaking of Mr. Rocksby the other day. Did
+you ever hear the end of his affair with Florence?”
+
+“Why, no,” said the girl with the classic profile. “I only knew that it
+_had_ an end. How on earth did you find out about it?”
+
+“I heard that she and Effie had fallen out, and I asked Effie all about
+it. Of course she was glad enough to tell. It seems that there was a
+dance at the club in Arcadia, and Florence went out to stay with the
+Brownstones and attend it. Mr. Rocksby happened to meet her at the
+station, and went out with her, intending to return by the next train.
+It turned out that there was no train back until midnight, so the
+Brownstones invited him to dine and go to the dance with them. They
+even brought out a dress coat of Mr. Brownstone’s for him to wear, and
+Florence told Effie that he looked as if he weighed twenty pounds less
+when he put it on.”
+
+“It’s really wonderful the way people always help Florence along,”
+sighed the girl with the classic profile. “Nobody ever does such things
+for _me_.”
+
+“I fancy Florence wishes they hadn’t for _her_, dear. Well, he was
+lovely to her at the dance, and after a while he coaxed her out on the
+balcony for a quiet talk. Before she fairly knew what he was about, he
+had fallen heavily on his knees and said, ‘Florence, I—’ when she heard
+the queerest sound, and he sprang to his feet, with his hand on his
+back!”
+
+“Good gracious, I hope the poor old soul hadn’t hurt himself?”
+
+“No; I believe not. But he had split Mr. Brownstone’s dress coat from
+top to bottom. And though Florence tried her very best, she never could
+coax him to finish the sentence he had just begun!”
+
+“Poor Florence! No wonder she says now she thinks a man looks better
+in cycling garb than anything else. The sight of a dress coat must be
+enough to make her ill.”
+
+“I should think so,” said the president. “By the way, speaking of
+theosophy, I wonder why its stout and elderly devotees wear such
+flowing white robes? The younger ones seem content with short hair and
+general dowdiness.”
+
+“Good gracious, you will be wondering next why politicians always wear
+diamonds or why dressmakers invariably appear in old-fashioned gowns,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose; “and I must say, frankly, that I
+can’t answer either of those questions. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose I
+am to congratulate you. I hear that Tom has just inherited ten thousand
+dollars.”
+
+“I don’t know whether you may congratulate me, or not,” said the
+president. “Sometimes, I—”
+
+“Oh! Then, there is no truth in the report?”
+
+“Yes, it is true enough, but I don’t know whether I am to be
+congratulated or not. You see, I was getting along very well as we
+were, and now I see that I need a lot of things I never thought of
+before—more than the extra income could possibly cover—and I shall be
+absolutely wretched unless I can have them.”
+
+“But you will have some of them, anyhow, won’t you?”
+
+“I’m not sure. Tom talks now of putting all the money into his
+business. In that case he will be obliged to work harder, because he
+will have more at stake; he says, also, that I shall have to be more
+economical than ever because every cent will be needed to extend his
+operations. On the whole,” she added, thoughtfully, “I am rather sorry
+his aunt is dead. It was ever so much nicer when she was living, and I
+could spend the expected legacy royally, in imagination, at least.”
+
+“You poor dear; to think of having cause to regret the death of a
+wealthy relative,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but—er—couldn’t Tom put
+you on the pay-roll as a clerk, or something?”
+
+“I did suggest that; but he said he’d rather pay me a salary to stay
+out of the office. I haven’t spoken to him since.”
+
+“Do you know, I always think it a mistake to stop speaking to any one,”
+said the blue-eyed girl; “it seems unkind, and then one loses the
+opportunity to say unpleasant things to them, too.”
+
+“I believe you are right,” said the president. “No married man seems to
+appreciate speechless indignation, anyhow.”
+
+“I must see you alone a moment, Emily, dear,” whispered the blue-eyed
+girl. “Can’t you come with me down to the other end of the room, and
+let me pretend to straighten your hair?”
+
+“With pleasure, dear,” replied Emily, but there was no alacrity in her
+voice; “only we must not stay too long lest Frances suspect something.”
+
+“What if she does? She would only think we are talking about her—and
+I doubt if that would make her particularly comfortable. It is about
+Jack. Perhaps, you can pardon his behavior, but for me the last link
+which bound us is broken, and I feel now that I can start for India as
+a missionary without a pang!”
+
+“My goodness, what has he done now? I’ve been afraid all along,
+Dorothy, that you would put off the reconciliation too long. While he
+confines his attentions to Frances, it is all right; but some time he
+will find out that there are a number of nice girls in the world, and—”
+
+“Frances has nothing to do with it,” she replied, with great dignity.
+“It happened this way: I was coming home about dusk yesterday—you
+remember how it rained, don’t you? Well, I was so miserable that I
+didn’t even attempt to hold up my skirts—it was a kind of a comfort to
+let them get thoroughly draggled. A gust of wind blew my umbrella to
+one side, and I saw Jack and Mr. Bonds just ahead of me. By the way,
+did you ever notice that—er—there is a certain likeness between those
+two?”
+
+“I’ve always said they looked enough alike to be brothers. Don’t you
+remember, dear, when you were first engaged to Jack, you wouldn’t speak
+to me for two weeks because I mentioned the fact?”
+
+“No, I don’t remember. Well, all of a sudden, I felt that I could
+forgive Jack all if I could just lay my head on his shoulder, and hear
+him say that he was sorry.”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy, dear, I am so glad! He told me this morning that he—”
+
+“If you will kindly allow me to proceed, without interruption, I will
+explain how that is now impossible. I was wondering how Mr. Bonds could
+be gotten rid of, so that Jack could go home with me and apologize
+comfortably before dinner; when he suddenly left him and ran up the
+Vansmith’s steps. Jack was walking slowly, and I just shut my eyes,
+and made a dash to catch up with him. My own voice sounded like a fog
+whistle, as I said: ‘W—wait a moment; I—I wish to speak to you.’ And,
+oh, Emily—”
+
+“You surely never mean to say that Jack wouldn’t stop when you called?”
+
+“It wasn’t Jack. It was Mr. Bonds; Jack had gone into the Vansmith
+house! But, oh, Emily, if he really loved me, he would have known that
+I was right behind him, ready to forgive and forget. I shall sail for
+India some time next week, and if I never return, you—”
+
+“But, Dorothy, Jack is only too anxious to make up. He says that a
+lover’s quarrel is worse than a Welsh rarebit for keeping a fellow
+awake at night. And he told me to tell you—”
+
+“Well, Emily Marshmallow, if this is all the interest you take in
+our discussion of theosophy, we might as well adjourn, and go to a
+millinery shop or an afternoon tea,” said the president, with some
+asperity; “and, after all the trouble I’ve taken in reading everything
+the dictionary and the encyclopædia have to say on the subject, I think
+you might at least pay attention to my remarks!”
+
+“Dear me, Evelyn, I really beg your pardon. I shall borrow Elise’s
+note-book, and study it all out before I sleep. There is nothing so
+productive of a good night’s rest as half an hour’s solid reading after
+one is in bed. Why, the other night, I took a book on philosophy to
+bed with me, and before I had read six sentences I was asleep. I never
+woke till nine o’clock in the morning, and the gas was blazing all that
+time. I doubt if I’d have waked then if somebody hadn’t knocked at my
+door.”
+
+“It was the sweet consciousness of duty well performed,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “Now, if your book had been a really interesting
+novel, you would have been awake half the night.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile, “and been as yellow as
+a primrose in the morning. I often say that a few pages of really good
+literature just before retiring is the best thing in the world for the
+complexion. One girl I know says she always reads her Bible then; but I
+don’t approve of that—if one falls asleep suddenly, allowing it to drop
+heavily upon the floor, it is sure to awaken the other members of the
+family. If I do that, my father—”
+
+“I know,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, plaintively.
+“Mamma says that if I take any more solid reading to bed I may confront
+papa with this month’s gas bill, when it comes in, for she absolutely
+refuses to do it!”
+
+“Pshaw, men are all alike; though I didn’t use to think so,” said the
+president. “Now, I always forget all about the topic for discussion
+until half an hour before it is time to start for the club. A man would
+say that he hadn’t time to prepare for it, but a woman’s courage never
+deserts her. I am all ready at the appointed time, even if I have to
+tell the cook to have anything she chooses for dinner. Now, Tom thinks
+I ought to be ready by the day before, even if I have to give up a tea
+or a luncheon to do it.”
+
+“The idea!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Really, women have so
+many things to do nowadays that is a wonder they find time for them
+all; and yet, men seem to expect them to be just as good housekeepers
+as they were when they had nothing else to do. I regret to see that the
+sexes have not progressed equally.”
+
+“Indeed they have not,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Who ever heard of
+the new man? And if there _was_ such a creature he would no doubt be so
+effeminate that nobody would care anything for him.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile, “sometimes, I fear
+that Helen’s husband will develop such proclivities. Of course it is
+only a harmless eccentricity which makes him sew on his own buttons—I
+can overlook that. But the other day he was getting ready to go down
+town while she was out on her bicycle. Just because she was wearing one
+of his shirts and a collar and tie of his, he dressed up in that lovely
+lace collarette of hers, and was actually going out with it on! What
+would people have said of a man who appeared in such feminine attire!”
+
+“Goodness me, I hope he is not losing his mind,” said the president.
+“However, if he is, Helen is always ready to supply him with a piece
+of hers. By the way, girls, what queer questions men do ask! Several
+of Tom’s friends dined with us last evening, and they actually wanted
+to know why a stout woman always selects a tiny dog for a pet, while a
+wisp of a woman will be tugging at the chain of an enormous mastiff. I
+simply told them that they must not be so curious, for, though I would
+not confess it to _them_, I really could not answer the question.”
+
+“And you were quite right,” said the blue-eyed girl, indignantly; “by
+and by, they will actually expect us to give a reason for everything we
+do! Which is palpably absurd, since we so often do things without any
+reason at all!”
+
+“Well, luckily, we are not responsible for anybody,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “Oh! I just wouldn’t be a man for anything in the
+world.”
+
+“Would anybody, if he could help it?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Of course, they all pretend to like it, but one can easily see the
+hollowness of the pretense. Why, they would not be half so anxious to
+criticise our actions if they didn’t feel that we have the best of
+things. Of course, I would not be a man for anything—”
+
+“Nor I,” said the president, “and have to give up my comfortable seat
+in a street car every time a woman entered.”
+
+“But of course it is only right for them to give up their seats to us,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Certainly, it’s right. Only I shouldn’t like to have to do it myself.”
+
+“Of course not. Or to have to pay for pretty things for somebody else
+to wear. Or to have to drop a nice book, and go out in the rain to
+escort home a girl who had been calling on some one else,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Yes. Or to have to buy candy for somebody else to eat,” said the girl
+with the classic profile.
+
+“M’hm. Or to have the nearest woman manage one, without one being aware
+of the fact,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I know! Or to have to
+fall in love with a girl, and marry her, just because she had made up
+her mind that one should,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Yes. Well, really the poor things have a great deal to endure, though
+many of their sufferings are mercifully hidden from them,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “But, after all, we are very nice to
+them, you know.”
+
+“Of course we are,” said the president; “we wouldn’t get nearly so
+many things out of them, if we were not. Girls, I hear that Annie has
+finally decided to marry Nelson.”
+
+“I thought she had done that long ago,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Talk of a woman not knowing her own mind. That man never—”
+
+“He knew his own mind well enough, dear. It was only about Annie’s that
+he was doubtful,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Annie
+told me herself how it came to be settled. She said that she couldn’t
+decide whether to accept him or not—”
+
+“Which means that she had done all she could, and was doubtful whether
+he would do the rest,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Perhaps so. At any rate it was still uncertain until last Tuesday.
+He had been out of town for several days, and returned unexpectedly.
+Annie had gone out to mail a letter, and just as she raised the lid of
+the letter-box she saw him coming up the street toward her. As they
+walked away together, she glanced down and saw that she still held her
+letter in her hand, but her pocket-book was gone!”
+
+“Goodness, you don’t mean to say that she—”
+
+“I do. She said she knew at once that she must care a good deal for a
+man whose sudden appearance was enough to make her post her pocketbook
+instead of a letter—so she said ‘Yes.’”
+
+“As soon as he asked her,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Well, what he
+can see in _her_, I’m sure _I_ don’t know!”
+
+“What _she_ can see in _him_ puzzles me,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+thoughtfully. “I don’t see how any girl can really love and honor a man
+who wears red neckties; do you?”
+
+“For _my_ part, I can’t see what they see in each other,” said the
+president, thoughtfully. “Well, I really think Annie ought to give me
+a handsome present, for it was I who brought it all about.”
+
+“Mercy, did you speak ill of her to Nelson?”
+
+“No; but I told Tom the other day that I didn’t believe that girl would
+ever get married. And when I make a remark like that about any girl,
+she may as well set about selecting her trousseau, for somebody is sure
+to propose to her at once.”
+
+“And yet, I doubt if Annie would be grateful to you, if you told her,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully.
+
+“One must not expect gratitude in this world, dear. The consciousness
+of having done one’s duty is reward enough for a right-minded person.
+By the way, Emily dear, I hear that Dick says he will positively wait
+no longer. You must give him a decisive answer one way or the other, or
+he—”
+
+“Yes; but he hasn’t yet screwed up the courage to tell _me_ so,
+dear. When he _does_, it will be time for me to make up my mind. I
+do wonder,” she added, thoughtfully, “why a girl who has one lover
+already, is sure to win the affections of another man?”
+
+“Cause and effect,” said the president, gloomily. “I never thought of
+buying that new hat until I heard Helen tell the milliner it was too
+expensive for her. After I got it home, I found it didn’t match a thing
+I possessed. I just believe Helen said that before me for meanness,
+knowing I would be compelled to buy it, then. And now the milliner
+absolutely refuses to take it off my hands. I threatened to withdraw my
+trade if she didn’t; but it had no effect. She knows I have more hats
+already than I need for this season, and by the time they are all worn
+out—and paid for—I shall have forgotten all about it.”
+
+“But why not pay your bill at once, and open another with somebody
+else? That—”
+
+“I don’t care to let Tom see the old bill just now, dear. It wouldn’t
+matter ordinarily, but since he inherited that money from his aunt he
+is feeling unusually poor, and it might cause a family unpleasantness.”
+
+“How thoughtful you always are, Evelyn! Really, the study of theosophy
+seems to have developed your character wonderfully. I do hope you will
+explain it all thoroughly to me,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “I
+am really so stupid that even after to-day’s discussion, I feel that I
+do not fully understand it.”
+
+“Perhaps at some future time,” said the president, hastily. “I am sorry
+to say that we really must adjourn now. My mother-in-law is coming
+to dine with us, and I don’t want her poking about the house in my
+absence.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+A Discussion and a Surprise
+
+
+“‘Civic Organizations Among the Ancient Greeks,’ will be our topic for
+to-day,” said the president. “And, oh, girls, I am so angry with Tom
+that I would go right home to mamma, but for the fact that she always
+agrees with him. Papa invariably thinks _I_ am in the right; but he
+would say unpleasant things about Tom, and I shouldn’t like that,
+either. The consequence is that I must just endure my martyrdom in
+silence.”
+
+“But, what is wrong? Is it about that legacy from Tom’s aunt?” queried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “Dear me, I often think it’s so hard that
+really poor men are usually nicer than those that have money.”
+
+“I don’t see why you always think of money in connection with me,” said
+the president. “Heaven knows, I am not mercenary, and I only want to
+live well and dress properly, in order that people may see Tom is not
+stingy. No, this is quite another matter. It all came from the topic
+I selected for to-day. I was talking, rather learnedly, about ‘Civic
+Organizations Among the Ancient Greeks,’ when Tom asked me suddenly
+what ward I live in! Of course, I didn’t know—”
+
+“Why, neither do I,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “but it must be the
+same one, for we both live on the north side!”
+
+“I really don’t know, either,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “I don’t see what difference it makes though, for I could ask the
+clerk at the corner drug store if I needed particularly to know.”
+
+“Of course you could,” said the president, “and so could I. But, Tom
+was awfully unpleasant—he couldn’t have been more so if we had been
+married twenty years instead of two. He said he didn’t see any use in
+my poking about among the civic organizations of ancient Greece, when
+I did not know what ward I lived in.”
+
+“Humph! I suppose next thing he will be saying that he doesn’t see any
+use in the Teacup Club,” said the girl with the classic profile, in
+sarcastic tones. “A man will say anything when he is angry.”
+
+“Humph! I fancy he will hardly say anything like that, dear. He knows
+it has its use, if it is only to make me look more leniently on his own
+club. When we first organized it he complained a good deal about the
+demands it made on my time and attention, and I just said: ‘Oh, very
+well, dear, let us both give up our clubs, and spend all our spare time
+at home together.’ After that, he held his peace on the subject.”
+
+“But you wouldn’t have given it up, would you?” asked the brown-eyed
+blonde, anxiously.
+
+“Of course not—but Tom didn’t know that. By the way, Emily, what is
+making Dorothy so late to-day?”
+
+“I fancy she is engaged,” replied the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, demurely; “at least Jack Bittersweet was on his way to call on
+her a couple of hours ago, and I suppose—Pardon me, Frances, did you
+speak?”
+
+“I—I was about to say, ‘how nice’—for Dorothy, I mean. By the way,
+girls, I—I am thinking of going to Omaha for a nice, long visit as soon
+as I can get ready.”
+
+“But I thought you had already refused Lola’s invitation,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“I—I had. But, really I have bought so many pretty things of late that
+I can get ready for my visit without the slightest trouble, and as my
+last visit was cut short, I—”
+
+“Yes, I remember that quite well, dear. I remember that you came home a
+few days after Dorothy broke with poor Jack. But I don’t understand why
+you have been embroidering so much table linen lately. You surely will
+not need that for a visit to Omaha.”
+
+“Why, er—no. I—I shall take it as a present to Lola’s mother, I think.
+You have no idea of how fond she is of me.”
+
+“Indeed, I have, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+warmly. “I’ve often noticed that married women who have no grown sons
+_are_ fond of you. It is rather a pity, as things turned out, that you
+cut your last visit short; I am really afraid, if you go now, that you
+will miss Dorothy’s wedding.”
+
+“At any rate, dear, she will not miss it herself. Really, I think
+the poor girl would have lost her mind if she had lost Jack. These
+disappointments are so hard to bear that—”
+
+“I shall tell her that you said so, dear. I am sure she and Jack will
+both—”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily, “do you suppose that Greek
+women used actually to wear those dowdy gowns on the street? Of course
+they would do very well for tea gowns, but—”
+
+“I don’t suppose anything of the kind,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “It was chiefly the men who made the antique statues, wasn’t
+it? Very well, then, the poor creatures had no idea of style, and just
+reproduced the gowns they happened to admire themselves.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile; “men always detest the
+ruling fashion of the hour. And yet, they seem to think we dress to
+please them,” she added, derisively.
+
+“I know it. And the women of ancient Greece were just like anybody
+else, I suppose,” replied the girl with the eyeglasses. “However, if
+they really wore white as frequently as they seem to, they must have
+had more money than I have to pay the laundress.”
+
+“Yes, or the principal street of Athens—I forget the name of it, must
+have been a good deal cleaner than State street,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “I don’t suppose, however, that the carving of
+statues could have made much dirt, and really the ancient Greeks seem
+to have done little else.”
+
+“At any rate their system of civic organization was—dear me, what was
+it? I had it all written down on the back of an invitation to dinner,
+and I must have lost it as I came along,” wailed the president. “Oh,
+dear, what shall I do?”
+
+“Never mind, you can tell us what you remember,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, soothingly. “None of us know enough about it to detect the
+fact if you _are_ wrong.”
+
+“It isn’t that; I’ve got it all at home in the old school book I copied
+it from. But, as I say, it was on the back of an invitation to dinner,
+and I can’t remember whether it was for next Tuesday or Thursday!”
+
+“Goodness me, that is really serious,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “but perhaps Tom will remember.”
+
+“Tom remember the date of an invitation to dinner! How little you know
+about men. Why, he would tell me the wrong day, if he did remember,
+just to escape putting on his dress coat and going with me.”
+
+“Humph! from what Helen says, you may be thankful that he goes at all.
+Her husband does not. She says—”
+
+“Helen didn’t manage him properly at first, that’s all. When Tom first
+began to declare he wouldn’t go to dinners, I would just say, ‘Very
+well, dear, we’ll both remain at home, and tell our would-be hostess
+the true reason why we didn’t come. And now, I often reap the benefit
+of that Spartan policy. Of course, he is sometimes detained at the
+office by important business, or even called off by a telegram just as
+we are about to start. However, I always remember that he is only human
+after all, and seldom revenge myself in any other way than by telling
+him that Mr. Troolygood sat next me at table. Life will be a much more
+complicated affair for me if that dear fellow ever takes it into his
+head to marry.”
+
+“I think you are perfectly safe for some time to come, dear,” said the
+girl with the classic profile, “his married sister, with whom he lives,
+is anxious for him to marry. She has the habit of inviting any girl he
+seems to admire, so constantly to the house that she soon loses all her
+charm for him.”
+
+“No man likes courtship made easy,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“Mr. Troolygood will surely die a bachelor unless he succeeds some day
+in unearthing a girl whom his sister dislikes. That is hardly probable,
+either, since he invariably admires a girl with money—a habit, by the
+way, which I have also noticed in other young clergymen.”
+
+“It is not confined to young clergymen, dear,” remarked the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Talk about women being mercenary, I have often noticed
+that men think much more of money than we do. We know that they must
+provide for us somehow, and the doing of it is their affair.”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “what excellent
+mental training we do receive at this club! Dorothy was wondering the
+other day how we ever got along without it; and, indeed, so was I. A
+reputation for being intellectual is the nicest thing in the world;
+once you have it, you can be as silly as you choose, and people will
+feel actually grateful to you for unbending. It has its drawbacks,
+though. I find one must be more careful than ever to have cuffs and
+gloves immaculate.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Girls, a college
+professor asked me the other day why we always wear veils on the
+street!”
+
+“And what did you reply?” queried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“To keep our faces clean! What did you suppose?”
+
+“Oh! I thought you told him the truth. However, the more intellectual a
+man is the less he understands women. One of his students would—”
+
+“Know better than to expect the truth in reply to such a question?
+Of course he would,” said the president; “but oh, girls, if an
+octogenarian knew as much about us as a sophomore _thinks_ he does,
+what a queer world this would be!”
+
+“Unpleasant rather than queer,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “Of course we understand men thoroughly; but that is a very
+different matter.”
+
+“Oh, very different,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “But aren’t
+they queer? Why, I once knew a man who called a girl a ‘most adorable
+little flirt,’ and then felt very much aggrieved when she kept on
+flirting after they became engaged!”
+
+“Lots of girls never have an opportunity to flirt until they _are_
+engaged,” remarked the girl with the dimple in her chin. “To some men,
+an engagement ring on a girl’s hand has the same effect that a ‘Keep
+off the grass’ sign has on children.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Oh, Marion, shall you also
+visit Lola this year?”
+
+“Not this century,” replied the girl with the eyeglasses. “Didn’t you
+hear what happened the last time she was here?”
+
+“Why, no; except that she was to dine with you. What happened? Did she
+discuss art in a monologue from soup to coffee? or, did—”
+
+“Yes, she did that; but it wouldn’t have really mattered, except
+for—you see it was this way: when she was here last summer, she gave
+me one of her, well, _she_ calls them paintings. I accepted it with
+profuse thanks; and hung it in the darkest corner of the attic as soon
+as her train was well out of Chicago. When I heard that she was coming
+back, I fished the picture out of its corner, and gave it a prominent
+place in the parlor, telling her it had been there all the time.”
+
+“Well, I’m sure she ought to be satisfied with that,” said the
+president; “not many people care enough for Lola to hang her pictures
+even temporarily on the parlor walls. The one she gave me is in the
+cook’s bedroom—the poor woman has been complaining of insomnia lately.”
+
+“No wonder. Unluckily I forgot to coach my family, and when we came in
+from the dinner table, my brother Frank joined us. You know Lola _is_
+pretty when she remembers to comb her hair and remove her painting
+apron.”
+
+“Mercy on us! did he criticise her painting while she was present?”
+
+“No. He only said, ‘Hello, where did you get this new picture? I never
+saw it before. Looks like the one that has been vegetating in the
+attic!’”
+
+“You needn’t tell us the rest, dear; we all know Lola. It was too bad,
+when you had only done it to spare her feelings, too!”
+
+“Dear! dear!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I wonder
+why the most hopeless artists are ever the most generous with their
+productions? They seem to wish to give them away, whereas—”
+
+“Self-preservation, dear. When one has done something dreadful, one
+dislikes to be constantly reminded of the fact!” said the girl with
+the classic profile. “You know my eldest sister, don’t you? Well, her
+husband has an awful temper, but he seldom gives Sophie any trouble.
+Whenever he begins to be unpleasant, she says: ‘Isn’t it fortunate,
+dear; if you should die, or we should ever separate, I could have a
+good income, anyhow—I could just publish in book form the poems you
+wrote to me before we were married!’”
+
+“And what then?” asked the president, breathlessly.
+
+“Oh, he kicks the dog or snubs his typewriter; but he never says
+another word to Sophie.”
+
+“And yet, Sophie used to be considered dull at school,” said the
+president, thoughtfully. “Well, that’s only another proof that even
+genius needs a special opportunity.”
+
+“Speaking of opportunities,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“have you heard of Marie’s last mishap? No? I thought not. You know
+that delightful young physician who cares nothing for society, and
+declines all non-professional invitations, and never calls on a woman
+under seventy. Well, Marie has developed neuralgia, grip, and nervous
+prostration in swift succession, and he has been called in to attend
+her. You see, it is this way: it gives her an opportunity to see him in
+bewitching tea-gowns, and she studies new poses on the sofa when she is
+not taking powders.”
+
+“Oh! And when are they to be married?” asked the president.
+
+“Never, dear. He says he had long loved her silently, and was trying to
+summon up enough courage to tell her so. Now, however, he sees that she
+is too delicate to make a good wife for a hardworking professional man!”
+
+“Humph! No wonder Marie’s little brother told mine he wants to go away
+to boarding-school,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, I always
+did hate deceit. I never—”
+
+“By the way,” said the president, “I thought you had such a bad
+headache that you could not go out to-day.”
+
+“That was when mamma wanted me to accompany her to a meeting at the
+orphan asylum, dear. I felt ever so much better after she was gone.”
+
+“I am so glad you care so much for the club,” said the president.
+“I gave up a luncheon at my mother-in-law’s, in order to come,
+myself. I wanted awfully to go—all the other guests were lovely old
+ladies—perfect walking encyclopædias on the subject of servants, and
+the proper time to hunt moths or cut first teeth.”
+
+“Oh, I forgot to tell you, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Tom’s mother sent you a message by me that she had put the
+luncheon off until Friday because you were so disappointed at your
+inability to be present.”
+
+“Well, if she expects me to waste a whole morning on those old frumps,
+she is very much mistaken, that is all. And you are no true friend of
+mine, or you would have told her I had an engagement for that day, too!”
+
+“Humph! You seem to forget that I am afraid of her, too. She was my old
+Sunday-school teacher, and she would as lief be disagreeable to me as
+to you. Besides, it is not as if Tom had no unmarried brothers. One has
+to consider her feelings, you know, and—”
+
+“Very true, dear. You always were charitable, Emily—I can just as well
+go to bed with a cold on Friday. Well, I fear we must adjourn now. What
+a profitable meeting we have had! I only wish Dorothy could have heard
+some of the arguments that—”
+
+“Yes, indeed, Dorothy needs all of the good sense she can possibly
+obtain in any form,” murmured the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Not now that she is about to be married, dear,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “However, I am sure that nothing save death or a
+boil on her chin will ever keep her away from another meeting. She says
+she considers the founding of this club her life work.”
+
+“And a noble one, too,” said the president, warmly. “Well, if ever a
+girl entered upon matrimony with bright prospects, _she_ is that one. I
+verily believe she could make Jack Bittersweet do anything she wanted,
+whether he liked or not!”
+
+“At any rate, she has begun well,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.
+
+When the girl with the dimple in her chin reached the blue-eyed girl’s
+home, she ran up the stairs to her friend’s room, two steps at a time,
+and burst open the door. That young person was discovered, radiant with
+smiles in spite of the traces of recent tears; she was seated at her
+desk, and the waste basket was overflowing with crumpled sheets of her
+best note paper.
+
+“Oh, you dear, Dorothy,” said the visitor, “tell me all about it, do!
+I was dying to come earlier, but I wanted to see what Frances would do
+when she heard that Jack was coming here, so I had to stay all through
+the meeting. Evelyn says that no girl ever had brighter prospects in
+marrying than you, and—”
+
+“Oh! then, they all know I am to be married, do they? Did Jack tell? I
+thought he would hold his peace, because—”
+
+“Well, not exactly; but he told me that he was on his way here to ask
+you to forgive him for everything he ever did! And he said he just
+wouldn’t come away until you set your wedding-day, and so—”
+
+“Oh! he told you that, did he? Well, it is set, and—”
+
+“Dear old Jack, he must be the happiest fellow in the world, for he—”
+
+“M—I can’t say that he looked it when he went away; however, some
+people have such a way of concealing their emotions. I never had
+myself; I am as open as the day—anybody could know just what I intended
+to do all the time.”
+
+“Of course; I told Jack how it would be from the start. But I don’t
+see why he looked so melancholy when he came away. Didn’t you set the
+wedding day early enough to please him?”
+
+“He said he didn’t want to know the day, and—”
+
+“Didn’t want to know the day of his own wedding! Why, the poor boy must
+be crazy; he—”
+
+“The date of his _own_ wedding! Emily Marshmallow, are you out of your
+mind? I said the date of _my_ wedding, and—”
+
+“Would you mind feeling my pulse, dear, or examining my eye to see if
+there is a look of insanity in it! For really, I don’t see how you and
+Jack can be married to each other on different days, unless you are
+thinking of matrimony on the instalment plan; and that—”
+
+“Married to each other? Jack Bittersweet and I? Why, Emily Marshmallow,
+you haven’t listened to a word I have been saying, when I have been
+telling you for the last half hour I am to marry Clarence Lighthed, the
+only man I ever loved, next month, and—”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy, don’t! If Jack did not ask you to marry him to-day, it
+was only that he hadn’t the courage, and—”
+
+“He did, dear—twice. But you see, I had accepted Clarence an hour
+before he came. Well, it is a great comfort to know that I never
+encouraged poor Jack! You will bear me out in that, I know. And oh,
+Emily, Clarence is the dearest person in the world! You can’t imagine
+how happy first love makes one! I—I wouldn’t say a word to Frances now
+if I saw her with one eyebrow a full half inch higher than the other.
+But, what is the matter? You—”
+
+“I—I feel a little faint, dear; that is all. Did you—er, try to soften
+the blow to Jack?”
+
+“I did. I advised him to marry Frances; said that I knew she would make
+him happier than I could ever have done, and their marriage was the one
+thing needed to complete my own happiness.”
+
+“Well, he wouldn’t marry her now if—not if she was a wealthy young
+widow. Did—did Jack say anything about me?”
+
+“Why, er—yes; he seemed sort of offended with you for something.
+I don’t know what it was. The only reference I made to you in our
+whole conversation, was to tell him that you had seen all along that
+I intended to marry Clarence. Of course if you had not been able to
+make him understand that fact, it was his own stupidity, and not your
+fault. Oh, I tell you, I always defend my friends—even before they are
+attacked! But what is the matter? You look sort of queer?”
+
+“I—I was only wondering what they would say at the club! They—they
+seemed to have an idea that you would marry Jack, and—”
+
+“Marry Jack Bittersweet! What on earth could have put such an idea into
+their heads? I only hope, Emily, that you—”
+
+“Oh, no, dear; nothing of the kind. I—I merely told them that he was on
+his way to ask you to marry him, and—”
+
+“Very thoughtful it was of you, dear. I only wish I could ask you to be
+bridesmaid for your pains; but Clarence has somehow gotten an idea that
+you are not a friend of his. There was no one else to oppose the match,
+and I—I doubt if he’d have asked me quite as soon if you hadn’t; so I
+shall try to forgive you, in time, for the things you have said about
+him.”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin gasped, but her only reply, was:
+“I really don’t know what the other members of the club will say. They—”
+
+“The club. I am so glad you mentioned it. There was a meeting to-day,
+was there not? I was just writing Evelyn a letter when you came in,
+saying—”
+
+“That you want us to meet twice a week after this! How nice; that is
+just—”
+
+“No, dear; it was a letter of resignation I was writing. Dear Clarence
+has such a horror of intellectual women, that I—”
+
+“But, Dorothy, you know when you founded the club, you said the
+membership would be for life, and—”
+
+“Emily Marshmallow, I never said anything of the kind! And, if I _did_,
+only a person of your colossal selfishness would expect me to waste my
+time on a mere club when I want to devote eighteen hours a day to the
+selection of my trousseau, and the other six to Clarence! And, if you
+want to know my real opinion of the club, I consider it the greatest
+bore among my social duties!”
+
+
+    PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY
+    & SONS CO. AT THE LAKESIDE
+    PRESS, FOR WAY & WILLIAMS,
+    CHICAGO, U.S.A. MDCCCXCVII
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber’s Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. This text uses both single
+quotation marks and double quotation marks within dialogue. This was
+retained as printed.
+
+Page 82, “nowaday” changed to “nowadays” (nowadays don’t intend)
+
+Page 216, “absense” changed to “absence” (bears my absence)
+
+Page 245, removed repeated word “heard” (you heard Miss Blanque)
+
+Page 296, “he” changed to “her” (criticise her painting)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50751 ***
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
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-
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-
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-
-<h1 class="faux"><i>The</i> Teacup Club</h1>
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 510px;">
-<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="510" height="800" alt="Cover" />
-</div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
-<div class="maintitle"><i>The</i>
-Teacup Club</div>
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a><br /><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-<div class="bbox">
-
-<div class="maintitle"><i>The</i><br />
-Teacup Club</div>
-
-<div class="center"><br /><br />
-BY<br />
-<span class="author">ELIZA ARMSTRONG</span><br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
-<img src="images/emblem.jpg" width="150" height="160" alt="emblem" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="center"><br /><br /><br />
-<i>CHICAGO</i><br />
-WAY AND WILLIAMS<br />
-1897<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="copyright">
-COPYRIGHT<br />
-WAY AND WILLIAMS<br />
-1897<br />
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>NOTE</h2>
-
-
-<p>A portion of the matter in this little book
-originally appeared in <i>The New York Journal</i>,
-and is used by the courtesy of W. R. Hearst,
-Esq.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a><br /><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
-<tr>
-<td align="left" colspan="2"><small>CHAPTER</small></td>
-<td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">I&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">THE TEACUP CLUB IS FORMED</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">II&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">THE CLUB DISCUSSES WOMAN IN POLITICS</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">III&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">MAN’S REAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">IV&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">CONCERNING THE HEROINE OF TO-DAY</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">V&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">THE CLUB SETTLES SOME CURRENCY PROBLEMS</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">VI&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">THE PIONEER NEW WOMAN</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">VII&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">WOMAN IN LEGISLATION</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">VIII&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">AN EXECUTIVE MEETING</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">IX&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF POLITICAL POWER</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">X&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">WOMAN AS A PARLIAMENTARIAN</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">XI&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">THE CLUB INVESTIGATES THEOSOPHY</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-<td align="right">XII&nbsp;</td>
-<td align="left">A DISCUSSION AND A SURPRISE</td>
-<td align="right"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a><br /><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter I<br />
-
-<small>The Teacup Club is Formed</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“You can never be sure of pleasing a
-man,” sighed the blue-eyed girl, who was
-calling on her dearest friend; “that is, if
-you try to please him,” she added reflectively.</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose not,” replied the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, “unless you succeed
-in concealing from him the fact that
-you are trying to please him.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m; yes, I suppose there is something
-in that. However, we ought not to be
-hard on the poor things. The whole truth
-with the sterner sex is that they are never
-really practical. They—”</p>
-
-<p>“How clever you are!” cried the girl
-with the dimple in her chin, admiringly.
-“Sometimes it does seem a pity that you
-are to marry Jack, instead of studying law,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
-or—theosophy or something like that.
-Really, a very little study would fit you for
-the bar, but of course Jack—”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t intend to marry Jack,” said
-the blue-eyed girl, calmly.</p>
-
-<p>“O, my goodness, does he know that?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know whether he knows that
-or not; but he does know that I’ve broken
-my engagement with him. I sent back his
-ring, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear, dear; that ring must have already
-cost its real value in messenger fees alone.
-Let me see, how many times have you sent—”</p>
-
-<p>“And you may know that I am in earnest
-when I tell you that I am to pour tea for
-Nell to-morrow, and everybody will comment
-on its absence.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you want me to come over and
-stay with you to-night, dear?” queried the
-girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“No, thank you, dear. I can just as
-well talk it over with you now. Of course
-it was Jack’s fault.”</p>
-
-<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin was
-silent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, I did think
-that you, of all people, would sympathize
-with me, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Look here, Dorothy; of course I sympathize
-with you, but you remember
-when you quarreled with Jack the last
-time I—”</p>
-
-<p>“I remember the last time that Jack
-quarreled with me,” replied the blue-eyed
-girl, with dignity.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I sympathized violently with you,
-and the consequence was that you wouldn’t
-speak to me for a month after you made up
-with him!”</p>
-
-<p>“O, of course, if you really do sympathize
-with me, I—”</p>
-
-<p>“You might know that. But tell me all
-about it. Is it that you want a new ring
-which is too expensive for anything save a
-peace offering? Or is Edwin coming home
-on a visit? Or has—”</p>
-
-<p>“Nothing so frivolous, my dear; this is a
-serious matter. Jack—that is, Mr. Bittersweet,
-joined a new club without even letting
-me know that he meant to do it. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
-shouldn’t have minded if he had only told
-of it beforehand—”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not, dear; for then you could
-have made him give it up!”</p>
-
-<p>“Exactly. Well, when I did find it out,
-I told him that I plainly saw he did not
-really love me, and that it was lucky I had
-discovered the fact before it was too late!”</p>
-
-<p>“How very original you are!” murmured
-the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“Go on, dear.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, it is all over and I never was so
-hap—happy in my life! Where is my
-hand—handkerchief? I—I got s—something
-in my eye on the way here, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Here it is, dear, and let me draw down
-the window shade, so the light will not
-hurt your poor eye.”</p>
-
-<p>“You needn’t, dear. I saw them coming
-up the street a minute or two ago and
-all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet
-thinks he can make me jealous by
-parading up and down with a made-up
-thing like Frances, he is very much mistaken!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I suppose you have coaxed Edwin’s sister
-to write and tell him that you have
-broken with Jack?” queried the girl with
-the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“No, I haven’t. I did that last time
-and he was so unpleasant after we made
-up!”</p>
-
-<p>“Who was unpleasant? Jack?”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not, goosie. A man is
-always nicer than usual just after making
-up. No, it was Edwin; he—men are so
-awfully selfish, you know! Just because I
-was nice to him while I was angry with
-Jack, he imagined I had treated him badly—did
-you ever hear of such a thing? How
-did he ever expect me to bring Jack to his
-senses in time for the opera season, without
-a little jealousy as an incentive?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, you know, men are so awfully
-vain that he probably thought—”</p>
-
-<p>“That I really liked him? Perhaps he
-did. I never thought of that. Still, badly
-as he has behaved, I can’t help a kindly
-feeling for him. You see, I had such a
-lovely new gown for the opera and everybody<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
-knew that I expected to go often,
-so—”</p>
-
-<p>“You might even have had to give in
-and acknowledge that you were wrong, but
-for Edwin!”</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear,” replied the blue-eyed girl,
-with great dignity. “Never that. I really
-expected to marry Jack, you know, and it
-would never have done to establish such a
-precedent. How could I ever expect a
-happy married life, if I began it by acknowledging
-that I could ever be in the
-wrong?”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true, dear. By the way, do you
-think a peep at my lovely new waist would
-do you any good?”</p>
-
-<p>“You seem to have misunderstood me
-entirely,” retorted the blue-eyed girl,
-severely, “I am feeling quite happy. Indeed,
-I don’t know that I ever felt happier
-in my life, unless it was the day upon which
-I was mistaken for my younger sister!”</p>
-
-<p>“But what are you going to do in regard
-to Jack?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, Emily Marshmallow, how stupid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
-you are to-day! You seem to imagine that
-I want to be flattered, like a man, by being
-asked to explain things. I told you,
-didn’t I? that Jack and I quarreled about
-his membership in a new club. Very well,
-I too, have decided to join a club!”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph, that isn’t a bad idea. But
-what kind of a club? An Ibsen or a Browning
-one, I suppose. I notice that men
-dislike particularly to have us members of
-really intellectual clubs.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I did think of either an Ibsen or
-a Symphony club, but neither of them just
-seemed to suit me, so—well, the fact is
-that I’ve decided to found a club of my
-own.”</p>
-
-<p>“But even then you can’t always have it
-to suit you, because the other members—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes, I shall dear. You see, I’ll
-make all the—the by-laws and resolutions
-just as I want them, before I invite any one
-to join the club. I think I shall ask Evelyn
-to be the president, because she is married
-and accustomed already to making somebody
-do as she wishes.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Dear, dear, I’m only afraid that you
-are too clever to—”</p>
-
-<p>“Succeed? Not quite so bad as that, I
-hope. Now, you see, the chief objection
-to Jack’s new club was that he wouldn’t
-tell me anything about it. Said he didn’t
-know just what its purpose was. As if a
-man would join a club without knowing—”</p>
-
-<p>“I begin to see now. You mean to keep
-the purpose of your own club a secret,
-too?”</p>
-
-<p>“That’s just it, and when Jack hears how
-nice it is, he’ll find out that we are a great
-deal cleverer than he thinks. I shall make
-the membership for life too, so—”</p>
-
-<p>“But you haven’t even told me the purpose
-of the club yet.”</p>
-
-<p>“The Advancement of Woman, dear.
-Jack hates advanced women and when I
-make up with him—”</p>
-
-<p>“But you said a moment ago that you
-would never—”</p>
-
-<p>“Good gracious, Emily,” cried the blue-eyed
-girl, hastily, “do stop talking a moment
-and let me get in a word edgewise:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
-I’ve been trying for half an hour to get a
-chance to ask you where the new waist you
-offered to show me, is, and I can’t—”</p>
-
-<p>“Here it is in my wardrobe and isn’t it a
-dream? You may try it on, if you like.”</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you, dear; but no. I care so
-little for such frivolities, now that I have
-come to enjoy the real intellectual life.
-Did you ever see such darling sleeves? It
-does seem that a girl who could not be
-happy in them must—”</p>
-
-<p>“Have at least a boil on her chin! Yes,
-doesn’t it? But really, Dorothy, you make
-me ashamed of caring so much for such
-vanities. Why, those very sleeves cost me
-two whole nights’ rest!”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind about that, dear; we can’t
-all be intellectual. Look here, Emily
-Marshmallow, if you’ll promise never to
-breathe it as long as you live, I’ll tell you
-the last mean thing that Frances—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, do! She has a new gown that
-would arouse the envy of Dr. Mary Walker.
-All chiffon, spangles, embroidery and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I know. My story has reference to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
-that very gown. You know how very mysterious
-she always is about her new things!”</p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. As if anybody cared to know
-about them! Do tell me if her waist is
-made—”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I—you see, it was this way: I
-knew she was having her new gown made
-at Madame’s, and I accidentally discovered
-that she was to be fitted on Friday at two.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I see. Then, you called upon
-Frances at one o’clock, thinking that she’d
-take you along, rather than risk offending
-Madame by being late?”</p>
-
-<p>“No; Frances isn’t afraid of Madame—she
-doesn’t owe her anything. I just happened
-in at Madame’s at half-past two.
-They told me she was busy, but I said I
-knew she wouldn’t mind if I stepped into
-the fitting-room for a minute, as I had a
-letter from Paris and wanted to tell her all
-about the new skirts.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, you clever thing!”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. So in I bounced, and there stood
-Frances, all in billowy waves of turquoise
-blue and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“But I thought her new gown was green
-and white, with—”</p>
-
-<p>“And you should have seen how sweetly
-she smiled. So sweetly that I knew she
-was wild with rage!”</p>
-
-<p>“But did you make it right with the Madame?
-Did—”</p>
-
-<p>“Pretended that I must have left the
-Paris letter at home, and told her I’d fetch
-it the next day. Then, after a good, long
-look at Frances, I came away and—”</p>
-
-<p>“And ran in to tell all the other girls
-how her new gown was made?”</p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. Annie first: you know, she
-hasn’t a bit of originality and she said, at
-once, that she’d have her new one just like
-it. Then, I dropped in at Evelyn’s tea
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Told all the others, too. M’hm.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. But what do you think that cat,
-Frances, had done? She’d been there before
-me and told them all that I had come
-into the fitting-room out of sheer curiosity—I
-curious, the idea! And the gown she
-was trying on was not her own, after all,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
-she said, but one about which Madame had
-asked her opinion and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Gracious, do you suppose that was the
-truth?”</p>
-
-<p>“Alas, I know it;” groaned the blue-eyed
-girl, “it belonged to Jack’s sister,
-Effie! Now, Effie detests Annie and when
-she sees her in a gown which is an exact reproduction
-of her own, she will—”</p>
-
-<p>“Won’t she, though? Well, my dear,
-Effie was an unknown quantity before, but
-now you may depend upon one thing—she
-will use any influence she may have with
-Jack against you.”</p>
-
-<p>“True. And all because of such a silly
-thing, too! But, then, people are so
-frivolous. Well, you will join my new
-club, won’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, yes. You had better invite
-Frances, too; she will tell Effie all about it,
-and the first time Effie is offended with
-Jack, she will tell him, thinking to annoy
-you both—”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall, though it is hardly necessary,
-either, for, once started, everybody will talk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
-of nothing else. But, whatever you do,
-don’t tell Dick a word about it. Evelyn’s
-husband is sure to tell him, anyhow, and
-then he can’t say that women never keep
-secrets.”</p>
-
-<p>“What utter nonsense. Of course women
-can keep secrets! Why, I once knew a
-girl intimately for two whole years and in
-all that time she never told me that her
-curls were false. I wouldn’t have known
-it to this day, if I hadn’t walked into her
-room one day when she had washed them
-and hung them up to dry. I’ve told that
-story to a dozen men, and I’ve never
-yet found one of them magnanimous
-enough to acknowledge that it proved my
-point!”</p>
-
-<p>“You can’t prove anything to a man,
-dear, unless he wants it proved. Well, I
-must go. You’ll not fail me at the first
-meeting of the Teacup club, then?”</p>
-
-<p>“The Teacup club,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, disappointedly,
-“Why I thought it was to be a really intellectual
-club, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“So it is. But, you know, real merit is
-always modest. If a lot of men get up
-such a thing, they give it a six-syllabled
-name; but we wish to evade, rather than
-seek, notoriety and, besides, as I said before,
-once we get it started, the whole town
-will talk of nothing else!”</p>
-
-<p>It fell upon a bright sunshiny day, and
-the meeting for the organization of the Teacup
-club was well attended.</p>
-
-<p>“And all the girls are wearing their newest
-gowns, too,” whispered the blue-eyed
-girl to the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-“that shows that they appreciate the importance
-of the undertaking.”</p>
-
-<p>“And what an awfully becoming hat you
-are wearing,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “If I owned such a milliner’s
-dream I should not mind anything that
-could happen to me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Which means that you have something
-unpleasant to tell me,” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “You need not be uneasy,” she added,
-“I’ll not move a muscle, for Frances is
-looking this way.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Well, then, I heard her tell Nell that
-Jack comes to her almost every day for
-sympathy and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph. When a man says ‘sympathy’
-he means flattery! Is that all?”</p>
-
-<p>“All? Why I thought—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear. You see, I thought perhaps
-you had stronger proof than her own assertion.
-Why, Frances, dear, how well you
-are looking to-day! I have not seen you
-for such an age that I thought you must be
-out of town.”</p>
-
-<p>“Has it seemed so long to you, dear?”
-returned the brown-eyed blonde. “Now, to
-me the days go so swiftly that, as I sometimes
-tell Ja—Mr. Bittersweet, I mean—I
-often forget whether it is Saturday or
-Monday!”</p>
-
-<p>“So you have seen the poor fellow, have
-you?” returned the blue-eyed girl, with an
-angelic smile; “it is so good of you to console
-him. But, indeed, you are always
-good about such things and so modest
-about it, too, that but for the men themselves,
-we should never know how hard you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
-work just to induce them to come and be
-comforted!”</p>
-
-<p>“I—why,—I—” stammered the brown-eyed
-blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, indeed, I was defending you only
-the other day. I was quite angry with
-Marion for saying that your house should
-be called ‘An Asylum for the Rejected.’
-I was so indignant that I just told her that,
-for my part, I thought we all ought to be
-grateful to you for consoling the poor fellows
-and helping to keep them out of mischief
-when they are feeling so badly. I reminded
-her, too, that you must do it out
-of pure philanthropy—for you never seem
-to get anything out of it. Really, I never
-saw you looking quite so well; you have
-such a fine color and—oh, here is Evelyn,
-at last, and we can call the meeting to
-order!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, Evelyn is wearing her old gown,”
-cried the girl with the classic profile, “I
-call that downright mean! I had thought
-I could get such a good chance to study the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
-draping of it while she was on the platform.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps, that is why she didn’t wear
-it,” returned the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Mercy, is it me they are calling to order?
-Why, didn’t you tell me before; I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me, girls,” the little woman on
-the platform was saying, “I don’t know
-that I ought to be president. It seems to
-me that we should have an election or
-something.”</p>
-
-<p>“That is not necessary,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, “don’t you remember? I asked
-you to be president, in the first place. But
-if you’d rather, I’ll move that you are to
-be the chief officer, and Emily, here, will
-second the motion, won’t you Emily?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, yes of course,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“That does seem more regular,” said the
-little woman on the platform, in a relieved
-tone. “I wonder if I ought to make a
-speech of acceptance?”</p>
-
-<p>“Not unless you choose;” said the blue-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
-girl, “harmony is the chief study of
-this club, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, if it is to be a club for the study of
-harmony, I can’t join;” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses, “I don’t know a thing
-about music and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m afraid you have not been paying
-attention,” said the blue-eyed girl, severely.
-“The club is organized for the advancement
-of woman and I don’t know a girl
-anywhere who would be more benefited by
-it than yourself. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose
-we ought to assess dues, or something.
-I know that Ja—I mean a man I know—is
-always talking about dues at his clubs.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, but this is to be entirely different
-from a man’s club,” said the president,
-“and, then, what is the use of assessing
-dues, anyhow?”</p>
-
-<p>“We might give the money to charity,”
-suggested the girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, if we did that, why not let
-each of us give what she wants to charity
-and be done with it?” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Yes, of course,” said the president;
-“dear me, I had no idea that it was so easy
-to organize a club, or I’d have done it long
-ago. It isn’t half as much trouble as giving
-a tea and you don’t run any risk of
-offending people by forgetting to invite
-them and then having to convince them
-that the card was lost in the mails.”</p>
-
-<p>“Talking of teas,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, “I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Pardon me,” said the president, gently,
-“but if this is a club for the advancement
-of woman, ought we to talk about
-teas?”</p>
-
-<p>“But you began it, yourself,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose, “I only—”</p>
-
-<p>“I think I said merely that the club is
-ever so much nicer than a tea,” said the
-president.</p>
-
-<p>“And so it is,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-“though, by the way, Nell’s last one was
-lovely—there were enough men present to
-amuse us, whereas—”</p>
-
-<p>“There are usually so few that they have
-to be amused, lest they get lonesome,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
-broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh,
-girls, have you heard that Clarissa—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oughtn’t we to be attending to business,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose,
-“instead of talking about Clarissa? I saw
-her myself only an hour ago and if there
-was anything exciting to tell, she would
-have—”</p>
-
-<p>“But this <i>has</i> a connection with the
-club,” insisted the brown-eyed blonde.
-“She wants to become a member!”</p>
-
-<p>“She just can’t be anything of the
-kind,” said the blue-eyed girl, “the idea!
-A girl whose reputation for intellectuality
-rests upon the careless combing of her hair
-and a habit of wearing hats six months behind
-the mode.”</p>
-
-<p>“But how can we get out of it, if she
-says she wants to join?” said the president,
-with an anxious air.</p>
-
-<p>“Tell her that one of the rules of the club
-is that no person over the age of twenty-two
-years can become a member,” suggested
-the girl with the dimple in her
-chin; “she celebrated her twenty-third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
-birthday about a week ago, you remember.”</p>
-
-<p>“But it isn’t one of the rules,” objected
-the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Then, we can make it a rule, right
-now,” said the blue-eyed girl, calmly. “I
-know just how it would be if we let Clarissa
-into the club—she’d insist upon having
-everything her own way right along. I
-hate such selfishness myself, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“So do I,” said the president; “by the
-way, oughtn’t we to make a note of that
-rule, at once?”</p>
-
-<p>“What would be the use of that?” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we
-have all heard it. Oh, girls, I already see
-the benefit we are to derive from the influence
-of this club! Not a single soul has
-said a word in regard to Clarissa’s pretentions
-to being only twenty-three!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, that’s true,” cried the president,
-“and very considerate of us it was, too,
-when we all know how ridiculous it is!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls, I must tell you something,”
-cried the girl with the eyeglasses. “I went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
-with Clarissa to a reception given by her
-literary club the other evening and it was
-simply awful!”</p>
-
-<p>“Not a decent toilet in the room, of
-course,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I didn’t expect that—I knew it
-was a culture club. It seems that there
-had been an awful time over the programme.
-Some of the members wanted to
-have an Ibsen evening, while others declared
-for Browning. Finally, they decided
-upon a mixed programme, selections from
-them both, you know. I did not know
-that when I went.”</p>
-
-<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose, “otherwise, you—”</p>
-
-<p>“Would gladly have accepted the invitation—and
-been suddenly taken ill on the
-appointed day, of course. Well, when the
-papers and selections were being read, I
-studied my programme to keep my eyes
-from those appalling coiffures, and when I
-saw the word ‘Music’ on it, I felt like a
-person who has found an oasis in a desert!”</p>
-
-<p>“And had you?” queried the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
-who had left the platform and joined the
-group about the narrator.</p>
-
-<p>“No. They played something from
-Wagner!”</p>
-
-<p>“And you?” said the girl with the classic
-profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I was in a comatose condition by
-that time. Nothing mattered. After the
-interminable programme they served refreshments.”</p>
-
-<p>“You felt better then?” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“No, I didn’t. They had tea and wafers!
-Tea and wafers after Ibsen, Browning and
-Wagner! And then Clarissa vanished and
-I couldn’t get away. The people present
-were all very distinguished; one of the
-members had written an epic poem which
-would have appeared in Harper’s if it had
-not been lost in the mails; one of them had
-invented a rational dress for men and another
-had once been asked to deliver a
-lecture upon ‘Thought Transference’
-before a mothers’ meeting at an orphan
-asylum!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“My goodness, no wonder you wanted
-to go home!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“I did—badly. By and by, while I was
-wandering about the rooms in search of
-Clarissa, I found a woman who looked as
-unhappy as I felt. I was afraid to speak
-to her, lest she be somebody very remarkable,
-but she asked me, timidly, if I was
-the lady who had actually worn a rainy day
-dress, in public. I assured her that I was
-not, and after that we got on famously.”</p>
-
-<p>“But who was she?” the president asked.</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know her name, but after we
-had discussed Ibsen and Browning a little,
-I asked what she had done. She replied,
-modestly: ‘Oh, I am the person who always
-read the Woman’s page in the daily papers!’
-After that, we talked just like ordinary
-people, and I didn’t see Clarissa when
-she came to look for me!”</p>
-
-<p>“My goodness, girls, we really ought not
-to laugh so,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “because this club is devoted to the
-advancement of woman, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“That is entirely different,” said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
-president. “Did Ibsen, Browning or Wagner
-ever do anything for the advancement
-of woman, I’d like to know?”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-promptly. “How very absurd!”</p>
-
-<p>“Besides, our club is laid out on entirely
-new lines,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, isn’t it?” returned the president;
-“Oh, girls, I quite forgot to tell you that
-we shall have to pay rent for this room if
-we hold our meetings here, and we haven’t
-made any provision for paying it.”</p>
-
-<p>“But what is the use of making provision,
-when it isn’t due yet?” asked the blue-eyed
-girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Why—er, that is very true,” said the
-president; “I only wish I was as good a
-business woman as you!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I often feel that I have a great
-deal to learn yet,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-modestly. “By the way, Evelyn, what did
-your husband say when you told him that
-you had decided to join a club?”</p>
-
-<p>“He said—Oh, girls, I’m almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
-ashamed to tell you, but then Tom is
-only a man, after all. He said: ‘Then,
-may the Lord have mercy upon my
-wretched digestion!’”</p>
-
-<p>“As if women had nothing to do but
-cook and keep house! when lots of us
-know nothing about either of them,” said
-the girl with the classic profile, indignantly.
-“Girls, I wonder why it is that if a woman
-studies law or anything like that, somebody
-is sure to say that she is going outside of
-her sphere, while nobody thinks anything
-of the kind if a man becomes a chef or invents
-a food for infants?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, if you expect logic from a man!”
-said the president, shrugging her shoulders;
-“however, I expected it, too, before I was
-married. I know better now.”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear, dear, isn’t the Advancement of
-Woman delightful?” cried the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “After this, when we want to
-know anything, we needn’t go to the
-trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or
-the encyclopædia; we can just discuss it at
-the club, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Why do you bother with those horrid
-books? I never do,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “They are so heavy
-and always dusty, too. Now, I just ask
-the nearest man what I want to know. If
-he happens to be wrong, I can always cite
-my authority and it gives the next man a
-double pleasure in setting me right.”</p>
-
-<p>“What a clever thing you are,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses; “you always make
-me think of what somebody said about er—Juliet,
-I think: ‘To know her is a liberal
-education.’”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, that is nothing. Why, I know a
-Vassar girl who has studied Greek and all
-that sort of thing and she invariably misspells
-several simple words whenever she
-writes to a man, so he may think himself so
-much cleverer than her and—”</p>
-
-<p>“And I know a girl who asks every man,
-the first time she meets him, to explain
-the Australian ballot system. You see,
-it is a thing they all have to know, so
-they—”</p>
-
-<p>“Goodness me, I should think she would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
-get awfully tired of the answer,” said the
-president.</p>
-
-<p>“She does. She told me not long ago
-that she really must invent a new stock
-question, for she could hardly keep from
-yawning now, while—”</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of yawning,” broke in the
-brown-eyed blonde, “Teddy Crœsus
-doesn’t send Molly flowers or bonbons
-any more!”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t see what that has to do with
-yawning,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose.</p>
-
-<p>“More than you may think, dear. You
-know Molly always asks a man if a premonition
-of danger has ever been the means
-of saving his life. She doesn’t ask it the
-first time they meet, but saves it for some
-special occasion. Well, one evening at a
-reception, Teddy seemed disposed to talk
-to Florence too much, and Molly asked him
-the question then, because she knew—”</p>
-
-<p>“That he would stay with her as long as
-she allowed him to talk about himself! Yes,
-of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. Well, he was in the midst of a
-long story about how he once escaped from
-being in a railroad wreck by missing his train.
-Molly was listening with breathless interest
-when she saw Florence stop within two
-feet of her. She couldn’t resist one
-glance of triumph and that glance was her
-ruin.”</p>
-
-<p>“It was? Did he look up just then and
-remember Flo—”</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear. But just as Molly looked at
-her, she gave a mighty yawn. Well, you
-know, yawning is contagious and Molly had
-been at a ball the night before, so she
-yawned, too. Teddy’s eyes were on her
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“And now Florence gets his violets and
-bonbons! Well, isn’t that a story without
-a moral?” cried the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“It certainly is,” groaned the president.
-“Well, girls, I fear we must adjourn,
-though it is hard to break up such an intellectual
-talk. For my part, I shall go back
-to the petty cares of life with renewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
-energy after a breath of air from a higher
-plane.”</p>
-
-<p>“I, too,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “I feel now as if petty gossip and
-scandal could never interest me again.”</p>
-
-<p>The president and the blue-eyed girl had
-walked four blocks, when the former suddenly
-stopped.</p>
-
-<p>“There, I knew I had forgotten something,”
-she cried; “at first, I thought it
-was only to order dinner, but now I remember
-that I did not suggest a topic for discussion
-at our next meeting!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,”
-said the blue-eyed girl, “nobody would
-have had time to prepare anything for it, if
-you had; there is so much going on in our
-set this week, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true,” replied the president, “and
-all the members are so much interested in
-intellectual topics, anyhow, that they are
-quite prepared to discuss them extemporaneously
-as we did to-day.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter II<br />
-
-<small>The Club Discusses Woman in Politics</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>The Teacup club was called to order fifteen
-minutes before the appointed time at
-its second meeting. “We are all here,
-you know, and there is no use in waiting,”
-observed the president, as she rapped for
-order with a jeweled hatpin.</p>
-
-<p>“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, who had been reading up in
-parliamentary usage.</p>
-
-<p>“I am so glad to see you all here,” said
-the president, “I was afraid that Effie’s
-luncheon might—”</p>
-
-<p>“Keep some of us away? Not from this
-club,” said the girl with the classic profile.
-“I believe she chose the day just on purpose
-to break up the meeting, so I declined
-her invitation.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you?” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
-nose, “I didn’t. Effie is not popular
-enough to offer her guests badly cooked
-food, so I went and excused myself as soon
-as we rose from the table on the plea that I
-should be late for the club if I remained
-longer.”</p>
-
-<p>“I wish I might have seen Effie when
-you said that,” remarked the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “However, your turn came
-when the door closed after you.”</p>
-
-<p>“I think not, dear,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose, calmly, “Effie is not
-yet distinctly engaged to my cousin
-Clarence, so—”</p>
-
-<p>“She has to be on decent terms with his
-family! I might have thought of that,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“If they had been married, now of course
-I shouldn’t have dared to do it, but—”</p>
-
-<p>“I should think not. Oh, girls, speaking
-of what happens after the door closes,
-makes me think of what happened to Effie
-herself once. It was just after the affair
-with Teddy Crœsus, you know.”</p>
-
-<p>“The time she thought to make people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
-believe she was engaged to him, and took
-him to dine with her grandmother—”</p>
-
-<p>“And her grandmother failed to understand
-the situation and congratulated them!
-Indeed, I do,” cried the girl with the
-Roman nose, “although, on account of
-being her dearest friend, I failed to hear
-it until two days after everybody else
-had.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, you know she went to a breakfast
-at Nell’s a few days after that,” went
-on the girl with the eyeglasses, “and left
-early. As she reached the corner, she remembered
-a message for Nell and went back
-to deliver it. She burst into the room unannounced
-and found all the girls talking at
-once.”</p>
-
-<p>“About her, of course! What did—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Any other girl would have known
-that, but Effie said: ‘Oh, girls, do tell me
-all about it; what has happened?’”</p>
-
-<p>“Well?”</p>
-
-<p>“And it was so sudden that not one of
-them could think of a thing to say until she
-had flounced out in a rage!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“The moral is: Never go back after once
-saying good-by,” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
-“by the way, Dorothy, why weren’t you
-at Effie’s to-day?”</p>
-
-<p>“I fancy my invitation was lost in the
-mail,” replied the blue-eyed girl. “I shall
-mention it to Effie as soon as I see her, so
-she will not feel that I’ve slighted her intentionally.
-Why, Frances, dear, did those
-mean things let you sit all through luncheon
-with the end of your, ah—detachable hair
-showing and a dab of powder on your nose?
-How mean and envious some people are!”</p>
-
-<p>“I—I think it is cooler over on the other
-side,” panted the brown-eyed blonde, “and
-besides I must see Emily a minute.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, Dorothy, you must have just
-heard something awfully nice, you look so
-happy and smiling,” said the girl with the
-classic profile, “but really this delightful
-club is making us all amiable.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, isn’t it?” said the blue-eyed girl,
-“I couldn’t be really mean to anybody
-now, if I tried.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Excuse me for interrupting you, girls,”
-said the president, “but I want to announce
-our topic for discussion, and if I don’t do
-it at once I may forget it. Suppose we
-choose “Woman as a Political Factor?”
-That is a broad enough field even for us,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“So it is,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Well, I know one thing—whenever
-a woman really knows what she wants
-in a political line, she gets it.”</p>
-
-<p>“She does—and has ever since Eve held
-that first caucus with the serpent in the
-garden,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the
-Roman nose, who had been furtively consulting
-her book on parliamentary usage.
-“Oh, girls, have you heard that the man
-Nell expects to marry is a politician?”</p>
-
-<p>“No; but it seems a very suitable
-match,” said the president, “for I don’t
-know a girl anywhere who can shake hands
-as gracefully as she does.”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me, Evelyn, how generous you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
-are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
-believe you could find something nice to
-say about everybody.”</p>
-
-<p>“I really believe I could,” said the president,
-modestly, “and, after all, it is easy
-enough, for if you don’t like the subject of
-your remarks, you can always say it in such
-a tone that it does more harm than good.”</p>
-
-<p>“You are so just,” sighed the girl with
-the classic profile, “and yet, men always
-declare there is no real fellowship among
-women!”</p>
-
-<p>“They confuse their own wish with the
-true state of affairs,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “They know that one
-woman is often more than a match for the
-whole male sex and when a number of
-women band together they—”</p>
-
-<p>“Usually get more than they want,”
-said the president. “I often wonder,
-though, why it is always so much easier to
-convince other men that you are in the
-right than it is to persuade the men of your
-own family?”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps we put it in a more flattering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
-way to strangers,” suggested the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, “we just can’t
-help it, though, for we can’t always
-be—”</p>
-
-<p>“Looking up?” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “Of course not—if we were
-our necks would grow so stiff that—”</p>
-
-<p>“We could never see our own boots; besides,
-we would be such frights that no man
-would look at us and so—”</p>
-
-<p>“It would do no good in the end,” finished
-the blue-eyed girl. “Still, I sometimes
-fancy, after all, that it might be well
-to be as nice to papa and the boys as I am
-to the men I dance with!”</p>
-
-<p>“My goodness,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, “we must be getting
-into metaphysics now! I’m not quite sure
-as to what metaphysics may be, so I always
-conclude that everything I don’t understand
-must—”</p>
-
-<p>“Be metaphysics? Do you? For my
-part, I always confuse metaphysics with
-hydraulics, though there is some difference
-between them I know,” said the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
-blonde. “Let us ask Evelyn to explain
-them right now. She—”</p>
-
-<p>“Some other time, dear;” said the president,
-hastily. “You know we are discussing
-Woman in Politics to-day and—”</p>
-
-<p>“It would be unparliamentary to discuss
-anything else,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>The president looked at her gratefully.</p>
-
-<p>“What a logical mind you have, dear,”
-she said. “I only wish you could be with
-me sometimes when Tom comes home late
-from his club. I know that there are all
-sorts of flaws in the stories he tells me, but
-somehow I never find them until after he
-has given me money and I’ve kissed him
-and made up.”</p>
-
-<p>“What a pity,” sighed the girl with the
-Roman nose, “for if you found out the real
-flimsiness of his stories sooner, you could
-get more money.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, dear, so I could,” wailed the president,
-“it is an awful thing to have a husband
-and not a logical mind!”</p>
-
-<p>“So it is,” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
-nose, “but, Evelyn, don’t tell anybody
-your opinion of me, for if you do, it may
-end in my having a logical mind and no
-husband, which is worse!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, isn’t this beautiful!” cried the girl
-with the eyeglasses, suddenly. “Really,
-girls, I am so stupid—that is not stupid as
-compared to a man, of course, but to the
-rest of you—that I wonder you allow me
-to belong to the club!” and there were
-tears in her eyes as she spoke.</p>
-
-<p>The president came down from the platform
-and kissed her.</p>
-
-<p>“Stupid! the idea of a girl with such a
-genius for hairdressing being stupid,” she
-cried.</p>
-
-<p>“And that girl a chafing-dish cook whose
-Welsh rarebits are sometimes successful,
-too!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! speaking of chafing-dish cookery,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“You know that Annie used to be engaged
-to Eustace, don’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. But what has that to do with
-chafing-dish cookery?” said the girl with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
-the Roman nose. “Girls, I have the loveliest
-recipe for making—”</p>
-
-<p>“It has a great deal to do with it.
-When he married Claire, Annie just smiled
-and selected a chafing-dish as a wedding
-present. She knew that Eustace was a
-confirmed dyspeptic and that Claire’s hands
-are so pretty that she could not possibly
-resist an opportunity to display them, so
-she would cook all sorts of dishes and—”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way, I hear that they have
-agreed to separate,” said the president. “I
-met Claire on the way to the manicure the
-other day. I wonder where Eustace is?”</p>
-
-<p>“He is in a sanitarium,” replied the girl
-with the dimple in her chin, “the doctor
-thinks he will have to be taken into court
-on a stretcher when the divorce proceedings
-come up!”</p>
-
-<p>“And yet you told me the other day that
-Annie had no originality; I’ve learned this
-since then,” whispered the girl with the
-dimple in her chin to the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“I only meant in the matter of gowns,
-dear,” was the apologetic reply. “By the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
-way, Frances seems not quite herself, to-day.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve noticed that. I fancied you might
-have said something to her which—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, never; why, I consider Frances
-one of my dearest friends—”</p>
-
-<p>“I know that, dear. But what is the
-use of a friend, if you can’t be disagreeable
-to her sometimes?”</p>
-
-<p>“True. I sometimes think it is one reason
-that married women keep their friends
-longer. They have husbands to—”</p>
-
-<p>“Act as lightning rods and carry off their
-displeasure! Yes; it must really be quite
-a convenience.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very likely. Don’t you feel, after all,
-that Jack—”</p>
-
-<p>“Jack? Oh, I suppose you mean Mr.
-Bittersweet! No, I don’t feel any such
-thing, Emily Marshmallow, and you are no
-friend of mine if you champion him after
-the way he has behaved to me!”</p>
-
-<p>“I—I was only going to mention that he
-had resigned from that new club. He told
-me so himself.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Oh, he has, has he? Well, isn’t that
-just like a man? And after he had paid all
-his dues for a year in advance, too, and
-gotten nothing out of it!”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps he—he did it hoping to please
-you, dear.”</p>
-
-<p>“His actions are perfectly indifferent to
-me, I assure you. Besides, if I made up
-with him to-morrow, Frances would always
-think I was jealous. I jealous of her—the
-idea! And, oh, Emily, the way he—he
-flirts with that girl is enough to b—break
-my heart!”</p>
-
-<p>“If you two girls have anything interesting
-to say, I wish you would say it
-aloud,” broke in the president. “Of course
-I am not curious, but some of the others
-may—”</p>
-
-<p>“Nothing at all interesting,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, promptly; “I—I was just
-telling Emily that this club seems the one
-thing needed to fill my cup of happiness to
-overflowing!”</p>
-
-<p>“And mine!” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “By the way, isn’t it too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
-provoking that curls are coming in again,
-just as veils are going out!”</p>
-
-<p>“And just at the windiest season of the
-year, too,” wailed the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Really, I often think that the fashions are
-invented by men—they are so contrary!”</p>
-
-<p>“Pardon me,” said the president, “I did
-not quite catch what you were saying, because
-Emily and Marion were both talking
-at the same time. It seems to me that
-since I have been married, I can’t follow
-even two conversations simultaneously, as
-I used.”</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of that,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses, “who do you tell your
-secrets to now that you are married?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, I’ve hit on a splendid plan,”
-cried the president, “when I feel that I
-must just tell a secret or die—and I often
-feel that way—I wait until Tom is asleep
-and repeat the whole story in his ear. It
-relieves my mind and does no harm.”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t be too sure of that,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “My sister
-Helen doesn’t agree with you at all. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
-mentioned it to her the other day and she
-thought it clever, and resolved to emulate
-your wisdom, so she tried it on her husband,
-and he wasn’t asleep, only pretending.”</p>
-
-<p>“But I always test my husband with a
-question or two, first,” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“So did Helen. She asked him if he
-could fail to see how much she needed a
-new bonnet and wanted to know how much
-his share of the alumni banquet amounted
-to. He only snored in reply, and of course
-she thought she was safe and repeated the
-secret.”</p>
-
-<p>“With the result?” queried the blue-eyed
-girl, who was listening, breathless.</p>
-
-<p>“That it was all over his club the next
-day,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “It would not have made any difference,”
-she added, soberly, “only the secret
-was a rather clever trick I had played on
-Dick a few days before—and he belongs to
-the same club!”</p>
-
-<p>“And yet they say a man can keep a
-secret!” said the girl with the Roman
-nose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Who says so?” queried the girl with
-the eyeglasses. “Other men? Oh! I
-didn’t know but that you had heard some
-woman say so.”</p>
-
-<p>“Not unless a man was listening, dear,
-and that man a person whom—”</p>
-
-<p>“She wished to flatter immensely!”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Or who happened to know some
-of her own secrets! Girls, I’ve been wondering
-what on earth Annie sees in that
-horrid Fred Van Stupid? Now, I can understand
-the interest a girl takes in a brainless
-man who has a great deal of money,
-because then—”</p>
-
-<p>“He is exposed to so many temptations
-and her influence is sure to do him good,”
-finished the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, “for my part, I always let Ned Goldie
-come to see me oftener than usual during
-Lent. I feel that I am really doing some
-good and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Violets are an absolute necessity then
-and they are so dear that very few men can
-afford to present them in quantities.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, of course I let him bring me flowers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
-if he wants to—it is so much better for
-him to spend his money in that way than
-to lose it at poker, that I feel quite a missionary.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m; I don’t know about that, dear,
-though it’s very lovely of you to feel so,”
-sighed the president, “the fact is, that you
-are actually encroaching on what is really
-my violet money. Ned will play poker
-with my husband at the club at other seasons
-of the year, when he is not allowed to
-see much of you. He always loses and I
-make Tom divide his winnings with me,
-so—”</p>
-
-<p>There was a look of high resolve upon the
-face of the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“After this, I shall make him bring me
-twice as many, so I can divide with you,”
-she said, sweetly. “Oh, no, don’t thank
-me; I do so love to feel that I am doing
-some good in the world and I do so disapprove
-of games of chance!”</p>
-
-<p>“You haven’t made up your mind as to
-whether you will accept him or not, have
-you?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Not yet, dear. His chances and Dick’s
-are about even, at present. Of course he
-doesn’t know that, though; I couldn’t
-exert such a good influence over him, if he
-was sure one way or the other.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” sighed the president. “Oh,
-girls, I don’t know why men are so much
-more willing to be influenced for good before
-they are married than after. You may
-be sure of one thing though, Emily; he
-will say horrid things about you, if you
-finally do refuse him.”</p>
-
-<p>“No doubt,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “but when one tries to do
-good in this world, one can not begin to
-count the cost.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, Emily Marshmallow, what an angel
-you are!” cried the blue-eyed girl, kissing
-her. “You are always so busy doing good
-to others, that you never seem to give yourself
-a thought!”</p>
-
-<p>The brown-eyed blonde had by this time
-quite recovered her equanimity and was
-chatting, in low tones, with the girl who
-wore the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Poor, dear Dorothy is looking rather ill,
-isn’t she?” she remarked, after a while.</p>
-
-<p>“Why, I hadn’t noticed it before, but
-now that you speak of it, she does. However,
-she can’t expect to look young
-always. By the way, I hear that she has
-quarreled with Jack Bittersweet again.”</p>
-
-<p>“Has she seen him lately? I didn’t
-know that she had,” returned the brown-eyed
-blonde, smiling affectionately into the
-mirror.</p>
-
-<p>“Your hair is looking lovely to-day,” returned
-the girl with the eyeglasses. “Look
-here, Frances, do, like a dear, tell me all
-about the quarrel. You know all about it,
-of course, and I’ll not tell a soul. You
-know how well I can keep a secret and, besides,
-you owe it to me, for you wouldn’t
-have known a thing about Fred and Clarissa
-but for me!”</p>
-
-<p>“But I hadn’t a thing to do about the
-quarrel, oh, really now I hadn’t. Of
-course, people think it was all on my account
-but—why, I was in Omaha when I
-heard of it.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“By the way you came back from Omaha
-earlier than you expected, didn’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I—no; that is only a week earlier.
-How well Jack looks, doesn’t he? And
-what a flow of spirits he has.”</p>
-
-<p>“Is it possible? Now, Effie says that he
-is as cross as a bear. But, then, Effie is
-his sister, so—”</p>
-
-<p>“What she says is of no consequence.
-Well, since you know so much already, I
-may as well tell you the rest. I fear that
-it is Dorothy’s insane jealousy of me which
-made the trouble. Of course I have not a
-spark of vanity, but I can’t help seeing—”</p>
-
-<p>“But I heard that the quarrel was over
-Jack’s membership in a new club.”</p>
-
-<p>“That might have been, dear, but people
-that are engaged don’t always quarrel over
-the real bone of contention. Of course, I
-only hope I really had nothing to do with
-it; I have so many such things on my conscience
-already that I don’t want any
-more,” and she sighed softly.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, but tell me about the quarrel, do.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well—er—the fact is that Jack hasn’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
-said a word to me about it, which makes me
-quite sure that I am the cause of it, unwilling
-as I am to think it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Then, you really don’t know any of
-the facts?” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Excuse me now, dear, I see Emily
-beckoning me; she wants to ask me about a
-new seamstress I’ve discovered. Frances
-doesn’t know a bit more than we do,” she
-whispered to the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “Jack hasn’t told her a thing, so
-he evidently still cares for Dorothy, and
-she—”</p>
-
-<p>“That’s just it,” wailed the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “I’d have succeeded in
-making it up long ago, if they didn’t care
-quite so much!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, dear,” said the president, “I am
-afraid that I am awfully stupid to-day, but
-the fact is that—”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way, I heard that you slept at a
-hotel last night, Evelyn,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose, “how on earth did that
-happen?”</p>
-
-<p>“It was all Tom’s fault,” returned the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
-president, in an aggrieved tone, “only he,
-being a man, will not admit the fact. You
-see, he didn’t want to go to the reception
-at all, so he—”</p>
-
-<p>“But, Nell said she met him in the street
-and gave him a verbal invitation, which he
-accepted with effusion.”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw, if Nell knew my husband as well
-as I do, she’d be aware that the more
-affably he accepts an invitation, the more
-determined he is to escape by some plausible
-excuse at the last moment. He says
-that people always accept your regrets as
-genuine under such circumstances.”</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you for telling me that,” said the
-girl with the classic profile. “My great aunt
-gives whist parties sometimes and, as she
-has a lot of lovely old lace and china and
-nobody in particular to leave it to, I don’t
-like to hurt her feelings by refusing her invitations
-outright. On the other hand, if I
-accept and happen to be placed at the table
-with her, I know I shall not receive so much
-as a cracked saucer in her will!”</p>
-
-<p>“But you and Tom did go to the reception,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
-I know, for I saw you there,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose, “how did you
-manage it?”</p>
-
-<p>“To make him go? Oh, that was easy
-enough. I merely said that he wasn’t very
-well and as I did not like to go out and
-leave him alone, I would ask mamma to
-come and stay with him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, then he agreed to go, did he?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear—said he had meant to go all
-along. But after that everything went
-wrong: his razor refused to do its work and
-he actually pretended that it was all because
-I had sharpened a lead pencil with it
-the other day, as if that could have—”</p>
-
-<p>“But why did you tell him that you had
-sharpened your pencil with it?” asked the
-blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Because I cut my finger on the old
-thing and thoughtfully warned him that it
-was too sharp. Then, I—well my own
-wardrobe was full and I had hung up a few
-things in his, and the skirt of my new tailor-made
-gown was hanging over his dress coat.
-He pretended that it was all wrinkled and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
-creased by that. Then, I had borrowed his
-box of neckties and neglected to return
-them, and he made such a fuss over my forgetfulness
-that I determined to give him a
-lesson. I saw him lay his latch key on the
-chiffonier ready to put in his other pocket
-and I didn’t say a word when he turned
-out the gas and went off without it.”</p>
-
-<p>“But how did you expect to get into the
-house when you returned?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! I slipped back into the room in the
-dark after he had gone down, and put it in
-my own pocket.”</p>
-
-<p>“As an object lesson in remembering.
-Good, I’m glad you did it,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. I told the maid not to sit up
-for us, and I saw for myself that every door
-and window was fastened tight—for once
-Tom climbed in at the pantry window when
-he had forgotten his key and didn’t want
-me to know how late he stayed at the
-club.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose he complained next day because
-the window was open, too,” murmured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
-the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-“men are so illogical!”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, no, dear; but he would have
-done so, only the clock happened to strike
-three as he came upstairs, and I counted the
-strokes aloud. Well Tom was cross at being
-kept waiting, but my gown fits so well
-that I felt at peace with all mankind.”</p>
-
-<p>“Even your own husband!” said the
-brown-eyed blonde. “It must indeed fit well.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. And I enjoyed the evening immensely,
-for I knew I had such a good joke
-on Tom when we got home.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and what happened then?” asked
-the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, it was great fun. He searched in
-all his pockets twice, rang the bell until he
-was tired, though the maids asleep in the
-third story might as well have been in
-Greenland for all the good that did. Then,
-he tried to force each door and window before
-he came back to the carriage to tell me
-that we were locked out!”</p>
-
-<p>“And then you—”</p>
-
-<p>“I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me before,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
-dear? Luckily, there is one of us who
-remembers things.’ If you could only have
-seen his face as he took the key I gave
-him!”</p>
-
-<p>“Then why on earth did you sleep at the
-hotel?” queried the girl with the Roman
-nose, in a bewildered tone.</p>
-
-<p>“I—well, the fact is that I—in the dark,
-I had mistaken the key to his desk for the
-latch-key! And, oh, girls, if you had seen
-me driving home from the hotel at ten
-o’clock in the morning, in the gown I had
-worn at the reception!”</p>
-
-<p>“You poor, dear thing!” cried the blue-eyed
-girl, “no wonder you chose ‘Woman
-in Politics’ for to-day’s discussion! If men
-are such tyrants as that, our only refuge
-will be equality in suffrage and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Latchkeys,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
-“though to be sure, we’d need
-pockets to keep them in, if we carried
-them. Sometimes, I suspect that the
-dressmakers are in league with the men to
-keep us from gaining our rights,” she
-added.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps they are,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, with a startled air, “the men pay the
-bills and so the dressmakers may be in
-league with them!”</p>
-
-<p>“You forget one thing, dear,” said the
-president, with a superior air. “It is the
-women who make the bills. You never
-heard of a man who ordered a dress for his
-wife did you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I hope not,” replied the girl with the
-Roman nose, “at least, if she was obliged
-to wear it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, dears,” said the president, “we
-really must adjourn, it is awfully late, but
-of course such a serious discussion could
-not be hurried. I think I must go and
-have a cup of bouillon to refresh me after
-making such serious demands upon the gray
-matter of my brain.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter III<br />
-
-<small>Man’s Real Attitude Toward the
-Progress of Woman</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>The Teacup club came to order with
-more than its usual reluctance at its next
-meeting and the president looked severe.
-“I wish you girls would stop talking about
-Helena and her affairs,” she said. “I detest
-gossip, and, besides, I want to hear all
-about her, too, and we can talk better after
-the meeting is over. The topic for to-day’s
-discussion will be, ‘Man’s Real Attitude
-Toward the Progress of Woman.’”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m glad to hear it,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose. “Men are such queer
-creatures that by the time a girl gets to
-understand them really she is too old to
-attract their attention. Now, if we all put
-our heads together—”</p>
-
-<p>“We may attain wisdom without its accompanying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
-wrinkles,” broke in the girl
-with the dimple in her chin; “that is a
-good idea, for—”</p>
-
-<p>“It is no real gain to know how to make
-them bring the proper kind of flowers and
-confectionery, if you have to spend the
-money thus saved on the beauty doctor;
-yes, that is true,” sighed the brown-eyed
-blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Widowers, or men who have been engaged
-several times, are often nice,” said
-the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “I like to do my own
-training, if it is troublesome. You can’t
-persuade a widower that his late wife was
-not a type of all womanhood, and that is
-horrid, especially if she happens to have
-had a taste for domestic magazines and
-molasses candy! That is why a widower is so
-much less attractive than a widow; she—”</p>
-
-<p>“Has learned that men, save for a few
-leading traits, are all different,” said the
-girl with the classic profile. “Yes, matrimony
-always widens a woman’s views of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
-opposite sex, while it narrows those of a
-man.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, dear,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose; “I do wish men would not do one
-thing and say another. Now, they are
-always praising domesticity in women, as
-well as shrinking modesty, and yet—”</p>
-
-<p>“They always overlook the domestic
-kind of a girl when she does venture among
-people,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde.
-“I know it, and as for shyness and modesty,
-it is only the girl who is bold enough to call
-attention to those qualities in herself who
-receives a social reward for them.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well,” said the president, “a man
-with a couple of sisters learns a great deal
-about the sex.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“I don’t know why it is, but the
-more sisters a man has, the slower he is to
-enter into matrimony.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve noticed that myself,” said the girl
-with the classic profile; “while girls who
-have plenty of brothers usually marry before
-they are twenty.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw! That is because the friends of
-their brothers get a chance to see them sew
-on buttons and make caramels,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“No, it isn’t,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “it is because such a girl has
-more than one person to oppose the man
-who wants to marry her. But talk about
-masculine inconsistency! It sets me wild
-to hear men talk about domesticity and
-modesty and all that, and then hang about
-Kate, a girl who doesn’t know a frying pan
-from a—a camera, and who had as lief ask
-for a thing she wants as to hint for it—so
-unfeminine!”</p>
-
-<p>“I know it,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Why, she never has to buy a
-flower, and as for candy, she has so much
-that she actually shares it with the other
-girls! I go to see her more frequently in
-Lent, because my conscience will not allow
-me to buy any then, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“And Kate has been engaged six times;
-she told me so herself,” said the girl with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
-the eyeglasses. “I declare, it is enough to
-make a girl—”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m!” said the president. “Don’t
-forget, my dears, that while she has been
-engaged six times, she has not been married
-once!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why—er—that is true,” cried the blue-eyed
-girl. “You dear, delightful, clever
-thing! I am so glad that I just made you
-be our president.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, of course I like it dear; still,
-as somebody once said, I’d rather be right
-than president.”</p>
-
-<p>“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the
-Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. But, oh, girls, Tom says that all
-the men in our set are talking about this
-club. He says that Jack Bittersweet asked
-him confidentially the other day if being
-intellectual made a woman less loveable.
-Luckily, I had just agreed to let him have
-a masculine dinner party and he assured
-Jack that it did not.”</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl arose softly from her
-seat and going over to where the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
-blonde was sitting, kissed her. “You
-dear thing,” she said. “Come over any
-day you like and you shall see the
-new sleeve design I got from Paris yesterday.”</p>
-
-<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin exchanged
-glances with the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“What time in the year do you prefer
-for a wedding?” asked the latter, apropos
-of nothing.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, speaking of weddings, that reminds
-me,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
-“I’d have prepared a paper on to-day’s
-topic, as you suggested, Evelyn, but Elizabeth
-asked me to help select her wedding
-dress and—well, you know, Elizabeth.
-It has taken her two days already and I
-don’t see any prospect yet of her making
-up her mind.”</p>
-
-<p>“And yet she required only five minutes
-in which to decide to accept Fred, when
-he asked her to marry him,” said the president,
-thoughtfully.</p>
-
-<p>“I know, dear, but then in this matter of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
-selecting her dress, she had a choice,” said
-the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“And I’m sure that Elizabeth’s father is
-delighted to buy her a wedding dress,” said
-the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, Emily,
-pardon me—I quite forgot that Elizabeth is
-your cousin!”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind, dear, though I rather like
-her, in spite of the relationship. Oh, girls,
-you have no idea of what an effect this club
-is having upon me. Why, I’ve turned my
-den into a library, cut all the leaves of my
-Carlisle and coaxed papa to buy me a handsome
-writing desk and do up the walls in
-forest greens because pink and blue seemed
-so frivolous. Now, I can sit in that room
-and write papers for the club in real comfort.”</p>
-
-<p>“You don’t know how pleased I am to
-hear it,” cried the president, warmly. “It
-is quite worth all the labor of selecting
-topics and leading the discussion, I assure
-you. Why, Marion, how late you are!
-Don’t you know that the really advanced
-woman is even ahead of the clock?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I do,” panted the girl with the
-classic profile, “but, really, I’ve had the
-most awful time getting here at all! You
-know I’m always in trouble, but really this
-is the worst that—I’ll never go anywhere
-with Nell again, unless it’s to my own
-funeral, and I can’t help myself, then.”</p>
-
-<p>“What on earth has Nell done now?”
-queried the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, “don’t you know that you must not
-expect absolute sanity from an engaged
-girl? You said you were going with her to
-the south side to call upon some of the
-relatives of her affianced. Did she take
-you over there, and then discover that she
-didn’t know their exact address? Or
-did—”</p>
-
-<p>“The address was not forgotten. We
-hadn’t meant to do any shopping to-day,
-but we stopped in to buy some thread, and
-really the new silks were so cheap that—”</p>
-
-<p>“You arrived an hour late, and penniless!
-I know,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“N—ot quite. I had ten cents left when
-we started for home, and we had to take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
-two lines of cars. Nell and I couldn’t get
-seats together—in fact, we were at opposite
-ends of the car. However, I paid her fare
-and signaled the fact to her, receiving a nod
-in reply.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well?” said the president, “didn’t she
-want to pay your fare on the other line?”</p>
-
-<p>“She—well, the fact is that she had misunderstood
-the signal, and paid our fare
-again with her own last dime. And there
-we were three miles from home, without a
-penny in our pockets—and the street car
-company had a dime it hadn’t earned.
-But then Nell never had a grain of sense—I
-should think by this time she knew that
-herself.”</p>
-
-<p>“If she doesn’t, I’m sure you are not to
-blame, dear,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose. “However, for my part, I shall not
-blame you, even if you are as cross as a man
-who is wearing a frayed collar, for the rest
-of the afternoon.”</p>
-
-<p>“But, don’t let us interrupt the proceedings,”
-said the girl with the classic profile,
-“just tell me what to-day’s topic is, and I—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Oh, it is a perfectly delightful one!”
-said the blue-eyed girl. “Man’s real attitude
-toward the Progress of Woman,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“His real attitude is that of flight,” said
-the girl with the Roman nose, “he—”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t be flippant, dear, whatever you
-are,” said the president, gravely, “we have
-enough of that to endure from our masculine
-acquaintances. It seems to me that a
-man laughs at whatever he fails to understand,
-and then feels that he has replied to
-the argument.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps that is the reason that men
-laugh at so many jokes in which I can see
-nothing funny,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“No doubt of it,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, “but, girls, never attempt to imitate
-them. I did once, and Annie—you
-know how obtuse she is—kept asking loudly
-what I was laughing at, and I couldn’t tell
-her. When a man had just made the remark
-that he was glad to find a girl with a
-keen sense of the ridiculous, too!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Just like Annie,” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “I sometimes wonder whether she is
-really obtuse or only malicious. You know
-how devoted Tommy Bonds is to music,
-don’t you? Well, Annie and I once accompanied
-him to a Thomas concert, and I
-wanted to make myself agreeable—”</p>
-
-<p>“I hope you didn’t do it by conversing
-while the orchestra was playing,” said the
-president.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not, goosie. But I remembered
-that he always says a woman should
-be two things—sincere and fond of music.
-The soloist was a pianist, I can’t remember
-his name, but his hair was not at all remarkable.
-When he played an encore, Tommy
-leaned over to me, and said: ‘Isn’t it
-charming?’ and I replied, ‘Yes, I like it
-better every time I hear it; in fact, I often
-ask people to play it for me.’ I wish now
-that I hadn’t said that.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why so?” asked the president, “it
-seems to me just the right thing to say.”</p>
-
-<p>“But Annie leaned over asking, loudly,
-‘What is the name of it?’ and, to my horror,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
-Mr. Bonds said he didn’t know, and it
-was all so sudden that, to save my life, I
-couldn’t make up a name! In the silence
-which followed, some one in front of us was
-heard remarking that the encore was a composition
-by the pianist himself, and now
-played for the first time in public!”</p>
-
-<p>“And it was all Annie’s fault, too,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin. “By
-the way, did I ever tell you how it happened
-that Mr. Bonds gave up calling me a
-delightful conversationalist? No? Well,
-you see, he lived almost opposite to us,
-and he practiced on the ’cello until papa,
-who is very fond of De Quincey, said he no
-longer dared to read “Murder considered as
-one of the Fine Arts.” Suddenly he
-stopped practicing, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy on us, had anything happened
-to him?” gasped the president, turning
-pale.</p>
-
-<p>“Nothing ever happens to people who
-deserve it. As it happened, however, we
-were no better off, for some one, a new
-resident of the street, we supposed, began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
-to practice on the violin seven hours a
-day!”</p>
-
-<p>“It may not have been a newcomer,”
-observed the girl with the eyeglasses. “It
-is a fact that one vigorous soprano is enough
-to demoralize a whole neighborhood, and I
-suppose—”</p>
-
-<p>“The ’cello is quite as bad? Possibly so,
-at any rate rents went down in the neighborhood
-and placards went up. One day I
-happened to meet Mr. Bonds, and as long
-as my father was not within hearing distance,
-I said: ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you
-have given up your delightful ’cello.’ If
-you could have seen the rapture on his
-face.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’d rather have seen his face than that
-of your guardian angel,” remarked the girl
-with the classic profile; “but go on; don’t
-stop.”</p>
-
-<p>“I wish I had stopped then, but I didn’t.
-I said, ‘By the way, who is it that scrapes
-the violin all day long? I never heard
-anything so awful in my life!’ Oh, girls,
-I—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“But I don’t see anything wrong in
-that,” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“He did. You see, he had given up the
-’cello and taken to the violin with the idea
-of astonishing the world with his genius!”</p>
-
-<p>“And you live to tell it,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“M—yes—you see, everything has its
-compensation. When papa heard what I
-had done, he gave me a hundred dollars and
-his blessing.”</p>
-
-<p>“What luck some people have,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde, “while others—oh,
-girls, I know something perfectly lovely,
-but I don’t know whether I ought to tell
-it to you or not. My conscience—”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, Frances,” said the president, “I
-shall be awfully hurt if you don’t tell us
-now. When a girl speaks of her conscience
-in that way, it simply means that she distrusts
-her audience. You might know by
-this time, that we never tell anything which
-transpires at a meeting of this club.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “Why, Dick teased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
-me vainly a whole evening to find out the
-line of argument advanced in favor of equal
-suffrage when we discussed ‘Woman in
-Politics’ the other day. The janitor must
-have told him the topic under discussion,”
-she added hastily.</p>
-
-<p>“Very likely,” said the president.
-“What was that you wished to tell us,
-Frances, dear?”</p>
-
-<p>“It was something that happened to
-Nell,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Her
-fiancé had told her a great deal of his
-friend, Mr. Thynker, of Boston, who is to
-be his best man, and whom she had never
-seen. He appeared suddenly at Mr. Dickenharry’s
-office the other day, just as the latter
-was starting for Milwaukee, and there was
-barely time for him to make arrangements
-with Mr. Thynker to call on Nell the following
-afternoon. As it happened, he knew
-the Vansmiths, and was asked to the
-luncheon they gave that day, and seated
-immediately opposite to Nell. Of course
-he didn’t catch her name when they were
-introduced, and there was no chance for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
-explanations. Oh, girls, I wonder if I
-really ought to finish this?”</p>
-
-<p>“If you don’t, I shall ask Nell why you
-didn’t,” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, during a lull in the conversation,
-he leaned forward and, in loud, clear tones,
-asked Nell what kind of a girl his friend
-Tom Dickenharry had got himself engaged
-to <i>this</i> time!”</p>
-
-<p>“M’hm,” said the president, after the
-laughter had subsided a little, “that settles
-one matter in advance, anyhow. It is easy
-to know upon whose side the victory will
-rest when they have their first quarrel after
-marriage.”</p>
-
-<p>“There is one question I would like to
-ask the members of this club,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses, “and it is one which
-nearly disrupted our little Shakespeare club:
-If you really want to please a man—any
-man—what is the best way to go about
-it?”</p>
-
-<p>“That is really such a simple question
-that there is only one answer possible,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“And that is—”</p>
-
-<p>“Be born rich.”</p>
-
-<p>“But, suppose you have neglected that
-qualification,” persisted the girl with the
-eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Learn to cook; but never let him taste
-the result of your cookery,” said the blue-eyed
-girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes—or wear his college colors,” said
-the girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Let him do all the talking,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Praise the shape of his head—no matter
-what it may be,” said the president. “I
-wouldn’t tell anybody that,” she added,
-reflectively, “only that two fortune tellers
-and a palmist have assured me that my husband
-will outlive me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Bonds has a very well-shaped
-head,” observed the girl with the eyeglasses,
-“a little long perhaps, but—”</p>
-
-<p>“The rotundity of his pocketbook over-balances
-that,” broke in the girl with the
-dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Clarissa says he is generous, too—a rare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
-quality in a really wealthy man,” said the
-blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“M—I don’t know about his generosity,”
-said the president. “A marriage
-license is about as inexpensive a thing as a
-man can buy, and yet he has displayed no
-desire to invest in one.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose, “lots of
-girls nowadays don’t intend to marry, anyhow,
-so—”</p>
-
-<p>“I wonder why they never think to mention
-the fact publicly until after they are
-thirty,” mused the girl with the dimple in
-her chin; “oh, girls, shouldn’t you like
-really to do something wonderful?”</p>
-
-<p>“I once wore a pair of common-sense
-shoes a whole month,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, modestly.</p>
-
-<p>“H’m; who was the Englishman?”
-asked the brown-eyed blonde, “the one
-with whom you used to walk at that time,
-I mean,” she added, pleasantly.</p>
-
-<p>“It was the spring that Mr. Penny-Lesse
-was here, but I don’t see what that had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
-do with it,” said the blue-eyed girl, with
-great dignity.</p>
-
-<p>“Nothing at all of course,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde, “I only—”</p>
-
-<p>“You did not meet him, I believe; he
-was very particular about the people to
-whom he was introduced,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, sweetly. “I did
-rather an unusual thing myself once—I had
-five dollars in my pocketbook when my
-allowance came due!”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, but you had left the pocketbook
-at my house ten days before, and thought it
-was lost,” said the girl with the classic profile,
-“don’t you remember, I only brought
-it over after the shops were closed the evening
-before?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, “I’ve
-recently met a woman who has traveled all
-through Asia, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose she did it in bloomers and
-one of those horrid, unbecoming, stiff caps,
-too,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Well, all I’ve got to say is that a woman
-who has the courage to make such a guy of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
-herself, is brave enough to face all the
-tigers and mountain lions, and—er—boa
-constrictors in Asia.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t believe there are any boa constrictors
-and mountain lions in Asia,” said
-the girl with the Roman nose. “As for
-tigers—”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, how literal you are!” pettishly
-replied the brown-eyed blonde. “Well,
-buffalos then; how will that suit you?
-I’m equally afraid of all of them, myself.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “Marion and I have just
-had such fun. We have been telling each
-other the most awful things that ever happened
-to us in our lives.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps that is what made you late,
-too,” remarked the president, in a severe
-tone.</p>
-
-<p>“N-not exactly. You see, I knew there
-was something wrong about my watch, and
-I could not remember whether it was thirteen
-minutes fast or thirteen minutes slow,
-so—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“But do tell us what was the most awful
-thing that ever happened to you, Evelyn,”
-cried the girl with the classic profile. “The
-very worst thing that ever befell me was connected
-with a timepiece. It was last summer,
-and a man who—who had been very
-nice to me was going away early the next
-morning. Men were scarce at the seashore,
-as you know, and when a lot of the
-girls saw us sitting on the porch they came
-over and spent the evening with us. We
-just could not get a chance for a word
-alone.”</p>
-
-<p>“I know—I know,” groaned the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Well, his train was to go at 5:16
-<small>A.M.</small>, and he asked me in the most meaning
-tone if I cared sufficiently to hear something
-he had to say to get up early enough to see
-him off. I—I said I did.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well?” said the girl with the Roman
-nose.</p>
-
-<p>“I set my watch by the hall clock in
-order to be sure of getting up in time; then
-I lay awake nearly all night so I would not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
-oversleep myself. When I reached the station
-it was five minutes past six.”</p>
-
-<p>“Watch stopped?” asked the girl with
-the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“No; Harry had run down to spend that
-evening with Kate, and she had set the
-clock back. The man was married in October
-to one of the girls who had risen in time
-to see him off.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course,” said the president. “Speaking
-of awful things—you all know how afraid
-I am of fire.”</p>
-
-<p>“We do,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose. “I believe you could smell a burning
-match a block away.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, the other day our fire insurance
-ran out, and Tom handed me the money
-and asked me to go down and renew it, as
-he was very busy. I forgot all about it
-until night; then I lay awake sniffing smoke
-until Tom thought I had influenza again.
-Next morning I got ready to go and attend
-to it at once. I wanted to look nice, too,
-because one of the men in that office once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
-told Tom that he had an awfully pretty
-wife.”</p>
-
-<p>“How much money did he borrow from
-Tom that time?” asked the girl with the
-dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“I was curling my hair,” went on the
-president, unheeding, “when I smelled fire.
-I ran wildly all through the house, with a
-curl still wrapped about the iron, trying to
-locate it!”</p>
-
-<p>“And did you find any?” asked the
-brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes; my own hair was burning,” said
-the president, with a groan.</p>
-
-<p>“How awful!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“That reminds me of what once
-happened to me. It was when I was wearing
-a single curl in the middle of my forehead.
-One day Frank was there, and he—he
-would twist it over his finger and quote
-poetry about it until he took all the curl
-out of it. Of course I discovered that I
-had no handkerchief and went up to get
-one.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I don’t see anything so awful in that,”
-said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear; but while I was curling it I
-dropped the hot iron down my back, and
-dared not even scream lest he find out what
-I was doing.”</p>
-
-<p>“The worst thing that ever happened to
-me,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, “was in connection with Lewis. As
-soon as it was settled, I went to tell Emmeline,
-so she would give up trying to get
-him. I said I was his first love, and she
-couldn’t imagine how jealous he was. ‘Oh,
-yes, dear, I can,’ said she; ‘he was always
-so when he was engaged to me!’”</p>
-
-<p>“I wondered why you broke with him,”
-said the president. “Well, we must adjourn
-now, and I must say that I have
-never heard a subject more logically discussed
-than the one to-day!”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter IV<br />
-
-<small>Concerning the Heroine of To-day</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“Are you ready to go to the meeting of
-the club?” asked the blue-eyed girl, as she
-bounced into the room. “Why, Dorothy,
-dear, what is the matter? has your father
-gotten himself a new bicycle instead of one
-for you, or—”</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl sat up on the couch.
-“I don’t care if I never ride a bicycle again
-as long as I live,” she replied, deliberately.</p>
-
-<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin
-turned pale. “I knew it was something
-awful when I saw you crying with the
-blinds all rolled up; but I hardly thought it
-was so bad as that. You—you haven’t
-any fever or queer feelings in your head,
-have you?”</p>
-
-<p>“If I had, it would not make any difference,”
-she sobbed. “I—oh, I’ll get even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
-with Effie Bittersweet if it ruins my complexion
-and takes me all the rest of my natural
-life to do it!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oho, it’s Effie, is it? Well, you’ll
-have plenty of chances to get even with
-her, once you are her sister-in-law!”</p>
-
-<p>“I wouldn’t marry Jack now, to—to
-spite Effie, and I—I doubt if I shall have
-the chance, anyhow. And as for Frances,
-I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind, dear; I know she has behaved
-abominably, but she is punished
-already. Her aunt has brought her a new
-hat from Paris, and it is geranium pink—fancy
-Frances in geranium, can you? She
-promised it to Frances when she went
-abroad last fall, and Frances has been talking
-about it ever since. She will have to
-wear it, too, because her aunt is to make
-them a long visit, and she is too wealthy
-to have her feelings hurt.”</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl shook her head, sadly.
-“It is very kind of you to try to cheer me,”
-she said, “but I am beyond rejoicing. I
-only hope it is a very deep geranium pink,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
-that’s all. Oh, Emily, what a desert waste
-this life is! No, don’t put another cushion
-back of me—I want to be just as uncomfortable
-as possible. You know Effie was
-here this morning, don’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose so—I noticed that you have
-two portraits of Edwin on the table.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Well, she asked me to go shopping
-with her, and I must say I was
-pleased, because she hasn’t been here since—since—”</p>
-
-<p>“Not since you quar—pardon me, I
-mean since her brother quarreled with
-you.”</p>
-
-<p>“She said she’d ask me to lunch with
-her down-town, but she had spent almost
-all her allowance.”</p>
-
-<p>“The idea of hinting to you in that bare-faced
-way! Now, if you had been a man
-it—”</p>
-
-<p>“Would have been all right, of course.
-However, I know how confidential Effie
-always grows over a cup of tea, so I
-promptly invited her to lunch with me.
-After she had accepted, I found that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
-I had only fifty cents to my name. Papa
-had gone down-town and, mamma had just
-borrowed a quarter from me!”</p>
-
-<p>“My goodness, did you tell Effie that
-your head ached so badly that you couldn’t
-go?”</p>
-
-<p>“And have her say that I was fretting
-myself ill over Jack? No, thank you. I
-excused myself a moment and went downstairs,
-for I had just remembered a habit
-Papa has of leaving money lying about on
-his desk. To my joy, I found a five-dollar
-bill in one of the drawers, and I took
-that, because I—”</p>
-
-<p>“But weren’t you afraid to take it?”</p>
-
-<p>“M—yes, but then one’s own people
-have to make up with one sometime or
-other. Well, we had a lovely time shopping,
-and I took Effie off to luncheon before
-she had had time to get cross matching
-samples. It was a lovely luncheon, and
-before we had finished Effie said she hoped
-I would visit her at Delavan in August!”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m; I suppose she didn’t mention
-the fact that Jack expects to be in Canada<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
-from the last week in July to the first one
-in September, did she?”</p>
-
-<p>“No; she didn’t. Oh, what a cat she
-is—and I asked her to take another ice on
-the strength of it! Well I paid the bill,
-tipped the waiter, and was just going out
-when the cashier came running after me,
-and oh, Emily, what do you think?”</p>
-
-<p>“You had left your umbrella, of course.”</p>
-
-<p>“No, I hadn’t. I—I, that five-dollar
-bill was a counterfeit which papa was keeping
-as an object lesson to mamma, who had
-gotten it in change!”</p>
-
-<p>“You might have known that no man
-with a wife and grown daughter would leave
-five good dollars in an unlocked drawer,
-dear. Did Effie—”</p>
-
-<p>“Loan it to me? She hadn’t quite
-enough, and I don’t know what I should
-have done if Frances had not happened to
-come in. Effie said that she did not mind
-borrowing from Frances, because she—she
-was quite like a sister to her! And now I
-shall have to make Papa angry by coaxing
-for money to pay for all those ices Effie ate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
-on false pretenses, and w—worse yet, she
-and Frances will have the pleasure of laughing
-over it together!”</p>
-
-<p>“And telling Jack about it, too,” gasped
-the girl with the dimple in her chin, helplessly.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course I know they will do that,”
-sobbed the victim. “But I hardly thought
-that even an intimate friend would be unpleasant
-enough to remind me of it!” And
-she buried her face in the cushions and
-wept.</p>
-
-<p>“Then you are not going to the club
-this afternoon? Shall I tell them that you
-are busy with the dressmaker, or the
-dentist? They know that you can make
-everybody else wait.”</p>
-
-<p>“Tell them nothing. I shall go—and
-complain of a cold in the head, which will
-explain the pinkness of my nose and eyes.”</p>
-
-<p>“But will any of them believe you?”</p>
-
-<p>“All of them. You know those horrid
-quinine tablets Evelyn is always wanting
-people to try—well, I shall take one of
-them publicly. You don’t suppose that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
-any one will suspect me of doing it unnecessarily,
-do you?”</p>
-
-<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin shuddered.
-“Impossible,” she said.</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl suddenly stopped curling
-her hair, and, facing her friend, remarked:
-“I can tell you one thing though—Jack
-Bittersweet shall pay dearly for this!”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The president of the Teacup club rapped
-for order with the handle of her umbrella.
-“I am glad to see you all here to-day, in
-spite of the weather,” she remarked. “We
-have a very interesting topic for discussion. It
-is, ‘Woman in Her Character of Heroine.’”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed, it is interesting,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose. “I only wish you
-had thought to mention it to me and I
-should have prepared a paper on it. No,
-I couldn’t have done it, either, for my
-aunt from New Jersey was in town, and I
-had to take her sight-seeing. Oh, dear,
-aren’t people who live in the country painfully
-active? And what ideas they have!
-They seem to think Lincoln Park is in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
-back yard and the Statue of Columbus
-across the street.”</p>
-
-<p>“I know a girl who has had a much worse
-time than that,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “She had to take her future
-mother-in-law to see the sights. The old
-lady had read up in preparation for her
-visit, and knew more about the city than
-Marie herself. Now, while the poor girl is
-being massaged with arnica and things to
-get over the effects of her exertion, the old
-lady is busy telling her son that such an
-ignorant girl can never make a good wife!”</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of the bravery of women,”
-said the girl with the classic profile, “I
-know a girl who early one morning heard a
-noise in a large closet next her room, in
-which she kept her furs and cloth gowns.
-She slipped out of bed and into the hall, and
-turned the key, which was fortunately on
-the outside, and there she had the burglar
-safe in that stifling atmosphere. Then she
-fainted.”</p>
-
-<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “I should have fainted first.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“It took them three-quarters of an hour
-to restore her and find out what was the
-matter, then they sent for the police, and
-what do you think they found?”</p>
-
-<p>“That the burglar was dead,” breathed
-the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“No. It wasn’t a burglar at all; it was
-her own father, who had risen early and
-gone into the closet to look for a file of papers
-which had been kept in the attic for
-twenty years. Oh, he said perfectly awful
-things when he got breath enough to speak!
-Unluckily, too, it happened just at the
-time when she needed a lot of new things.
-She said that nobody appreciated her
-bravery except a man who was paying her
-attention at the time, and he didn’t dare
-say a word before her father for fear of losing
-his good-will.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “it only goes to show that
-women are really more courageous than
-men.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course they are,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses. “Why, only the other day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
-I read of a girl who had a hole bored in one
-of her front teeth and a diamond inserted.
-Did you ever hear of a man who was brave
-enough to go to the dentist unless he really
-had to?”</p>
-
-<p>“No,” said the president. “Oh, girls, I
-once had my pocketbook snatched from me
-by a boy, and I just ran after him until he
-dropped it. I don’t know that I should
-have been so brave,” she added, “but for
-the fact that, beside my card, it contained
-several unpaid bills of which my husband
-knew nothing. If the police had caught
-the boy with it, they would have communicated
-the fact to him, and I never should
-have heard the last of those bills.</p>
-
-<p>“I hope he appreciated your bravery,
-anyhow,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” said the president; “his
-only comment was that it served me right
-for carrying my pocketbook in my hand.
-Oh, you can’t make a man understand that
-a woman fears nothing. By the way, I wish
-several of you would come home to dinner
-with me. I broke Tom’s lovely bit of old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
-Venetian glass to-day, and I had rather not
-be alone with him when he finds it out.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll go with pleasure,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose, “is anybody else
-coming?”</p>
-
-<p>“Nobody but Mr. Troolygood,” said the
-president. “I always ask him in such an
-emergency, because he prophesied that Tom
-would break my heart within two years of
-our marriage. Tom knows that, and—well,
-I could dance on the graves of his ancestors
-if Mr. Troolygood was present, and
-Tom would encourage my efforts.”</p>
-
-<p>“Then, I don’t see why you ask us to-day,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose,
-“he ought to be—”</p>
-
-<p>“Sufficient? Yes, I suppose so; but—well,
-the truth is that he is rather hard to
-entertain, and Tom is so busy in his presence,
-being nice to me, that he is no help
-at all.”</p>
-
-<p>“I should be delighted to dine with you,
-also,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but really
-I have such a cold that I don’t dare to be
-out at all after nightfall.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Have you a cold?” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, “why, I didn’t notice it when I
-met you in the restaurant this morning.”</p>
-
-<p>“Didn’t you, dear? But then you are
-not very observant. You had not even
-noticed that there was a wrinkle in the waist
-of your new gown, until I pointed it out to
-you. Evelyn, dear, mightn’t I take another
-of your quinine tablets now? I really
-think that I am feeling better already.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do not take too much of it, dear, if
-you value your peace of mind,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses. “I’ve had such an
-awful cold this week. I don’t know how I
-ever caught it, unless it was sitting in that
-hot church on Sunday. Mamma would have
-me go, and I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps you caught it standing on your
-front steps Monday evening,” suggested
-the girl with the classic profile. “I saw you,
-as I passed, and wondered how long—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, it was only a moment. The parlor
-was full of people, and I just stepped out
-with Frank a moment to—to ask him how
-he expects to vote at the coming election.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I thought you both looked as if you
-were discussing politics. Of course, he had
-to think well on the merits of the opposing
-candidates before he gave an opinion
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, pshaw, it is impossible to know
-how one catches cold, and it does one no
-good to know, anyhow,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Unless it is some one else’s fault,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
-have a cold myself, and I don’t dare to
-mention the fact to my family. They are
-so unsympathetic that they—”</p>
-
-<p>“Would want you to wrap up and wear
-overshoes if it was July,” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“They would, they would,” wailed the
-girl with the eyeglasses, “well, I just knew
-that I had to be well in time to go to Mrs.
-Brownsmith’s card party. The way that
-Marie tries to attract Frank’s attention is too
-dreadful, and I knew she would be there.”</p>
-
-<p>“If she had to unscrew her coffin lid to
-get out,” said the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. They wanted me to take all
-sorts of horrid remedies at home. I
-wouldn’t do it, though; the very idea
-made me cross. Finally, on Wednesday,
-Frank dropped in to see if I was better and
-said I must take some quinine. Of course,
-I couldn’t refuse and hurt his feelings,
-especially as he remained all the afternoon
-and watched me take it. By his advice, I
-took a large dose of it that night, and when
-I woke up in the morning my cold was
-almost gone, but oh, I had the queerest
-buzzing in my ears!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, nobody could see that,” said
-the president, “so you—”</p>
-
-<p>“Kept on taking it all day, and was able
-to go to the card party, after all; though
-the quinine had made me as deaf as a
-statue. It made little difference at first,
-because Marie kept close at my elbow, and
-Frank and I were not alone a moment. I
-couldn’t get rid of her at all until, just as
-mamma said she would not wait another second
-Mrs. Brownsmith called Marie to her,
-and Frank—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Improved the moment,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin. “What did
-he say?”</p>
-
-<p>“I—I don’t know,” sobbed the girl with
-the eyeglasses. “He whispered, and I
-couldn’t hear. And before I could ask
-him to repeat, Marie was at my side. As
-he put me into the carriage, he said: ‘You
-will let me have my answer by messenger
-to-morrow, won’t you?’ And I—I don’t
-know w-whether he ask-asked me to marry
-him, or only to go to the m-matinee!”</p>
-
-<p>“You poor, dear martyr,” cried the
-president. “Dorothy, dear, you had better
-not take any more of those tablets, because—”</p>
-
-<p>“But dear, Dorothy is in no danger of
-having to answer such an important question,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.</p>
-
-<p>“Very true, dear; I have answered it
-already—in the negative,” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “Ah, you can never know,
-Frances, how painful it is to be obliged to
-tell a man who loves you that there is no
-hope.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Dear, dear,” said the president, hurriedly,
-“I’m afraid that, in spite of all my
-efforts, we have not discussed to-day’s
-topic as consistently as usual. It does
-seem to me sometimes that you girls talk
-as much as men. Of course you do not expect
-to be listened to as they do, still—”</p>
-
-<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose; “did I ever tell you of
-the time I went to make a round of calls
-with Ethel, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Found she was leaving her sister’s cards
-by mistake?” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “Indeed you did. And wasn’t it
-funny that she left one for Maria, to whom
-her sister hadn’t spoken for a year? Just
-like Ethel, too.”</p>
-
-<p>“This was another time,” said the girl
-with the Roman nose. “You know how
-much Ethel talks? Well, we called on one
-woman I had never met before, and she
-asked Ethel subsequently if I was not deaf
-and dumb!”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind, she knew better when she
-met you next time,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
-eyeglasses; “but what is the topic for discussion
-to-day?”</p>
-
-<p>“‘The Heroine of To-day,’” said the
-president, “and I think—”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose that is the bachelor girl,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Or the one who marries a foreigner,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“Talk about bravery! Why, I knew a girl
-who became engaged to a Russian before
-she could pronounce his name.”</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of that,” said the girl with
-the classic profile, “isn’t it horrid of Elizabeth
-to send out her wedding cards so long
-ahead. No chance this time to say that we
-didn’t know it in time to select a present.”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall pretend that I never received my
-invitation at all,” said the president; “one
-must protect one’s self somehow.”</p>
-
-<p>“I do hate to go shopping with her nowadays,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin, “if I don’t buy a lot of things myself
-I am miserable, and if I do her reproachful
-gaze seems to say, ‘I know the cost of this
-will come out of my present.’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“As if you wouldn’t ask your father for
-the money for that, anyhow!” said the girl
-with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“I shall do nothing of the kind, dear; it
-would make too much trouble. I don’t
-know why a man will cheerfully give a wedding
-present himself, but let—”</p>
-
-<p>“One of the women of the family ask for
-money for the same purpose and he feels
-that he is being robbed,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose it is on the same principle
-that makes a man insist upon treating every
-other man he meets and then grumble because
-his wife wants oysters after the play,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Just as he feeds a girl on candy before
-he marries her and then complains of dentists’
-bills afterward,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin; “men are so illogical!”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed they are,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose; “one of them will keep on
-telling a girl that she has a swan-like carriage,
-and then think her vain if he catches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
-her watching her own movements in the
-glass.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why does she let him catch her at it?”
-queried the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“Oh, girls, you know that awful, dark green
-necktie that Dick has been wearing! Well,
-I endured it until I felt as if I should scream
-if I saw him wear it again, so I begged it
-from him; told him that I wanted it as a
-souvenir to hang beside his college cap and
-his football colors. As soon as he sent it
-to me I threw it into the fire.”</p>
-
-<p>“And he came in before it was reduced
-to ashes?” asked the president, in sympathetic
-tones.</p>
-
-<p>“No. He appeared with another just
-like it, the very next day—said he didn’t
-like it himself, but since I had admired it
-and he wanted to please me, he had matched
-it before he sent it to me!”</p>
-
-<p>“And that was your only reward for trying
-to save his feelings,” sighed the blue-eyed
-girl. “Really, Emily, I often think
-you are too good for this world.”</p>
-
-<p>“At any rate, I shall soon be out of it if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
-so many sorrows are heaped upon my head.
-By the way, girls, I’ve been learning to
-ride my bicycle, and talking of heroism, I—”</p>
-
-<p>“How many times have you fallen?” exclaimed
-the girl with the classic profile. “I
-heard the other day of a girl who learned to
-ride in a single lesson, without falling once,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph. I’ve often heard of that girl
-myself—but I’ve never seen her. I’ve
-fallen nineteen times; that is, not counting
-the time mamma called after me to be careful,
-and the time that Dick said I had ridden
-almost a half block since he let go of
-my belt—because you know, it was not my
-fault that I fell upon either of those occasions!”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” said the president,
-“but, girls, we really must not talk about
-bicycling, because if we do we shall drift
-away from our discussion, and I can’t bear
-to depart, even momentarily, from the high
-standard of the club. We were speaking
-of Elizabeth a moment ago; has any one
-seen her lately?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I
-make a point of avoiding the girl who is
-about to be married, the mother of the
-cleverest baby in the world, and the woman
-who is designing her own house. Really,
-you know, I don’t mind letting someone
-else do all the talking, but I <i>do</i> like a change
-of topic once in a while.”</p>
-
-<p>“I know I was just as sensible as any one
-could be while Tom and I were engaged,”
-said the president, “and yet, people did act
-so oddly. Why, they would go right away
-if I began to talk of him at all; they didn’t
-even stay long enough to see how sensible I
-was.”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way, I believe that Jane and
-Mr. Sooter are engaged,” said the girl with
-the classic profile; “Jane denies it but—”</p>
-
-<p>“Then I think you are mistaken,” said
-the girl with the eyeglasses. “I know
-Jane, and she seldom understates a case.
-Why do you think they are engaged?”</p>
-
-<p>“He has given up sending her flowers
-and candy, and begun presenting bric-a-brac
-instead.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw, that is nothing; he may once
-have been engaged to a girl who was a
-china maniac, and these may be the presents
-she returned.”</p>
-
-<p>“Possibly. By the way, Kate has grown
-so wary now that she only gives the man to
-whom she happens to be engaged presents
-which she can use after she breaks with
-him; never pipes and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, by the way, I know how her last
-engagement came to be broken in so many
-pieces that it could never be mended,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Do tell us all about it; we are all so
-intimate with Kate that we wouldn’t dare
-to tell anybody, because it would seem that
-we were betraying a confidence,” said the
-girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, when she was engaged to Mr.
-Yaleblue, she gave him a lovely meerchaum
-pipe, which of course came back with her
-other presents when the engagement was
-broken. By the next Christmas she was
-engaged to Dan, and it seemed such a waste
-to let it lie in the case, and she gave it to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
-him, telling him a pretty little story of how
-she bought it when she was in Paris, and
-kept it hanging in her den ready for Prince
-Charming when he appeared. You wouldn’t
-think a little thing like that would have
-broken the engagement, would you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, of course not,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses, “how on earth did—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, he just asked how it came that it
-was so strong of tobacco!”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me, girls,” said the president, “I
-am afraid that we really must adjourn,
-though there is still a great deal more to
-say on both sides of the discussion. But I
-have just remembered that I have invited a
-whole party of you to dinner, and neglected
-to mention the fact to the cook!”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter V<br />
-
-<small>The Club Settles Some Currency
-Problems</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“The topic for to-day’s discussion will
-be ‘Currency Problems of the Present
-Day,’” observed the president, after the
-club had come to order, “and I hope you
-are all prepared—”</p>
-
-<p>“There is only one currency problem in
-the present day—to my knowledge, at
-least,” broke in the girl with the classic
-profile, “and that is: how to make two
-dollars do the work of ten.”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me, there is something actually
-masculine in your flippancy,” said the president,
-with ferocious gentleness. “The question
-before us is one of the deepest gravity,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Nobody knows that better than myself,”
-said the girl with the classic profile,
-“don’t I lie awake night after night, wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
-how to get my new things out of the
-money my father has allowed me for the
-purpose, or, better yet, how to coax more
-out of him without letting him realize the
-fact.”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t talk about money, please; it
-makes me blue,” wailed the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “What with never
-having enough for myself and constantly
-seeing other people with more than I like
-them to have, I—”</p>
-
-<p>“What I want to know is—and you
-ought to be able to tell me, girls—why a
-woman who looks all sweetness and gentleness
-should suddenly develop into a raging
-lioness, just because her own son wants to
-marry some nice girl,” sighed the girl with
-the eyeglasses, waking suddenly out of a
-reverie.</p>
-
-<p>“Humph,” returned the blue-eyed girl,
-“there are some things I don’t quite understand
-myself—such as the banking system,
-and the reason why your dressmaker tells
-you calmly that she must have two yards
-and a half more of your dress material,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
-when you have plainly informed her that
-you bought a remnant. But as for your
-question, it is so simple that a man could
-answer it. No woman ever did, or ever
-will, like to play second fiddle to another
-one, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, nonsense,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, “it is just a question of tact.
-Let a man make his mother believe that she
-has chosen his wife and she—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and wouldn’t it be pleasant to
-have your mother-in-law tell you, every
-time she wanted you to discharge the cook
-or do without a new gown, that her son
-would never have married you but for her!”
-cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of mothers-in-law,” said the
-girl with the classic profile, “Nell is to have
-a new woman in that capacity. I found
-her crying the other day because she had
-heard that Madame considered her too
-domestic to make her son a good wife!”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I know,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-“and did you hear of Alice’s woes? No?
-Well, you know, she and Morton fell in love<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
-at first sight, and became engaged two
-weeks later. After the engagement was
-announced, she was invited to visit his people
-in Iowa, and went in fear and trembling,
-for she did not know much about
-them, and Morton could not be there at the
-time.”</p>
-
-<p>“Hadn’t the courage, you mean,” murmured
-the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Very likely, dear. Well, his mother
-was as bad as Alice had feared. Her ideas
-were all in direct opposition to Morton’s,
-and the poor girl almost fretted herself into
-nervous prostration trying to please them
-both. After all, when she got home, she
-found—”</p>
-
-<p>“That she had been mistaken in her feelings
-for Morton, and it didn’t make any
-difference whether they were pleased or
-not!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
-knew how it would end when you began.”</p>
-
-<p>“No. She discovered that Madame was
-only his stepmother, after all! Imagine
-trying to please a mother-in-law and a stepmother
-combined!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I’d rather not fancy it,” said the president,
-with a shudder. “Girls, I only hope
-you will be as lucky when you are married
-as I am, for—”</p>
-
-<p>“You aren’t going to tell us all of Tom’s
-virtues again, are you?” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, uneasily.</p>
-
-<p>“When my mother-in-law becomes unpleasant,
-I just ask her to go with me to
-spend the day with Tom’s grandmother,”
-went on the president, affecting not to hear
-the last remark, “she doesn’t dare to refuse,
-because the old lady has some china
-which we both want, and she’s afraid I
-may succeed in wheedling it out of her! It
-is great fun to hear my own mother-in-law
-lectured by <i>her</i> mother-in-law on the sins
-which the former thinks I have appropriated
-entirely to my own use.”</p>
-
-<p>“But, ah—doesn’t Tom’s mother take it
-out of you on the way back?” queried the
-blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear. You see, I am careful not
-to sit with her in the train, and Tom always
-meets us at the station; besides, she’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
-hardly in her usual form, and I could be a
-match for her,” she added, modestly.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
-“speaking of mothers-in-law makes me
-think of wedding presents. Did you—oh,
-did you hear about the plates I gave Elizabeth?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I did,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “and a girl who gives away
-old Crown Derby like that is either an angel,
-or not quite sane—I don’t know which!”</p>
-
-<p>“Say anything you like; I haven’t the
-spirit to reply. And after you’ve heard
-the story—well, it was this way: I ran
-across the dozen of them in a little second-hand
-shop, and the proprietor didn’t seem
-to know their value and asked a very moderate
-price.”</p>
-
-<p>“I beg your pardon, dear,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin, “I take back
-all that I said before!”</p>
-
-<p>“You needn’t. I saw that I could beat
-him down, so I didn’t take them then, but
-went in a day or two later, taking Elizabeth
-along to make sure they were genuine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
-Really, she does know something about
-china, though—”</p>
-
-<p>“She doesn’t know anything else,” finished
-the president. “Well, they were genuine,
-weren’t they?”</p>
-
-<p>“They were, Elizabeth became so affectionate
-on the spot that I saw she knew
-what I wanted them for. I didn’t take
-them then, but went back the next day to
-find that the man had raised his price; he
-said another person wanted them—as if I’d
-believe that. Well, it went on for a week,
-until the price demanded was so outrageous
-that I should never have paid it, but
-for the fact that Elizabeth had told everybody
-what lovely Crown Derby plates she
-was to have, and I wasn’t going to have
-her say that I couldn’t afford them!”</p>
-
-<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses; “besides, it is necessary to
-give Elizabeth a handsome present, since
-she is marrying a wealthy man.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course; if he was poor, a very simple
-thing would—ah, be in better taste, so
-that the contrast would not be so great.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. Well, I bought the plates, and
-took them to her myself, because I wanted to
-see her face when she opened the package.”</p>
-
-<p>“But she wasn’t surprised, was she?”
-asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, she was. She—well, she was the
-other person who wanted to buy them, and
-whose inquiries had trebled the price I had
-to pay for them!”</p>
-
-<p>“In the face of a tragedy like that, it
-seems hopeless to offer consolation,” said
-the girl with the classic profile. “Still, Elizabeth
-will be obliged to give you a handsome
-present when you are married.”</p>
-
-<p>“Let us hope that she will not have had
-time to forget her obligations,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, sweetly. “Of course, she
-has a good memory, but—”</p>
-
-<p>“I only hope somebody will give her two
-chafing-dishes,” broke in the president. “I
-only have one, and if I was not the sweetest
-tempered mortal in the world Tom and
-I would quarrel seriously over it. Perhaps,
-I ought not to speak of myself in that
-way, but—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“You surely ought to know your good
-points better than anybody else does,” said
-the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Very true, dear. You see, Tom thinks
-he is a chafing-dish cook, and really he <i>can</i>
-cook; but the last time he made a rarebit
-my waitress gave warning, because of the
-state in which she found the dining-room—which
-was very mean of her, because we
-had waited on ourselves to save trouble.”</p>
-
-<p>“Partly for that, and partly because you
-wanted to talk about Coralie, and her sister
-is her cook, I remember—I was there,”
-said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, but she didn’t know that we
-wanted to talk about Coralie, and I told her
-that it was to save her trouble.”</p>
-
-<p>“Wasn’t that the time that the rarebit
-made you ill, and the doctor couldn’t come
-because he, too, had eaten some of it?”
-asked the girl with the dimple in her
-chin.</p>
-
-<p>“It was. I told Tom, then, that he
-must leave out either the doctor or me
-when he made rarebit again!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“With the result?” queried the girl with
-the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“That we didn’t speak for three days,
-dear. It was during that time, that I went
-to Annie’s chafing-dish party. She wanted
-me to make a cheese omelette, and I sent
-over for the dish. My messenger found
-Tom in the dining-room with a whole party
-of men—”</p>
-
-<p>“Cooking on your chafing-dish?”</p>
-
-<p>“No. Trying to entertain them while
-the new waitress hunted for it.”</p>
-
-<p>“But, where was it? You hadn’t taken
-it?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear. The cook had borrowed it
-for a chafing-dish party of her own, and
-neglected to mention the fact to either Tom
-or me!”</p>
-
-<p>“Then, I suppose really that each family
-should possess two chafing-dishes,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde, thoughtfully.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes—or none at all,” said the president,
-sighing.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course I am very much interested in
-this discussion,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
-Roman nose; “but I wonder if a thorough
-knowledge of currency problems will do us
-any practical good. None of us are earning
-our own living, and when papa talks
-about currency problems at home it is only
-to point the moral that times are hard, so—”</p>
-
-<p>“There is where your knowledge will be
-most useful,” broke in the girl with the
-dimple in her chin; “you can bring it out
-to prove that times are <i>not</i> hard, and run
-off a lot of statistics to prove your point.”</p>
-
-<p>“But I don’t know any statistics,”
-wailed the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“I’m afraid you have not been paying
-strict attention to-day,” said the president,
-gravely. “However, if you are in danger
-of losing in an argument, be sure to say,
-with a smile of superiority, ‘I suppose you
-know what the statistics are?’ Now, people
-are not in the habit of carrying statistics
-around, like cough-drops, and they will
-simply give up the battle on the spot. If
-they don’t, rattle off a lot of figures; they
-can’t refute them immediately, and if they
-attempt to do it afterward, you can just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
-say, in a supercilious tone, ‘I thought we
-settled that matter yesterday.’”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I declare,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, “that is just my own father’s
-line of argument, and yet it never occurred
-to me that I could imitate it. I do hope
-you will take very good care of your health,
-Evelyn,” she added. “People who are
-very intellectual are <i>so</i> apt to die young.”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall,” said the president. “I’ve no
-notion of dying and having Tom a widower
-while he is still young enough to be attractive.
-It would not make so much difference
-after that, for I shall take care that he does
-not accumulate enough money to make him
-fascinating at seventy-five!”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear, dear,” sighed the blue-eyed girl,
-“I wonder why so few men have money
-until their hair is only a memory!”</p>
-
-<p>“Case of the wind being tempered to the
-shorn lamb,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin; “after all, a man must sacrifice
-something on the altar of success.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph; isn’t it usually his wife?” said
-the girl with the classic profile.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Not if she is clever,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses. “Girls, I once knew a
-woman whose husband made a fortune in
-two years, and he wouldn’t give her more
-than the merest pittance for dress and entertaining.
-In fact, the only bills he would
-pay, without grumbling, were those of the
-doctor. And what do you think she did?
-She selected the doctor whose bills were the
-most outrageous, and settled herself to be
-a chronic invalid. She said she was determined
-to get something out of her husband’s
-fortune.”</p>
-
-<p>“Good,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin; “I do hope she really enjoyed
-herself after that.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m afraid not. You see, the doctor
-seemed anxious to earn his money, and insisted
-that she had some desperate disease.
-I doubt if she really enjoyed his subsequent
-visits.”</p>
-
-<p>“All her husband’s fault, too,” sighed
-the brown-eyed blonde, “and yet, I doubt
-if she reproached him for it. It seems to
-be a woman’s province to suffer in silence.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I’ve often heard my mother make
-that very remark to my father,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “I had
-rather not quote his reply. Girls, I heard
-the funniest story yesterday; Annie
-wouldn’t tell me who was the heroine of
-it, really, sometimes she is as provoking as
-a man. I’ll be even with her, however,
-for I’ll never rest until I find out who it
-was, then I shall tell everybody, and Annie
-will never be able to convince her that she
-didn’t tell the whole. It seems that this
-girl had quarreled with the man to whom
-she was engaged, and a week later she received
-a letter addressed in his handwriting.
-She did think of taking it to a mind reader,
-but it was near the end of the month, and
-she hadn’t the money, so—”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way, Emily, dear, when can you
-come to lunch with me?” broke in the girl
-with the eyeglasses. “I don’t see half as
-much of you as I’d like to, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Any day you like, dear. Where was I?
-Oh! She hadn’t the money, and the tea
-kettle happened to be handy, so she—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“But, why not open it with a hair-pin,
-like any other letter?” asked the blue-eyed
-girl.</p>
-
-<p>“She wanted to return it unopened if she
-didn’t like its contents. It proved to be
-perfectly horrid; he not only didn’t acknowledge
-that he was in the wrong, but he
-actually brought forward facts to prove that
-she was! Of course, no girl would endure
-that, so—”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you mean to say that Annie told
-you that?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“I didn’t think it possible that any
-girl—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I don’t see any harm in that; of
-course every girl wants her own way.
-Well, she sealed up the letter again, wrote
-on it, ‘Returned unopened’ and sent it
-back.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, “I was thinking that might have been
-Clarissa, but she is too intellectual to do
-anything so clever. Anyhow, I’m glad
-she got the better of him.”</p>
-
-<p>“But she didn’t, dear. She discovered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
-after the messenger had been gone an hour,
-that she had sealed up the envelope without
-replacing the letter in it! Can any of you
-guess who it was that—”</p>
-
-<p>“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but if
-I had done such a thing, I should never
-have trusted Annie with it. Why, are you
-going, dear?”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m going over to Annie’s this very
-minute,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“I—I have something to say to her that
-will touch even <i>her</i> hardened conscience!”</p>
-
-<p>“So it was Marion, after all,” mused the
-girl with the dimple in her chin, after the
-door had closed behind her friend; “well, at
-any rate, after this Annie will tell me the
-whole of a story when she begins it.”</p>
-
-<p>“I must say, though, that if I was in her
-place it would be a long time before I began
-one,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“So you, too, have been confiding in
-Annie?” said the blue-eyed girl, sweetly.
-“By the way, I am to stay over night with
-her, but I promise you that whatever she
-may repeat will be safe with me.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“While we are discussing currency problems,
-I want to say what a nuisance the
-check system is,” said the girl with the
-classic profile. “I always did hate to get
-my money in that way, and I had an experience
-the other day which surely ought
-to cure my father of giving them to me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, you weren’t suspected of being
-a forger, were you?” asked the president,
-turning pale.</p>
-
-<p>“N—no, I believe not, but—it happened
-that my father gave me a check when I was
-going shopping, and I found before I cashed
-it that I must have five dollars more. Father
-had gone to Indianapolis, and mother,
-well—the fact is, that she will not loan me
-money any more, because I sometimes forget
-to return it. I didn’t know what to do
-until I suddenly remembered that Ned
-Goldie was the person who had to cash the
-check for me at the bank; then I knew I
-was safe. Pshaw, it just shows that you
-can never depend on a man!”</p>
-
-<p>“He surely did not refuse to cash it?”
-asked the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“N—no, but he—girls, I’ll tell you just
-what I did. I said, ‘By the way, Mr.
-Goldie, just give me five dollars more, will
-you? Father can make it right next time
-he comes in.’ And, if you will credit the
-fact, he actually said he couldn’t do it. A
-man with whom I had danced the german
-the evening before!”</p>
-
-<p>“I never believed Ned Goldie would be
-so stingy,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “What excuse did he make?”</p>
-
-<p>“Said it was against the rules of the
-bank, but he would be delighted to <i>lend</i> me
-the extra five dollars. Did you ever hear
-of such impertinence in your life? As soon
-as my father comes home, I shall tell
-him that he must transfer his account to
-another bank, for after this I feel that Mr.
-Goldie is not a person to be trusted with
-money!”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear, dear,” said the president,
-gravely, “that is very bad. Don’t mention
-it outside of the club, girls; for if the
-bank directors found that he was being rude
-to the daughter of one of their customers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
-he would lose his position at once. And
-there may be some apology or explanation
-he can make to your father, too, dear;
-though I confess I don’t see what it can
-be. Well, girls, I’m afraid we must adjourn,
-and I must say frankly that I am
-pleased with the work we have done to-day.
-The only reason that I suggested
-such a weighty topic for discussion was,
-that Tom had declared that the club was
-unable to grapple with it. After that, of
-course the only thing possible was to show
-him that he was wrong.”</p>
-
-<p>“Which you can now do conclusively,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose, “and I
-am quite sure he will be surprised at the
-novelty of some of the arguments advanced
-this afternoon!”</p>
-
-<p>“What is it, dear?” asked the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, as she and the blue-eyed
-girl turned the corner. “You have
-been so bright and cheerful to-day, that I
-am sure something is seriously wrong.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed there is. Jack has behaved
-abominably! It was enough when he told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
-Effie that Frances is the most amiable girl
-he ever knew; but—”</p>
-
-<p>“That proves conclusively that he is not
-engaged to her, dear. No man ever knows
-anything about a girl’s temper until he <i>is</i>
-engaged to her.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, if you want to defend him, I shall
-say no more; but I did think—”</p>
-
-<p>“But, I don’t want to defend him. I
-only—”</p>
-
-<p>“Then, all I’ve got to say, Emily Marshmallow,
-is that you are prejudiced against
-the poor fellow. I might have known that
-from the start. I only wish I had not taken
-your advice and broken my engagement.”</p>
-
-<p>“But, you didn’t do it on my advice,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
-“it was all done before you said a word to
-me about it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, anyhow, I knew you would advise
-me to do it; and now you are not satisfied
-with what I’ve done. But go on,
-don’t spare me—I am too miserable to care
-to defend myself! I—I don’t believe I
-shall live very long, anyhow. I shall tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
-them to give you my marquise ring, as a
-token of forgiveness, when I’m gone. I
-hope you will remember me when you look
-at it—and be sure to notice if the stones
-are quite secure in their setting.”</p>
-
-<p>“I w—will; I promise you,” sobbed the
-girl with the dimple in her chin; “but don’t
-you think a trip—well a trip to Old Point
-Comfort might save your life. They tell
-me it is very gay there now!”</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl shook her head.
-“Nothing can save me now, dear; why I
-can hook all my gowns now without holding
-my breath, and yesterday I ate no
-luncheon at all—took nothing between
-breakfast and dinner but a couple of cream
-sodas, a box of caramels, and a cup or two
-of afternoon tea. You know nobody can
-live long at that rate. Well, I am sorry for
-Jack Bittersweet when I am gone; a lifetime
-of remorse and—and Frances is not a
-pleasant thing to look forward to!”</p>
-
-<p>“You haven’t told me yet about Jack,
-dear, so—”</p>
-
-<p>“True; and some one should know the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
-true story when I am no more. Here is
-the place where they make such nice chocolate;
-let us stop in and drink a cup while I
-tell you. You take the chair facing the
-mirror, dear,” she said, as they selected a
-table, “my personal appearance is no longer
-a matter of importance to me.”</p>
-
-<p>“You said that Jack—”</p>
-
-<p>“Has behaved abominably. It is a long
-story, but I—I shall probably never tell
-you another long story, so you can
-afford to listen to this one. You know the
-little beggar boy with the beautiful brown
-eyes that I told you about a week or two
-ago?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes; but about Jack. I—”</p>
-
-<p>“This is about Jack. I told you how I
-sympathized with that boy’s sad story, and
-went with him to investigate it, didn’t I?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, but you never told me whether his
-home was—”</p>
-
-<p>“I didn’t get there. He led me through
-the most awful slums, telling me all the
-time how his father would beat him, when
-he failed to bring money home, and how he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
-knew I was the beautiful lady he had
-dreamed of, as soon as he saw me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well? Go on, dear.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, nothing; only the horrid little
-wretch suddenly dived down an alley and
-disappeared; and, oh, Emily, I—I believe
-he made a face at me as he went! Worse
-yet, when I felt for my pocketbook it was
-gone, and I had to walk all the way home!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, my goodness, had he taken it?”</p>
-
-<p>“I surely had not given it to him. I had
-almost forgotten the affair, when the cook
-came up yesterday to tell me that he was
-in the kitchen, and had brought my pocketbook
-back, with a long story about having
-seen another boy take it. Said he had followed
-him, when he left me, and taken it
-away from him, in turn.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I declare; and there was all your
-money intact after you had doubted his
-honesty!”</p>
-
-<p>“Not a cent of it, dear; and the cook
-said he was wearing a nice new suit. I told
-her she had better go back to the kitchen,
-and count the spoons, and I called loudly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
-after her, ‘Tell him I never want to see his
-deceitful face again!’ The housemaid had
-come to the door of my room, too, and was
-trying to put in a word, but I wouldn’t
-listen to her.”</p>
-
-<p>“Trying to excuse the little wretch; the
-idea!”</p>
-
-<p>“That was what I thought. But, oh,
-Emily, just then the front door closed with
-a bang which shook the house to its foundations,
-and then I noticed for the first time
-that the housemaid was trying to give me a
-card!”</p>
-
-<p>“Good gracious, Dorothy, you never
-mean to say—”</p>
-
-<p>“That it was Jack’s! Indeed I do. He
-had heard me scream over the bannister
-‘Tell him to go away; I never want to see
-his deceitful face again.’ And he—he must
-have thought I meant it for him. Oh,
-Emily, was there ever such a miserable girl
-as I!”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter VI<br />
-
-<small>The Pioneer New Woman</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“I think the topic for to-day’s discussion
-should be ‘The Pioneer New Woman,’”
-observed the president of the Teacup Club.
-“Have you all got that down in your note-books?
-You don’t know how it pleases
-me to see your methodical ways; it shows
-the real intellectual advancement of our
-club. Why, for my part, I have gained so
-much that I am not afraid to discuss any
-subject with any one.”</p>
-
-<p>“We have advanced,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “I feel it, too. By the way,
-has any one seen my note-book? I haven’t
-had it for three weeks—are you sure that
-none of you have gotten it by mistake? I
-forgot to put my name in it, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I know where it is,” said the girl with
-the classic profile. “You loaned it to Kate—she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
-told me so herself,—in order that she
-might read up on some of the topics we
-have already discussed, and so qualify for
-admission to the club.”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall blackball her, for my part,”
-spoke up the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “She is so frivolous that she would
-drag down our high standard. Besides, she
-once left me out when she gave a luncheon,
-and told people that it was because she had
-all the decorations in yellow, and feared
-they would not shade with my complexion.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, Kate is color blind, any
-way,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and she is a little deaf, too,” remarked
-the president, “and really does not
-know just how sharp her own speeches
-sound.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps not,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, “but I shall blackball
-her just the same. By the way, Alice is
-giving a birthday dinner party next week—twenty-six
-covers, one for each year. Clever
-idea, isn’t it?”</p>
-
-<p>“For whose birthday?” asked the girl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
-with the classic profile. “Her own? Ah,
-really, I knew she was forgetful, but this is
-carrying it too far.”</p>
-
-<p>“I wonder why otherwise sensible people
-will tell such stories about their ages,” said
-the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“I’m sure I don’t know,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Neither do I,” said the girl with the
-classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course, it doesn’t matter who knows
-my age, as yet,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Nor mine,” remarked the girl with the
-classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Nor mine, either,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“No, indeed,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde; “I got twenty-two birthday gifts
-the other day on my twenty-second birthday.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you twenty-two? Why, so am I!”
-cried the girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Just my own age, too,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“And mine; how odd!” cried the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“That is one of the advantages of the
-new womanhood,” said the president; “its
-beautiful candor. Now, I tell everybody
-that I am twenty-two years old.”</p>
-
-<p>“I wish you would tell Mrs. Van Tompkins,”
-said the girl with the classic profile.
-“She wouldn’t take my word for it the
-other day, though I told her that I couldn’t
-be mistaken, as you had told me so at least
-six times in the last eighteen months.”</p>
-
-<p>“Cora asked me the other day if there
-was any age qualification for membership in
-this club,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses,
-during the slight pause which followed
-the last speech. “She says she has
-not yet celebrated her twenty-first birthday.”</p>
-
-<p>“Born on the 29th of February, then,
-wasn’t she?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Yes, it is true that the new womanhood is
-breaking down old traditions. We are not
-at all jealous of each other now.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
-dimple in her chin; “we have learned to
-value our own attractions properly. Why,
-the other day I stopped Amy and Fred to
-tell her there was a dab of powder on her
-nose. Formerly another girl would have
-been jealous of her dazzling complexion,
-and let her go on as she was.”</p>
-
-<p>“How sweet of you,” murmured the girl
-with the eyeglasses; “and yet, I doubt if
-she was really grateful.”</p>
-
-<p>“That was not the question, dear; I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, dear,” broke in the president, “if
-my watch is right it is time to adjourn, and
-yet. Why, here is Elise! What has made
-you late to-day?”</p>
-
-<p>“A discussion with a stupid man,” cried
-the girl with the Roman nose. “Only
-think, he actually said that no woman was
-mathematician enough to count up her own
-birthdays correctly. I was so enraged—why,
-he said that ‘I am twenty-two’ is the
-same thing to a girl as ‘Polly wants a
-cracker’ is to a parrot, or the Spanish fandango
-to a guitar player—but what on earth
-is wrong? You all look so queer.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“It’s nothing at all, dear,” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “We were just looking at your
-new hat, that is all. I think your watch
-must have stopped, Evelyn dear, for mine
-is only—”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps it has,” said the president.
-“Tom talks so much, sometimes, that I
-quite forget to wind it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, it needs a rest sometimes,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“I know that mine—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, dear!” said the president, “I know
-I am a fright to-day, and nothing but a
-sense of duty has brought me here. Why,
-I actually have not had a chance to curl my
-hair properly for six days, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Been getting ready your new gown,
-have you?” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “I only wish I had mine off my
-mind.”</p>
-
-<p>“It wasn’t my new gown,” said the
-president. “It was Tom. He has had a
-heavy cold, and the house smells so strong
-of camphor that there will not be a moth
-within a block of it this year. I don’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
-mind being bidden a tragic farewell at mid-day,
-but I do mind being waked up at midnight
-for that purpose.”</p>
-
-<p>“But it was nothing serious, was it?”
-asked the brown-eyed blonde. “I thought
-the other day, when he came to the top of
-the stairs and called to you that he was
-dying, that a man who was breathing his
-last would manage to do it with less noise.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, pshaw!” said the president. “That
-was nothing to the time he waked me up at
-one o’clock in the morning to tell me that
-he was dying, but if I let that mug-faced
-young preacher who used to come to see me,
-officiate at his funeral he would come back
-and haunt me. It took a hot-water bottle,
-a mustard plaster, two hot toddies, and the
-camphor to quiet him that time.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin; “I wonder why a man always
-thinks a cold or a boil fatal—when he has it?”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps he doesn’t himself,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose; “but he always
-wants the women of the family to act as if
-they did.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses;
-“but do you know what Dolly
-does? As soon as her husband complains
-of being ill she begins to weep and tear her
-hair and lament that he will die, she knows
-he will. That frightens him, and when she
-insists upon putting him to bed, and giving
-him a bowl of hot ginger tea (which he detests),
-he pretends that he was only joking,
-and flees to the office, when she calls him
-up every half-hour to ask how he is. She
-says he seldom complains of his health nowadays.”</p>
-
-<p>“You know my sister Amelia, don’t
-you?” said the girl with the classic profile.
-“Well, her husband had a heavy cold last
-week. He waked her up at two o’clock to
-tell her that he was dying, and that he knew
-he had not been a good husband to her, and
-could not go without her forgiveness. She
-wept, and said that he had not been very nice
-to her, and had never given her half enough
-money. Upon this, the dying man sat up,
-and began to argue the case. From argument
-they passed to something warmer.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
-He went down to the office next day, and
-hasn’t said a word about dying since.”</p>
-
-<p>“I wouldn’t mind Tom thinking he was
-dying once in awhile,” said the president,
-“if he’d only allow me the same privilege
-occasionally. He won’t, though; he comes
-in and says, cheerfully, ‘Oh, you’ll soon
-be all right. You should have seen how
-much worse I was once when I had it, and
-never missed a day at the office, either!’
-The last time he did that my throat was too
-sore for me to reply properly, and I really
-thought I should die of rage.”</p>
-
-<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “As if a woman
-couldn’t always stand more than a man,
-anyhow! For instance, I wonder how
-many of them could go out in thin shoes,
-and without overshoes, as we do. And yet
-you never hear a girl say that she has
-caught cold in that way.”</p>
-
-<p>“Never,” said the blue-eyed girl; “we
-have too much fortitude. My cousin
-Edith’s husband used to be always complaining
-of his health, until this last winter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
-I wondered what had caused his miraculous
-recovery, until she told me a few days ago.
-She was away from home, and received a
-telegram, saying that she must come at
-once if she wanted to see him alive. The
-message was delayed, being improperly addressed,
-and when she reached home, expecting
-to find him dead, he met her at the
-door. It seems that he had called in a new
-doctor, who was the cause of his miraculous
-recovery. He said he would never have
-another physician to prescribe for him as
-long as he lived.”</p>
-
-<p>“Completely cured, eh?” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“Not that time. Next time he was ill,
-and the new doctor appeared, he turned out
-to be an old admirer of Edith’s. Her husband
-is frightfully jealous, and Edith’s
-potential second husband is a very real person
-to him. Edith, as nurse, always went
-out into the hall to talk with the doctor
-after his call. She says she is sure that she
-did not remain away so <i>very</i> long; but when
-she came back, after the first visit, her husband<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
-sulked; after the second, he raved;
-and after the third, he got up, declaring
-he’d live, if only to spite them both. And
-now, the doctor points to him as an example
-of his remarkable healing powers,”
-she added.</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of old sweethearts,” said the
-president, “what do you think happened to
-me the other day? I was calling on Mrs.
-Vansmith and her guest, as she had requested.
-Both of them happened to be
-out, and, to my annoyance, I found I had
-no cards with me. At last I found one of
-Tom’s in my card-case, and I left that,
-knowing that Mrs. Vansmith would understand.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, and didn’t she?” asked the girl
-with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps. But the visitors didn’t. It
-turned out that she used to be engaged to
-Tom; while I was in the kindergarten, I
-suppose. It seems that his card was handed
-to her; and you should have seen the unbelieving
-smile with which she listened to
-my explanation of the matter!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“You poor, dear,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, “you must have been as angry as if
-somebody had trodden on your gown. A
-rather unpleasant thing happened to Florence
-the other day, too; Molly was calling
-on her, and a note was handed in. She
-thought it was from Teddy Crœsus, and
-pretending that she had ink on her fingers,
-asked Molly to open it for her, which she did.”</p>
-
-<p>“How stupid of Molly; she might have
-known that it was some trick of Florence’s,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Was it
-a proposal from Teddy?”</p>
-
-<p>“It wasn’t from Teddy at all; handwritings
-are so much alike nowadays. It was a
-bill from the hairdresser, of whom Florence
-had bought those lovely little curls which
-cluster around her brow—and Molly read it
-aloud, as she had requested.”</p>
-
-<p>“But who told you about it?” said the
-girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Molly. You didn’t suppose it was
-Florence, did you? I declare, it made me
-feel like trying to persuade both of them to
-join our club. There isn’t a girl in it that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
-would do such a mean thing, and the example
-might—”</p>
-
-<p>“No, it wouldn’t; they are too frivolous,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Oh, girls, I sometimes wish that the men
-who dance with us could hear the serious
-discussions which go on in this club,—so harmoniously,
-too.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the president, “not one unkind
-word has been spoken, even of the
-absent, since we organized. I wonder if as
-much can be said of any other club.”</p>
-
-<p>“I doubt it,” said the blue-eyed girl;
-“and it isn’t as if we couldn’t think of
-clever things to say about people, either.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” returned the girl with
-the Roman nose; “why, I know some
-things, even about the other members,
-which—”</p>
-
-<p>“So do I,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “Why, I heard the other day that
-you—”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course I wouldn’t mention, for the
-world,” finished the girl with the Roman
-nose, in some agitation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I thought not, dear; it would hardly be
-wise,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
-“for you, especially.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m sure, I don’t see why I, es—”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t you, dear? But, then, you
-never were clever,” said the president.
-“Yes, I am very proud of the amiability we
-have all displayed since joining the club. I
-must say that I didn’t expect—”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t see why not,” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “As for me, I can get along with
-anybody, so I was not at all afraid.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
-“your tongue would be a protection, even
-if—”</p>
-
-<p>“Other people were even <i>more</i> envious of
-me? That is hardly possible, dear; but
-I thank you for your good opinion of
-me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t overwhelm me with gratitude,
-dearest; I really do not deserve it.”</p>
-
-<p>“But, luckily for you, love, people seldom
-get their deserts.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls, don’t quarrel,” said the
-president, wringing her hands; “I’ve always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
-wanted this to be different from a man’s
-club, and now—”</p>
-
-<p>“Really, Evelyn, you seem to be the one
-who is doing the quarreling,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde, tartly. “As for me, I
-am naturally amiable, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“It is not your fault if your temper <i>is</i> a
-bit soured by repeated disappointments,”
-broke in the blue-eyed girl; “of course not.
-Everybody says it is no wonder.”</p>
-
-<p>“I—I resign from this club,” sobbed the
-brown-eyed blonde. “I’ll not stay here another
-minute to be insulted!”</p>
-
-<p>“Girls, girls,” said the president, “do be
-reasonable. I—”</p>
-
-<p>“This is the first time <i>I</i> was ever accused
-of being unreasonable,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose; “and all I’ve got to say
-is, that I pity Tom from the bottom of my
-heart, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t doubt but that you’d be glad
-to comfort him—if I was dead,” sobbed the
-president. “If this is all I am to get for
-keeping you at peace during the meetings,
-I’ll just resign, and let you run the club to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
-suit yourselves. And a p-pretty mess you-you’ll
-make of it!” And she retired behind
-her handkerchief.</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll resign, too, this very minute,” said
-the girl with the Roman nose. “I knew
-just how it would be when Dorothy asked
-me to join the club, but—”</p>
-
-<p>“You were afraid to refuse, lest something
-happen, and you didn’t know all
-about it,” finished the blue-eyed girl.
-“Well, I wish to tender <i>my</i> resignation
-from the club, to take effect at once.”</p>
-
-<p>“And so do I,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“And I,” said the girl with the classic
-profile.</p>
-
-<p>“I, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“W—why, then, there’s nobody left!”
-exclaimed the blue-eyed girl, gazing about
-the room in astonishment. “Oh, w—what
-will all the men of our set say when they
-hear of this!” she wailed.</p>
-
-<p>“I never thought of that!” said the girl
-with the Roman nose. “I know well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
-enough, though, without thinking,” she
-added.</p>
-
-<p>“They will say that women never <i>can</i>
-agree among themselves,” sobbed the girl
-with the dimple in her chin, “and they will
-keep on saying it, in spite of the fact that
-it is a baseless libel!”</p>
-
-<p>“Of—of course, I am not an—angry,
-only hurt,” sobbed the president.</p>
-
-<p>“I am not angry at all,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, “only distressed that the
-others—”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m sure I—I haven’t a hard feeling
-against any—anybody,” wailed the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic
-profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, no,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“If anybody is sorry for having hurt my
-feelings, I am quite ready to forgive it,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“And so am I,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Then, I don’t see that any of us need<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
-resign,” said the president. “Does anybody
-remember the topic under discussion?”</p>
-
-<p>“‘The Pioneer New Woman,’” said the
-blue-eyed girl, “and a very interesting topic
-it is, I’m sure.”</p>
-
-<p>“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, as she tucked her handkerchief
-into her belt.</p>
-
-<p>“One thing is always a mystery to me,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
-“why does no female creature ever acknowledge
-that she is a new woman until
-she is quite an old one?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, by that time her years will
-entitle her to a seat in a street car, even if
-she wears bloomers,” thoughtfully replied
-the president.</p>
-
-<p>“Who really <i>was</i> the pioneer new
-woman?” asked the girl with the classic
-profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Eve; although, she did not call herself
-by that name, I believe,” returned the
-blue-eyed girl. “So far as I can see, the
-new woman is just like all the rest of us—she
-wants to get everything she can out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
-the world, and give as little as possible in
-return.”</p>
-
-<p>“And it is perfectly natural that she
-should,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“The only way we can make the men give
-us what we really want, is by asking for a
-great deal more, so that they will think
-themselves lucky if we compromise on what
-we originally decided to have.”</p>
-
-<p>“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, making an entry into her
-note-book, “I’ve been acting on that
-theory all my life, but I never thought to
-formulate it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Pardon me for the suggestion,” said the
-president, “but I hope you are not in the
-habit of leaving that note-book around
-where any man can see it.”</p>
-
-<p>“It wouldn’t make any difference if I
-did, dear. I went to such a fashionable
-school that no one but myself can ever read
-my chirography—I can’t myself, if it was
-written long enough ago for me to have
-quite forgotten what I said.”</p>
-
-<p>“Then, you needn’t be uneasy about any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
-old love letters which have not been returned,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Not at all. Nobody could tell whether
-I had written a promise of undying affection
-or a recipe for hair tonic.”</p>
-
-<p>“I do wish my father had sent me to the
-same school,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
-sorrowfully.</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw, old letters don’t tell half as
-many tales as old photographs,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses, sighing. “I know a
-girl who had been engaged to a man who
-returned everything she had given him except
-one photograph. She couldn’t refuse
-to let him keep it when he begged so hard.”</p>
-
-<p>“He had probably lost it, and didn’t
-know how to account for its absence,” said
-the president.</p>
-
-<p>“No, he hadn’t. Well, six years later,
-she became engaged to another man. I
-fancy she must have told him some stories
-about her age.”</p>
-
-<p>“It’s always better to understate rather
-than overstate a case,” said the blue-eyed
-girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“So my old nurse used to say. Well,
-when she was about to be married, her old
-lover sent her a beautiful present, and with
-it an envelope addressed to her fiancé.”</p>
-
-<p>“Which she should have opened herself,”
-said the president, promptly.</p>
-
-<p>“He happened to be present when the
-box was opened, dear. The envelope contained
-the photograph taken seven years
-before—”</p>
-
-<p>“Why didn’t she say that—”</p>
-
-<p>“It was a picture of her elder sister?
-She did, dear. What really caused the
-trouble was her own name, and the date on
-the back of it, coupled with the statement
-that it was taken on her twenty-second
-birthday!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, my goodness, how sly men are?”
-said the president. “And to think that
-never, as long as she lived, could that girl
-tell him what she really thought of him!”</p>
-
-<p>“I know. She used to say that she
-sometimes regretted that she <i>hadn’t</i> married
-him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, he is probably married to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
-somebody else, by this time, anyhow,” said
-the president, “though I doubt if his wife
-would fully appreciate the enormity of his behavior,
-since it was toward another woman.”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, “people are sure to be punished in
-some way or another. I wouldn’t get up
-early on Sunday morning, and go to church
-if I did not firmly believe that.”</p>
-
-<p>“Goodness me,” said the president, “it
-must be awfully late, girls, and I promised
-Tom to adjourn early and meet him down
-town. I do wonder if he has been waiting
-for me all this time!”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve seen Jack,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, as the friends went
-down the stairs; “met him on the street
-this morning.”</p>
-
-<p>“And, I suppose you hurried right on,
-and never said a civil word to him,” returned
-the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed I didn’t. I called after him to
-wait for me, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“And I suppose he thought that I had
-told you to talk to him, since you were so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
-eager. You needn’t tell me a word that
-you said—I don’t want to hear anything
-about it. Did—did he look sort of hollow-eyed
-and worn?”</p>
-
-<p>“‘M—I can’t say that he did. But he
-said that he thought he must give up chafing-dish
-suppers.”</p>
-
-<p>“I should think he must have bad
-dreams,” said the blue-eyed girl, viciously.</p>
-
-<p>“He—he told me that he had called at
-your house the other day, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose you let him go on thinking
-that I meant that message for him. A
-nice friend you are, Emily Marshmallow!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, Dorothy, I—”</p>
-
-<p>“You don’t surely mean that you explained
-it all, and actually let him think
-that I wanted to apologize! Well, if anybody
-had told me such a thing of you, I
-never would have believed it.”</p>
-
-<p>“No, I didn’t,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, “I didn’t say a word,
-for just then Frances joined us; and if <i>you</i>
-are clever enough to get a private word with
-any man, after Frances sees him, I am not!”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter VII<br />
-
-<small>Woman in Legislation</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“Let us discuss ‘Woman in Legislation,’
-to-day,” said the president. “I had written
-you a note, Marion, to prepare a paper
-on it, but I found it in my desk this morning.”</p>
-
-<p>“Too bad,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“I should have been delighted to
-do it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, Marion,” cried the girl with the
-Roman nose, “have you forgotten? You
-said you were too busy painting dinner
-cards to touch it. That was when I told
-you that Evelyn wanted you to do it, you
-remember.”</p>
-
-<p>“No, I don’t,” snapped the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “Of course I shan’t have a
-minute to prepare a paper for next week;
-but I should have been delighted to—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Girls,” said the president, “only think!
-Tom says this club is actually making me
-masculine.”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, you must have convinced him
-that you had the better of him in an argument,”
-cried the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“No—but I forgot to mail some letters
-he intrusted to me the other day when he
-was going out of town. By the way, it
-seems to me that when legislation is in the
-hands of women. What are you girls whispering
-about over there in the corner?”</p>
-
-<p>“We are only comparing samples of bicycle
-suitings,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “Dorothy has a larger selection
-than I, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, I have a lot of them, myself,”
-said the president. “Has anybody seen my
-hand-bag since I came in?”</p>
-
-<p>“Here it is,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “I’ve just been comparing
-your samples with mine, and I find—”</p>
-
-<p>“Goodness me, I’m late,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde, as she bounced into
-the room. “I just stopped on my way here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
-to look at a new design for bicycle suits,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve been trying for half a block to
-catch you, Frances,” said the girl with the
-classic profile, as she opened the door, in
-turn; “I’ve been looking at the new bicycles,
-and was detained longer than I expected.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, shall you get a new wheel this
-year?” asked the president.</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear,” returned the girl with the
-classic profile; “but, of course, I wanted to
-see what they are like.”</p>
-
-<p>“Naturally,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “My dears, you never heard
-of such luck as mine. You know papa said
-I shouldn’t have a new bicycle this year, if
-I had to walk—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, if you call that luck,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, “my father said the same
-thing.”</p>
-
-<p>“So did mine,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Wait until you hear the rest,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose, “I had my old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
-machine set in order, and expected to have
-to do with it all this season. The other
-day, I went into the store-room to have a
-look at it, and, to my surprise, found it all
-splashed with mud, the enamel scratched,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“The cook had been riding it, of
-course,” broke in the president.</p>
-
-<p>“I knew that at once, and I went to tell
-mamma she must discharge her on the spot.
-However, mamma was lying down with a
-headache, and as I had some shopping, a
-luncheon, two teas and a dinner on hand
-that day, I had no chance to speak to her.
-Two days later, I remembered it, and went
-in to look at it—I knew that mamma was
-so prejudiced against bicycling that I must
-make the case very bad to excite her sympathy.
-It was bad enough, by this time,
-too; one pedal was all bent, the handle-bar
-was broken, and the enamel was a sight!”</p>
-
-<p>“I hope you made your mother discharge
-that cook on the spot!” said the blue-eyed
-girl.</p>
-
-<p>“I rushed right up to mamma’s room to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
-do it. I opened the door, and a familiar
-odor greeted me—a combination of arnica
-and witch hazel, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“You forgot all about the cook. Had
-your mother fallen downstairs?”</p>
-
-<p>“No; she hadn’t. The cook had been
-trying to teach her to ride my bicycle; she
-had a black eye, a sprained shoulder, and a
-skinned face. The cook had gone home
-with a dislocated collar-bone, and I had to
-wait on mamma, and do all the cooking for
-two days!”</p>
-
-<p>“And you call that luck!” groaned the
-president.</p>
-
-<p>“Not that, dear. But mamma gave me
-a beautiful new wheel for keeping the whole
-thing from papa’s ears. And I sold the
-old one for enough to buy me a lovely new
-suit,” she added, triumphantly.</p>
-
-<p>“I am glad <i>somebody</i> has had a stroke
-of luck,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-“As for me, I’ve just had an object-lesson
-in the selfishness of this world, which is
-enough to make a misanthrope of me for
-life.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, has your grandmother decided
-to buy a wheel for herself instead of for
-you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“No. But you see it scratches the
-enamel to learn on a wheel—not to mention
-the other accidents which may befall it.
-Now, Nell’s bicycle is old, and I sent to
-borrow it to ride while I was taking my lessons.
-She actually refused it, unless I
-would lend her my new one while I had
-hers. Did you ever hear of such selfishness
-in your life?”</p>
-
-<p>“Never,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “By the way, I suppose Jack
-Bittersweet will teach you to ride?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, yes; but how did you guess it?”
-There was a note of triumph in her voice.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, that was easy enough. He is
-always teaching somebody, you know. I
-told him the other day that I was afraid
-people would soon think him a professional.”</p>
-
-<p>“B—but he told me that he only teaches
-people whom he—likes,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, faintly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Why, of course, dear. But, Jack
-hasn’t a bit of discretion; he likes everything
-that wears petticoats, I verily believe.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh—I— By the way, Evelyn, dear,
-what is to-day’s topic? You had started
-the discussion when I came, and I didn’t
-like to interrupt you to ask.”</p>
-
-<p>“It is ‘Woman in Legislation,’” said
-the president, after a peep at her note-book,
-“By the way, Frances, I know the cheapest
-place in town for arnica, if you want—”</p>
-
-<p>“Mine doesn’t cost anything, dear.
-Papa always has a bill at the drug store. I
-know the clerk, and he has promised if I
-use a very large quantity to put it down as
-toilet soap and postage stamps. Papa has
-never ridden you know, and he might not
-understand.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“What a comfort bicycling is,
-anyhow. For instance, if you meet a
-strange man, and the conversation lags—”</p>
-
-<p>“Get it on bicycles, and it runs smoothly
-enough,” said the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I wish <i>I</i> could do the same,” wailed the
-brown-eyed blonde. “Well it is lucky for
-me that the dancing season is over, for my
-arms are a perfect sight.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, if it is only your arms!” said the
-girl with the Roman nose, cheerfully. “<i>I</i>
-always fell on my face when I was learning.
-The only comforting thing about that was,
-that I soon became unrecognizable, and
-could fall right up and down my own street
-without a soul knowing who I was. It was
-very convenient, too, for they hadn’t far
-to take me when I had a really bad accident.”</p>
-
-<p>“How long did you have to wait to sit
-for your photograph?” asked the blue-eyed
-girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Six weeks, dear—and then it had to be
-a profile.”</p>
-
-<p>“Elizabeth had rather a hard time of it,
-too,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin; “she would learn in her lovely new
-suit, and by the time she could ride, she
-hadn’t enough of it left to make a bathing
-costume.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Tom tells a rather good bicycle story,”
-observed the president. “He met a member
-of his club, who is a noted scorcher, the
-other day. He was wheeling along a very
-disreputable specimen of a woman’s machine.
-‘Hello,’ said Tom, ‘got yourself
-into trouble?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply, ‘I ran
-into a woman up yonder, and I’m afraid
-it will be cheaper to buy her a new wheel
-than to have the old one repaired.’
-‘Humph,’ said Tom, who knows him pretty
-well, ‘it’s a wonder you didn’t just ride
-away and leave her, when you found what
-you had done.’ ‘I did,’ said the scorcher,
-‘but it didn’t do me any good.’ ‘Policeman
-saw you, eh?’ ‘No. The woman
-turned out to be my wife!’”</p>
-
-<p>“Good!” said the blue-eyed girl. “I
-came very near not getting my bicycle last
-year. Papa said I should have one if I
-learned to make a good pie. I agreed to
-do it, but I had reckoned without the cook.
-She said flatly that she wouldn’t have me
-messing up her kitchen. Finally, I compromised
-by agreeing to trim her a hat, if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
-she would make the pie. It was really
-quite the same you know.”</p>
-
-<p>“Quite,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“And did it turn out all right?” asked
-the president.</p>
-
-<p>“The hat did; but the pie—well, the
-cook had lived with us for three years, and
-that was the first time she had turned out
-an uneatable pie!”</p>
-
-<p>“But, why didn’t you ask your father
-to let you try again?” asked the girl with
-the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“I did, dear; but I took no chances that
-time; I bought the pie from the Woman’s
-Exchange. And I must say that I think I
-quite deserved the bicycle after all I had
-been through to earn it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed you did,” said the girl with the
-classic profile. “By the way, Emily, I hear
-that you and Dick had an almost fatal quarrel
-while you were both learning.”</p>
-
-<p>“We did,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “It happened this way: I was
-able to ride at least two blocks without assistance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
-so I got up very early, and went
-to the park alone to practice. I was getting
-along very well until I heard somebody
-coming up behind me at a terrible pace.
-That made me so nervous that I fell right
-off. The cyclist who had frightened me
-was Dick, and he actually kept right on
-without offering to help me!”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps he didn’t know it was you,”
-suggested the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, he did; but he kept right on, and
-a perfect stranger had to take me and my
-bicycle home. Two hours later he appeared
-with his arm in a sling, and explained.
-He said it was first time he had
-ridden outside of the riding school, and he
-had gotten a terrific pace which he couldn’t
-have stopped if a rich uncle had been in his
-way. He said that if something in his machine
-hadn’t broken, he verily believed
-he’d have circled the globe without stopping!”</p>
-
-<p>“So you forgave him, didn’t you? You
-always were amiable,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Ye—es. Especially as he offered to
-have my bicycle repaired; papa having
-declared the last time that he wouldn’t pay
-another cent for repairs, if it stood in the
-attic all summer!”</p>
-
-<p>“That was good of you. Some girls
-would not have been so just,” said the
-president.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, don’t praise me too much,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin, modestly.
-“Nobody who knew me happened
-to be in sight when it occurred—else I
-might not have let him off so easily.”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me, how modest you are,” said
-the blue-eyed girl. “I never knew a human
-being with so little vanity in my life.”</p>
-
-<p>“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “Did I tell you about Florence’s
-latest trouble? No? Well, you know that
-horrid Mr. Brownsmith, who rides beautifully,
-begged to be allowed to teach her.
-She accepted, and as soon as she had
-learned to ride well, she wondered how to
-get rid of him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why didn’t she ask her father to—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Forbid him to the house? That’s just
-what she did. I believe you have heard
-this story before.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. And her father?” queried the
-girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Absolutely refused to do it. Said he
-was the finest young man he knew, and only
-wondered that he cared for her society.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I declare! And Florence?”</p>
-
-<p>“Would have had to treat him just like
-anybody else, if he hadn’t heard all about
-it, and stopped calling of his own accord.
-Now, every time her father sees him, he
-asks why he hasn’t been to the house for
-so long!”</p>
-
-<p>“How unreasonable men are to be sure—Florence’s
-father, in particular. Why,
-he actually refuses to speak to Dickey Doolittle,
-whose third cousin married a British
-baronet, and who has all his garments made
-in London!” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“I know—he says it makes no difference
-to him <i>where</i> Dickey gets his clothes; so
-long as he pays for them promptly,” said
-the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Which is the last thing Dickey would
-even think of doing,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, he may <i>think</i> of it,” said the
-girl with the classic profile. “I suppose
-that even Dickey thinks sometimes.”</p>
-
-<p>“You have been reading the comic papers
-again,” said the president, severely. “Whenever
-I hear old jokes I—”</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear,” said the girl with the classic
-profile, sweetly, “but I had a long talk with
-your husband only yesterday.”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, rousing herself from a
-reverie, “I’m afraid I’ve not been paying
-attention to the discussion. I can’t even
-remember whether we decided that women
-should be legislators or not.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m sorry to hear that,” said the president.
-“I fear it is too late to go over the
-discussion again for your benefit. I thought
-you were taking notes of it as we went
-along—I saw you jotting something down
-in your note-book.”</p>
-
-<p>“That was only my calculations for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
-bicycle suit. There must be something
-wrong about them, too, for I make it
-twenty-seven dollars, and I only have
-twenty-one dollars and thirty-eight cents to
-my name, even if somebody pays my car-fare
-home.”</p>
-
-<p>“I only make it twenty-six dollars and
-two cents,” said the blue-eyed girl, “and I
-have allowed for everything just the same
-as you have.”</p>
-
-<p>“But then you are so economical that
-your sums in addition always come out less
-than mine, dear. I think you had better
-go over it again; or let Evelyn do it for
-you.”</p>
-
-<p>“I make it twenty-eight dollars and sixty
-cents,” said the president. “Try it Frances,
-and see if I am right.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, don’t,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-“if anybody else adds it up, it may come
-out thirty dollars, and then I can’t afford
-it at all. Well, I do hope one thing,—that
-when women are legislators they will arrange
-that we all have more money to spend.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course they will,” said the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
-“else why should they bother to be legislators
-at all?”</p>
-
-<p>“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the
-Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“What a comfort you are with your
-knowledge of parliamentary usage,” said
-the president.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I have gained that by joining this
-club, if I have gained nothing else,” replied
-the girl with the Roman nose. “I
-observe, too, that papa and the boys are
-less inclined to engage in argument with
-me than they were before they knew the
-kind of topics we discuss here. Not that
-I give myself any airs over it, of course,”
-she added.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, none of us do that,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde. “But there is another
-benefit which I derive from the club.
-Mamma allows me to spend a good deal
-more money on my wardrobe, now that
-she is afraid that I may begin to look intellectual
-if I’m not well dressed.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, speaking of bicycle suits; did you
-ever hear what happened to Molly’s old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
-one?” asked the blue-eyed girl. “No?
-Well, she was determined to have a new
-one this year, so she put the old one away
-without any moth-balls, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“It was completely ruined by the moths,
-so that she had to get a new one?” asked
-the president.</p>
-
-<p>“No, it was comparatively uninjured;
-but the moths from it had got into all her
-brother’s spring garments, which were
-hanging up near it. Molly is thinking of
-going away on a nice long visit about the
-time that he discovers it.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m; if I know anything about men,
-she had better,” said the president. “Poor
-Molly, I suppose she had meant to coax
-him for another suit. How unlucky that
-girl is, and she doesn’t in the least deserve
-her ill-luck, either.”</p>
-
-<p>“No. She often says it would be easier
-to bear if she did. Now, last year that
-very same brother was always coaxing her
-to ask Ida to pay her a visit. Finally, he
-said he’d give her fifty dollars if she would
-do it, and she thought she might as well be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
-good-natured and oblige him. However,
-she was busy, and put it off a week or two,
-and when Ida’s letter of acceptance actually
-came he had fallen in love with another
-girl, and let Molly do all the entertaining!”</p>
-
-<p>“Just like a man. Did he give her the
-money?” asked the president.</p>
-
-<p>“No. He compromised on half, because
-Molly had put off asking her. And
-Ida stayed two weeks longer than she had
-been asked for, and made eyes all the time
-at the man Molly really liked herself.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, poor Molly,” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, “she says the next
-time her brother offers to pay her for having
-a girl to visit her, she will send the invitation
-by telegraph!”</p>
-
-<p>“And demand payment in advance,” said
-the brown-eyed blonde; “of course he would
-be willing to pay for the telegram, anyhow.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and take it to the office, too,”
-said the president, with a sigh. “Tom used
-to send off all my telegrams before we were
-married—he always said it was too far to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
-the office for me to go myself. Now, he
-says that the exercise will do me good.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose he doesn’t want to pay for
-the message,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I never pay for my telegrams, I
-always send them at receiver’s cost. People
-are so curious to know what is in a telegram
-that they pay without a murmur.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m, I shall have to try that,” said
-the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“But not on me,” cried the president.
-“I’ll never forgive you if you do. Oh,
-girls, did you hear the awful thing that
-happened to Milly when she sold her bicycle?
-No? Well, she only got ten dollars
-for it, because the man said it was in
-such an awful condition that he only took
-it to oblige her, and it would be a dead loss
-on his hands. He told her to come in in
-about ten days, and he’d have some second
-hand ones in such good condition that they
-would be the best bargains in town.”</p>
-
-<p>“That was very nice of him, since he
-made nothing on the transaction,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“So Milly thought. At the end of that
-time she went back, and found one that
-she liked very much, it being the same
-make as her old one. He wanted sixty
-dollars for it, but she beat him down to
-fifty, and took it home with her at once for
-fear he would change his mind. What do
-you think she found when she got home?
-That she had bought her own old machine
-back again!”</p>
-
-<p>“But how did she know that?” asked
-the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“By the number on the plate, goosie.
-He had put on new pedals, raised the seat a
-bit and given it a new coat of enamel—making
-forty dollars on the transaction!
-And when Milly wanted her husband to
-punish him for his rascality, he only laughed
-until she actually thought seriously of applying
-for a divorce!”</p>
-
-<p>“And no wonder,” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “One man will do a mean thing and
-another will uphold him. You don’t find
-women doing such things for each other!”</p>
-
-<p>“No, indeed,” said the girl with the dimple<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
-in her chin; “our own standard of
-feminine behavior is so high, that we hardly
-even give each other credit for the good
-things we do!”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve often noticed that,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses, “and I regret to see
-that men are unable to appreciate our lofty
-motives, and often set it down to envy.”</p>
-
-<p>“My goodness,” cried the president,
-with a guilty start, “it must be long past
-time to adjourn, and I don’t want the
-janitor to look at me as he did last time we
-were late. Why, he couldn’t have been
-more unpleasant if I had been his own wife!
-And the look which always reduces Tom to
-instant submission hadn’t the least effect
-upon him!”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve been dying for an opportunity to
-speak to you all afternoon,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin, to the blue-eyed
-girl, as they turned the corner, “I met
-Effie Bittersweet to-day, and she spoke so
-nicely of you that I am sure she thinks you
-and her brother are about to become reconciled.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“It isn’t Jack this time, dear,” was the
-calm reply. “The fact is, that Clarence
-Lighthed has been paying me a good deal
-of attention lately, and she was afraid you
-would think her jealous.”</p>
-
-<p>“Clarence! Well, I never—how on earth
-did you manage it, Dorothy?”</p>
-
-<p>“Strange as it may appear, I didn’t
-manage it at all; he did it entirely of his
-own accord. But though that is the honest
-truth, there isn’t another girl of my acquaintance
-who would even <i>pretend</i> to believe
-it if I told her.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose not, dear; and yet men must
-sometimes admire girls of their own free
-will. Well, Effie must be feeling very
-badly, then, for she said that of course she
-knew I would laugh at her for saying it,
-but for her part, she considered Dorothy
-Darling the prettiest girl in our set.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph, I’ll remember that when
-Clarence calls to-morrow afternoon. You
-couldn’t persuade Effie to drop in with
-you for a cup of tea, could you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Ye—es, I suppose I could, if you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
-promise to put enough rum in my cup to
-fortify me for the walk home. And I have
-always wanted to own a hand mirror like
-that silver one of yours. Do you suppose
-anybody will ever give me one?”</p>
-
-<p>“You may have mine, if you will promise
-to bring Effie in at precisely half-past
-four; Clarence will be reading poetry aloud
-by that time.”</p>
-
-<p>“I promise; and I might just as well
-stop in and get the hand mirror now. You
-won’t want me to leave you a moment to-morrow.</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed, I shall not. By the way, of
-course I told you that I cracked the mirror
-breaking taffy the other afternoon! No?
-Why, I wonder how I could have overlooked
-the fact.”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind, dear, Ned Crœsus will
-have it mended for me—and thank me for
-letting him do it, instead of Dick. By the
-way, how can you endure so much of Clarence’s
-society? You always said he was so
-stupid.”</p>
-
-<p>“That was when he used to talk of nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
-but Effie. Any man would be stupid,
-if his only theme was another girl. You—you
-couldn’t let Jack know about Clarence,
-could you? If it was any one else
-Effie would tell him the first time she was
-provoked with him. Frances will be careful
-not to let him know, and men have such
-silly ideas about interfering with other peoples’
-affairs, that I doubt if any of them
-say a word to him about the matter.”</p>
-
-<p>“I might. Yes, I know I could, if only
-I was sure that you would not blame me
-if it turned out badly.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, to think of
-refusing to do a little thing like that for me—when
-I’ve just given you that lovely
-hand mirror, which I like better than
-anything I own. I just believe you
-want Jack Bittersweet yourself, and I’m
-sure you are welcome to him, for aught I
-care!”</p>
-
-<p>“Look here, Dorothy, I think you forget
-that Jack is two whole inches shorter than
-I; and if you think I am capable of caring
-enough for <i>any</i> man to make myself look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
-like a—a bean pole for the rest of my natural
-life, you are very much mistaken!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, if you are sorry to have hurt
-my feelings, of course I shall overlook it.
-I only hope, however, that you will not
-rely too much on my natural amiability and
-push me too far. If you should see Jack
-in the near future you might, as you suggested,—”</p>
-
-<p>“But, I didn’t suggest at all. You must
-just tell me what you want me to say to
-Jack and, if I get a chance, I—”</p>
-
-<p>“You are entirely mistaken. I don’t
-want you to say anything to Jack; after the
-way he has treated me, I have too much
-pride to raise a finger to bring him back.
-I only thought that, as you are a friend of
-his, you might like to warn him that there
-are others who appreciate me, if he does
-not.”</p>
-
-<p>“B—but I rather fancy that he will expect—er
-some kind of an explanation of
-the—the occurrence at your house last
-week. Suppose I just say—”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, then, all I’ve got to say is, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
-if Jack Bittersweet is too stupid to understand
-a simple accident, I don’t care if he
-never speaks to me again. Clarence Lighthed
-is one of the very nicest fellows I ever
-knew, and I am one of the hap—happiest
-girls in the world. Don’t look at me as if
-you thought I was crying! I am not—and
-if I was, it would be out of p—pure joy!”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter VIII<br />
-
-<small>An Executive Meeting</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“Why, Frances, is that you? And on
-your way to the Club, too,” cried the blue-eyed
-girl, as she caught up with the brown-eyed
-blonde, “how lucky I am; I shall
-have a nice long talk with you as we go
-along! How well you are looking to-day,
-quite fresh, I declare! Dear me, I should
-have put on my gloves before I left home,
-but I was in such haste that—”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way, Dorothy, it seems to me
-that you are not wearing as many rings as
-usual this winter. Surely, I miss the diamond
-you used to wear!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, no I’m not; so much jewelry is
-always vulgar, and rings are <i>so</i> hard on one’s
-gloves. Mercy, we have walked a whole
-block, and you haven’t told me a bit of
-news!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Haven’t I? By the way, I heard Ja—a
-man I know, say something about you
-yesterday which was quite a surprise. I
-don’t really know whether I ought to repeat
-it, or not.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, he wouldn’t have said it before
-you unless he expected you to repeat it,
-dear. You must tell me what it is, or I
-shall fancy it was not really unpleasant,
-and, really I’ve had so many compliments
-of late that it will be quite a change. I am
-actually afraid that Cla—a friend who thinks
-too well of me—will make me vain, and
-that—”</p>
-
-<p>“Impossible, dear. By the way, I hear
-that Clarence Lighthed comes to see you
-occasionally now, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Not oftener than once in twenty-four
-hours, dear.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. And really he has been so devoted
-to so many girls that—”</p>
-
-<p>“It is a wonder that he has never thought
-of <i>you!</i> Why so it is, now that I think of
-it. But never mind, there may be a chance
-for you yet. Pardon me, you were about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
-to repeat something you had heard about
-me, and I’m afraid I interrupted you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Was I? Dear me, I have quite forgotten
-what it was; nothing very important,
-I’m sure.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true. By the way, I heard something
-about <i>you</i> the other day, too. It was
-extremely complimentary—so much so indeed,
-that you will think I am trying to
-flatter you, if I repeat it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed? Oh, I remember now what I
-was about to tell you. It was—so you
-really heard something nice about poor little
-me?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I really did. I’ll tell you after
-you have finished your story. I really
-must not interrupt you again.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, Ja—I mean the man I know—said
-the other day that he thought you—now
-you mustn’t mind this, at all, Dorothy; I
-told him at once that nobody else had ever
-said such a thing of you.”</p>
-
-<p>“How kind of you to champion me, dear;
-I really did not expect it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes; I often do it. He said—I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
-wouldn’t repeat it to you, but the absurdity
-of the charge takes all the sting out of
-it. He said, ‘I consider Dorothy Darling
-the most heartless flirt I ever knew!’ Isn’t
-it too funny!” and she burst into a peal of
-laughter.</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl paused to pat a little
-dog before she replied: “How well you do
-tell a story, Frances, dear. Look at that
-poor, old blind man over yonder; let us
-cross over and give him some pennies,”
-and she was almost dancing as she crossed
-the street.</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps he is an impostor, after all,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde. “By the way,
-you said somebody paid me a nice compliment
-the other day. Do tell me what it
-was, and if I ever get the chance—be it
-twenty years from now—I’ll do the same
-for you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes, indeed. Old Miss Lucy
-Brownsmith said to me, only the other day,
-‘Really, Frances is quite a nice-looking
-girl now that she has given up lacing so
-tightly.’ I knew you would be so pleased.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
-Well, here we are at the Club; I am afraid
-that I must have walked too fast for you,
-dear; you look quite flushed.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, Emily, dear,” she whispered, as
-she embraced her friend in the cloak room,
-“Jack is wild with jealousy! He told
-Frances the other day that I was the most
-heartless flirt he ever knew!”</p>
-
-<p>“Then, he is ready to go half-way toward
-making up! Oh, I am so glad that
-I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Half-way? Do you suppose, Emily
-Marshmallow, that after allowing Clarence
-Lighthed to bore me almost to death for
-two weeks, I shall be willing to go half-way
-to make up with Jack?”</p>
-
-<p>“But you said the other day that unless
-you <i>did</i> make up with him, you would
-learn to be a trained nurse and devote
-your life to others, and I thought—”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind what I said the other day—that
-was before I knew how jealous Jack
-was. And all I’ve got to say, is this: if
-you expect me to make a fright of myself
-in a gray cloak and bonnet and cotton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
-gown just to please <i>you</i>, you are very
-much mistaken!”</p>
-
-<p>The girl with the eyeglasses put her head
-in at the door, “Come into the club-room
-right away, girls,” she said. “Evelyn is
-here, and she has something of the greatest
-importance to tell us.”</p>
-
-<p>The president was evidently excited as
-she called the meeting to order. “I am
-just as angry as I can be,” she said.
-“What do you think I found in my mail
-to-day? A letter from a man who is old
-enough to know better, suggesting a topic
-for discussion by this club. That topic
-was, ‘The Best Method of Keeping the Hat
-on Straight.’”</p>
-
-<p>“You don’t say so!” said the girl with
-the Roman nose. “Well, it only shows
-that our mental advancement has made him
-uneasy.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course,” said the president. “Then,
-as if that was not enough, he suggests a
-small mirror fastened to the inside of an
-umbrella or parasol as—”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw!” said the brown-eyed blonde,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
-“a highly polished silver handle answers the
-same purpose and attracts less attention.”</p>
-
-<p>“Talk about hats,” said the girl with the
-classic profile, “men are just as fussy about
-their own. Did you ever see anybody put
-on a man’s hat to suit him?”</p>
-
-<p>“Never,” said the president. “I had an
-awful time when Tom’s arm was broken.
-I would put on his hat as carefully as I
-could—he always would tip it too far back
-himself—and yet, each time he would remove
-it, look suspiciously into the crown,
-and put it on again himself.”</p>
-
-<p>“As if it makes any difference how a
-man looks, anyhow,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “So long as they are nice and
-generous, no girl cares—”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true,” broke in the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, “and it is frequently
-the pocket of a last year’s overcoat which
-harbors the largest box of candy.”</p>
-
-<p>“I should like to know how a man manages
-to keep his hat on without veil or
-pins,” said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“He doesn’t always do it in a high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
-wind,” said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“And yet he always wonders why a
-woman holds her hat on when she is driving,”
-remarked the girl with the dimple in
-her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“You know what a fuss men always make
-about big theater hats,” said the president.
-“Well, thinking to please Tom, I got a tiny
-bonnet, which was so becoming that it attracted
-as much attention as a regular
-mountain of feathers and velvet.”</p>
-
-<p>“And wasn’t he pleased?” asked the
-girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Not when the bill came in, and he
-found that it cost rather more than a large
-hat. I said that he ought to be content to
-pay for the principle of a thing. He replied
-that it looked as if the interest was all about
-all he could afford. I suppose he thought
-that was sarcastic.”</p>
-
-<p>“Men have such queer ideas of humor,
-anyhow,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin; “why, I know a man who once
-laughed heartily at a joke on himself.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps he owed money to the man
-who made it, or wanted his vote for something,”
-said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I’d like to know who first invented
-hat-pins,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “I am sure it was not a woman,
-because—”</p>
-
-<p>“It was a man, and he was either an old
-bachelor or a bigamist,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose. “I had two pins running
-straight into my scalp all during service on
-Sunday. Dick was with me, too, and it
-was so hard to look saintly when—”</p>
-
-<p>“Men always ask why we don’t tie our
-hats on, when we complain of pins,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“Wouldn’t we look nice with our jaws tied
-up like those of a small boy with the toothache?”</p>
-
-<p>“To say nothing of having our hearing so
-impaired that we couldn’t be sure whether
-compliments whispered into our ears were
-intended for us or were merely remarks
-made about other girls,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Well, girls,” said the president, “I see
-you all resent it, as I do; and I’m just going
-to write that horrid man a letter telling
-him that the Teacup Club has too many
-serious topics to discuss to waste time upon
-anything relating to millinery.”</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of millinery,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, “did you ever see anything as
-sweet as the new hats! I went with Elizabeth
-to select the ones for her trousseau the
-other day, and it did seem hard to me that
-a girl only has a chance <i>once</i> in her life
-to buy as many hats as she really wants,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Not to mention the fact that it is just
-at the time when she is so much interested
-in her future husband that she can’t give
-her whole mind to the subject,” broke in
-the girl with the eyeglasses. “Now, if she
-could only choose her trousseau a year after
-her marriage, instead of before.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes; or even six months,” said the
-president. “Well, my new hat must cost
-five dollars less than I had hoped. I borrowed
-that amount from Tom last month;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
-and—will you believe it?—he took it out of
-my allowance for this month, in spite of
-the fact that I told him I had spent it for
-his birthday present.”</p>
-
-<p>“But why didn’t you take it out of your
-housekeeping allowance? You usually do,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Because I had already taken enough for
-a half-dozen pairs of gloves out of that. It
-happened that he had not given a single
-stag dinner during the month, so I could
-not filch too much without discovery.
-When he gives a dinner, I can always pay
-myself well for the trouble of it. If he
-complains of the bills, I just say, ‘Yes,
-dear, I see that we cannot afford any more
-stag dinners,’ and that settles it at once,”
-she added.</p>
-
-<p>“I should think it would,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, thoughtfully. “Did you tell Tom
-how mean you thought it of him to expect
-you to pay back money that you had borrowed?”</p>
-
-<p>“I did. I said, ‘I wouldn’t be as selfish
-as you are for anything!’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“And did that make him feel badly? I
-should think so.”</p>
-
-<p>“Not a bit. You don’t know Tom; he
-just laughed as if it was funny. Luckily,
-I had given him a silk umbrella for his
-birthday, and as he has two already, and
-this one is—er rather small, I shall get a
-good deal of use out of it myself.”</p>
-
-<p>“And you hadn’t one at all, had you?”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
-remember the day you lost yours.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Wasn’t it nice of me to buy one
-for him when I really needed it for myself?
-But one can’t expect a man to appreciate
-generosity.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “what do you think I heard
-to-day?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know what <i>you</i> heard,” said
-the girl with the Roman nose, “but I heard
-that Clarence Lighthed has just inherited a
-fortune from an uncle whom he had never
-seen! You know he is my cousin, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you just heard that,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, “He told <i>me</i> about it a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
-week ago—the day you said he was
-stupid, Emily. I knew at the time that
-you would feel badly when you discovered
-that it was only—er—grief for the death of
-his uncle, which made him so quiet and
-thoughtful. Poor fellow, it must have been
-<i>such</i> a shock to him!”</p>
-
-<p>“How kind of you to comfort him in his
-sorrow,” said the brown-eyed blonde, in
-sarcastic tones.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear—especially as he could have
-his choice of comforters. I think you said
-that you, too, have a piece of news,
-Emily.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why—er—yes, I heard that Effie Bittersweet
-is on the verge of nervous prostration.”</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl said never a word;
-she looked out of the window opposite her,
-and there was a soft, sweet smile on her
-face. Perhaps she failed to see the glances
-that were exchanged by the others.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls, have you heard the awful
-thing that happened to me yesterday?”
-asked the girl with the eyeglasses. “No?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
-Then, I had better tell you all about it myself.
-I had an engagement with Harry;
-we were to call on his aunt who lives in
-Rogers Park—nothing very exciting, you
-know. Well, Mr. Doolittle came in early
-to ask me if I wouldn’t go to the matinée
-with him. Now, I knew Harry would take
-me to see his aunt any day, and Mr. Doolittle
-might never ask me to go to the
-matinée again, so I accepted his invitation
-at once.”</p>
-
-<p>“You would have been very stupid if
-you hadn’t,” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“So I thought. Then, I told him that
-I must stop in at the drug store and send
-off a telephone message. You see, I
-didn’t want to give Harry all the trouble
-of coming up in vain.”</p>
-
-<p>“You are always so thoughtful,” said the
-blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“I try to be. I called Harry up, but he
-was not in, and I told the office-boy to tell
-him that I was ill, and could not go with
-him to Rogers Park, but hoped to be out
-in a day or two. The boy was as stupid as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
-he could be; I had to repeat the message
-twice, and even spell my name. Oh, it was
-awful!”</p>
-
-<p>“What? his stupidity?” asked the girl
-with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“No; my own. As I was going out, the
-clerk stopped me, and said, ‘You needn’t
-have taken all that trouble, Miss Marion;
-you were telephoning to Mr. Vansmith,
-weren’t you? Well, that was he that just
-went out; he was standing about three feet
-away from you all the time you were trying
-to make the person at the other end of the
-line understand!’”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I hope your father is satisfied
-<i>now</i>,” said the president. “You have been
-trying to get him to put in a telephone all
-winter.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph; you don’t know my father
-very well, dear. When I told him about
-it, he only said that he was more fully satisfied
-than ever that women were not to be
-trusted with telephones!”</p>
-
-<p>“Then there was that horrid drug clerk,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
-“why didn’t he stop you when Harry came
-in, instead of letting you—”</p>
-
-<p>“The fact is, that I knew he was trying
-to attract my attention all the time, but I
-thought that it was only somebody else who
-wanted to use the telephone in a hurry, and
-I took my own good time.”</p>
-
-<p>“He might have known you would have
-done that,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “Girls, I often wonder why drug
-clerks are such gloomy, misanthropic creatures?”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear knows,” said the president; “I’ve
-often noticed it, though. And how cross a
-clerk in a shoe store always is! Strange,
-too, when they have such light, easy work.
-I tried on seventeen pairs of boots only
-yesterday, and I never was so tired in all
-my life; yet I was as amiable as possible,
-and the clerk, who had nothing to do but
-wait on me, was so rude that I thought seriously
-of having the proprietor in to hear
-of it. However, I compromised by going
-out without buying anything.”</p>
-
-<p>“It was very good of you, I’m sure,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
-said the blue-eyed girl. “You know Marie
-sends to Paris for all her shoes. I never
-saw such beauties in all my life as she
-wears.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m. I know she <i>says</i> so,” returned
-the girl with the Roman nose, “but—look
-here, if I tell you something, will you promise
-never to tell it as long as you live?
-Well, then, I spent the day with Marie last
-week. She had a lovely new pair of shoes,
-and I tried my best, without asking
-directly, you know, to find the name of
-the Parisian boot-maker, and how much
-she paid for them.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course you didn’t find out,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Marie
-can be as impervious to a hint as a man.”</p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. Well, she got ready to go out
-with me, and just as we were ready to start
-she was called out of the room. Her boots
-were all in the closet, and I—well, somehow
-I just happened to be near the door, it
-was ajar, and I stooped down to look at the
-maker’s name on them, when—oh, girls,
-the door behind me suddenly flew open!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Oh, my goodness, it was Marie herself!
-What did—”</p>
-
-<p>“No, it was the maid. She said: ‘Will
-you please tell Miss Marie, when she comes
-in, that Cashly has sent up for the pair of
-boots she didn’t take. The boy is waiting
-in the hall.’”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I never,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-“But I’ve always said that if I sent to Paris
-for my boots I’d have better looking ones
-than <i>she</i> gets!”</p>
-
-<p>“But then Marie gets a great deal for her
-money, dear, even if the boots themselves
-are not of a superior quality,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Very true. By the way, who went to
-Marie’s tea yesterday?” said the girl with
-the dimple in her chin; “I did not. Since
-the founding of this club I have cared less
-and less for gossip and society, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Then you didn’t mind not receiving an
-invitation to Marie’s after all!” said the
-brown-eyed blonde. “I must tell her that.
-She said yesterday that she didn’t expect
-you to speak to her for a month.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“By the way,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, hastily, “Dick made rather a
-good suggestion yesterday. He said why not
-have a phonograph, or even a stenographer,
-in the room while we are discussing a topic;
-then we could have copies made, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“That reminds me,” said the president,
-and she rapped loudly for order. “Girls,
-do be quiet. We have a very important
-question to decide to-day. A number of
-men have expressed a desire to become
-members of this club, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“I vote against it,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “We can all express our
-real opinions now, knowing they will go no
-further, whereas—”</p>
-
-<p>“No club man can ever keep a secret,”
-broke in the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “As for us, we would die rather than
-divulge—”</p>
-
-<p>“They are so curious, too,” broke in the
-girl with the classic profile. “We have all
-talked so much about our meetings that
-they want to know how they are conducted,
-that is all.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Yes, that is just it,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, “and once in they would spoil
-all the originality of it by having rules and
-all that. Then they’d go away and say
-that we couldn’t get along without them.”</p>
-
-<p>“The idea!” said the president, “when
-that’s the very reason I set our time of
-meeting in the afternoon!”</p>
-
-<p>“Look here,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
-“of course we don’t want to offend
-them. Why not have a ‘man’s day’ once
-in a while?”</p>
-
-<p>“So we might,” said the president; “but
-we had better wait until we get all our new
-things. Well, I suppose, since we are all
-agreed, that we had better not waste time
-in voting on it. I’m awfully glad to see
-you here, Elise; I was afraid you would
-not be able to come.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I was determined not to miss it,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose. “I left
-word for them to tell the doctor I was
-asleep if he called in my absence. I have
-been troubled with insomnia, you know,
-and he would tell them not to disturb me.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
-Of course, he gave me strict orders not to
-go out, but he—”</p>
-
-<p>“Will never know that,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “Oh, such a time as I had
-last fall when I was ill! You see, papa
-was going to make me go to Philadelphia
-to stay with old Aunt Borely. I—I was
-not very well, anyhow, so I took to my
-bed.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and you had that nice young doctor,
-too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Oh, why am I so brutally healthy!”</p>
-
-<p>“I did, and he cured me of my particular
-ailment,” went on the brown-eyed blonde.
-“I had a most becoming light in the room
-the first time he called, and what do you
-think he did? Pulled every window-shade
-up to the top, until I looked a perfect fright—and
-he young enough to know better!”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw!” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “All doctors are horrid. Why, I
-once had such a handsome one that he sent
-my pulse away up every time he felt it. I
-did look so horrid that one day I—I put on
-a little rouge just before he came. In consequence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
-he said I had a high fever, and
-put me on a milk-and-water diet for three
-days, besides giving me—”</p>
-
-<p>“Like the mean thing I had last year,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
-“I had a cough, and wanted a trip to
-Florida; instead, I got a pair of overshoes,
-a lot of flannels, and a mackintosh.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “Well, I don’t believe my
-doctor is a good one; he—”</p>
-
-<p>“Is too ugly to be a really good one,
-anyhow,” broke in the blue-eyed girl.
-“Fancy being delirious, and seeing that
-creature enter the room!”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, “I wonder why ugly
-men are always having their photographs
-taken and expecting one to keep them
-hanging up where one can see them constantly!”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
-“they hope it may be a case of</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">“But seen too oft, familiar with its face,</div>
-<div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">We first endure, then pity, then”——</span><br /></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="unindent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>No, I don’t mean that,” she broke off,
-blushing.</p>
-
-<p>“I should hope not,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, in shocked tones. “I should be sorry
-to think that any member of this club—”</p>
-
-<p>“The very queen of clubs,” broke in the
-president; “that is what Tom calls it—when
-he is in a particularly good humor, I
-mean. I think we had better adjourn
-now,” she added; “Elise really ought not
-to be out late, and I am wild to tell Tom
-that men will not be admitted to membership.
-Doesn’t the doctor do that pain in
-your chest any good, Elise?”</p>
-
-<p>“You don’t suppose that I told him anything
-about that, do you?” cried the girl
-with the Roman nose. “I hope I am not
-so silly as that—with Elizabeth’s wedding
-coming off in a week, and my lovely low-cut
-gown all ready to wear to it!”</p>
-
-<p>“Just wait one moment,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin. “I haven’t
-got to-day’s topic down in my note-book.
-What did you say it was, Evelyn?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, my goodness!” cried the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
-turning pale, “here we have had a
-meeting, and I have forgotten to suggest
-any topic—and not one of you thought to
-remind me of it! Oh, I am afraid that all
-my efforts to advance you intellectually are
-wasted, after all!”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses, “this has been an executive
-meeting, anyhow.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, so it has,” said the president,
-kissing her; “what a comfort you are,
-Marion dear. Tom’s handsome cousin is
-coming home from Montana next week
-with a lot of money, and you shall be the
-very first girl to have an introduction to him!”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you seen Jack Bittersweet lately?”
-asked the girl with the eyeglasses, as she
-linked her arm in that of the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, after the meeting had
-dissolved.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, he came to see me yesterday. I
-was in agony all the time he was there, lest
-Dorothy come in. I knew she would never
-believe that it was the first time he had
-done it since they quarreled!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Of course she wouldn’t. Did he ask
-your advice?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. So does she—but neither of them
-take it.”</p>
-
-<p>“You don’t expect that, I hope. Well,
-did you find out if he still cares for her?”</p>
-
-<p>“He does. I sat on the sofa, in my
-prettiest house-gown, and he took a chair
-six feet away. He didn’t even tell me
-that fewer men would go to the dogs if
-there were more women like me in the
-world!”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I only hope that they will soon
-come to their senses, that’s all. Dorothy
-looks like a ghost, and as for Jack—”</p>
-
-<p>“If they don’t,” cried the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, savagely, “I shall just
-have to spend a month or two in a sanatarium.
-And I’m not sure that that will
-save my life,” she added.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter IX<br />
-
-<small>On the Use and Abuse of Political
-Power</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“The absurdity of some people!” said
-the president, pausing as she was about to
-call the meeting to order. “What excuse
-do you suppose Elizabeth gave for not asking
-me to look at her pretty things? She
-said she fancied I had grown too intellectual
-to care for gowns and hats!”</p>
-
-<p>“How ridiculous! She had probably
-heard that you do not intend to send her a
-wedding present,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“I haven’t told a soul but the members
-of this club that I shouldn’t give her
-one,” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“Then she couldn’t possibly know it,”
-said the blue-eyed girl, hastily.</p>
-
-<p>“What enrages <i>me</i>, is the insinuation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
-that I have ceased to care for pretty things,
-just because I study politics, and—er—other
-things. I don’t see why intellectuality
-has anything to do with doing up
-one’s hair with three hairpins, or—”</p>
-
-<p>“Wearing gowns which are frayed around
-the bottom,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin; “neither do I. And, yet they
-seem to be somehow connected in people’s
-minds.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true,” said the president. “Girls,
-the editor of a literary journal has asked for
-some of the papers which have been read
-before this club. He says—”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, what answer shall you make?”
-cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“I told him that I could not think of such
-a thing. I always disliked notoriety. It
-was very kind of him, though, and he even
-offered to let the authors of the papers have
-copies of their effusions at reduced rates,
-provided they took over a hundred.”</p>
-
-<p>“Which, of course, they would,” said
-the blue-eyed girl. “Well, you were quite
-right to refuse, Evelyn. I, for one, have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
-such a horror of publicity, and, besides, it
-would be quite expensive sending copies to
-all one’s acquaintances.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the president; “we are all
-in accord, as usual. Let us discuss, ‘The
-Use and Abuse of Political Power,’ to-day.
-It is a subject which is of the greatest importance
-to all of us, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“How do you spell ‘political?’ With
-one <i>t</i> or two?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses,
-as she opened her note-book.</p>
-
-<p>“With one—no, two. Pshaw, I can’t
-remember. Just write it indistinctly.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, Dorothy,” whispered the girl with
-the dimple in her chin, “I saw Dick this
-morning, and he says Jack told him yesterday
-that he didn’t really know what your
-quarrel was about, but he meant to go and
-see you to-day, and ask you to forgive
-him!”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and
-I don’t mind confessing to you, Emily,
-that I, too, may have been just the merest
-possible bit in the wrong. I’ve felt it right
-along, but I couldn’t admit it, until he— What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
-shall I wear when he comes to see
-me?”</p>
-
-<p>“You might wear the blue gown he
-always admires so much.”</p>
-
-<p>“So I might. You know I wore a blue
-gown the day he asked me to marry him,
-and he said I must keep it always. Of
-course, this isn’t the same one, but I am
-careful to have each succeeding one the
-same color, and he doesn’t know the
-difference. Perhaps I have told you this
-before.”</p>
-
-<p>“I think you have, dear—once or twice,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
-demurely.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. I don’t mind letting you know,
-Emily, that I have missed him a good deal.
-Why, I had his photograph—the one I pretended
-to have lost, so I needn’t send it
-back—out when you knocked at my door
-to-day. You couldn’t have helped seeing
-me thrust it under Clover’s cushion, if you
-hadn’t thought something was wrong with
-your boot heel, and stooped down to
-see.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“You don’t say so. Well, all I’ve got
-to say is, I wish I might see Frances’ face
-at the wedding!”</p>
-
-<p>“You shall, dear. I’ll ask her to be
-bridesmaid, and you, as maid of honor, can
-have a good chance to watch her. You
-have been such a faithful friend to both
-Jack and myself that you deserve at least
-that much satisfaction.”</p>
-
-<p>“Look here, Emily and Dorothy, I am
-afraid you are not attending strictly to the
-discussion,” said the president. “The
-topic is— Frances, what on earth has made
-you so late?”</p>
-
-<p>“It was all an accident,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde; “I stopped for you, Dorothy,
-on my way to the club. The maid said
-you had gone already, and I was just coming
-away when I noticed that your little
-dog—what is his name? Rover? Ah,
-Clover! I knew it was something like
-that—was chewing something at the back
-of the hall! I went to see what it was,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, my goodness gracious! Not my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
-new sixteen-button gloves,” wailed the
-blue-eyed girl. “I’ll give that dog away to-morrow!”</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear, not your gloves. It was a
-photograph. Just as I was trying to get
-the pieces away from him, Ja—I mean Mr.
-Bittersweet—came up the steps with a huge
-bunch of violets. He must have seen me
-standing in the hall; you know the door
-was open.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “that checked gown of
-yours speaks for itself!”</p>
-
-<p>“I—ah, where was I? Oh—he succeeded
-in getting the fragments away and—really,
-it was too funny! It turned out to be a
-photograph of himself! I told him that
-I was almost sure that you didn’t give
-it to the dog purposely, Dorothy; but I
-am afraid I didn’t quite convince him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed; and where are the violets?”
-asked the girl with the dimple in her chin;
-“you don’t seem to be wearing them!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, er—no. Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—threw
-them at the dog. You will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
-find them right by the stairway, Dorothy,
-dear; but I’m afraid they are not in very
-good condition. What is to-day’s topic,
-Evelyn?”</p>
-
-<p>“‘The Use and Abuse of Political
-Power,’” said the president, in a faint
-voice. “Will somebody open the window,
-please; I need air!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, Evelyn,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, after the president had announced
-that she felt better, “I do hope
-you are not sitting up at night studying,
-and that sort of thing.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, er—no, I believe not. The fact
-is I’ve been going to a good many dances
-of late on Tom’s account.”</p>
-
-<p>“But Tom doesn’t go, does he?”</p>
-
-<p>“No. B—but everybody knows how
-fond of dancing I am; and if I didn’t go
-they would say he kept me at home. I
-don’t want Tom to pose as a tyrant, you
-know!”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not. You—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. The only thing which makes me
-feel uncomfortable is the angelic way in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
-which he bears my absence. It isn’t like
-Tom, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Clarence—my cousin you know—was
-saying only the other day, that he thought
-you an angel to allow Tom and his friends
-to smoke in the drawing-room, just because
-you happened to be out,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose. “I wonder if that—”</p>
-
-<p>“To smoke in the drawing-room!”
-shrieked the president, turning pale. “I’ll
-go home this minute, and tell him what I
-think of such a proceeding. No, I won’t,
-either; he is at the office, and it would not
-do any good! I never suspected such a
-thing and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, then the smoke couldn’t
-have done the rugs and curtains much harm,
-after all, if you never noticed the odor.”</p>
-
-<p>“It’s the principle of the thing, my
-dear. What hurts me, is the fact that my
-husband respects my wishes so little, when
-I only go to dances to keep people from
-thinking ill of him, too! Well, one thing
-sure, I’ll have all new curtains and carpets—since
-mine are ruined with smoke—if he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
-keeps on talking about hard times until he
-is black in the face!”</p>
-
-<p>“I wonder why men are always talking
-about hard times,” said the girl with the
-classic profile; “women never say anything
-about them.”</p>
-
-<p>“Unless they are driven to it,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “My sister’s
-husband wanted to have his mother
-come for a nice, long visit, but she told him
-that she hardly thought they could afford it
-in such hard times. You see he had just
-made that excuse for not doing up the
-house.”</p>
-
-<p>“With the result?” queried the girl with
-the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“That he decided to have the house done
-up at once! And, after all, the old lady
-only stayed about a week. Helen says she
-can’t imagine why she went, unless, she
-was offended at her suggestion that she
-might like to take a course at the cooking-school
-while she was here.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I don’t blame Helen, at all,”
-said the blue-eyed girl. “No man has a right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
-to be dyspeptic before he is married, and
-her husband was. Everybody ought to
-have a fair chance, and Helen’s cooking
-might not have given it to him for years.”</p>
-
-<p>“At any rate, he can’t blame <i>her</i> for his
-dyspepsia—and that is something,” said
-the president. “Girls, does any one know
-why Josephine has given up her lessons at
-the cooking school?”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose she has made one really good
-loaf of bread, and doesn’t want to tempt
-fate again,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“That is not the reason,” said the girl
-with the eyeglasses, “she is engaged to a
-man who knows how to cook, so there is
-no use for her to waste any more time
-over it. She is studying political economy
-now.”</p>
-
-<p>“And a very good thing, too,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin, “for the
-way money is wasted on elections, is really
-shocking!”</p>
-
-<p>“Hear! hear!” cried the girl with the
-Roman nose. “Of course I don’t want to
-have men as members of this club, but I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
-can’t help wishing sometimes that a few of
-them might hear Emily and Evelyn when
-they are attacking political abuses and
-monopolies.”</p>
-
-<p>“For my part, I don’t see why they
-haven’t thrust the privilege of suffrage
-upon us long ago,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses. “Then they would have somebody
-to blame, when civic and national
-affairs go wrong!”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw,” said the president, “that isn’t
-necessary at all. They can come home and
-scold because dinner is late, or the hall gas
-is unlit, and so relieve their feelings just
-the same.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m sure I don’t want to vote,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin. “It
-is ever so much nicer to do as the men do
-with our housekeeping—just criticise that
-which we can never display our ignorance
-by attempting to do ourselves.”</p>
-
-<p>“That is only your sweet modesty, dear,”
-said the girl with the classic profile.
-“What do you think Mr. Bonds said the
-other day! Ah, I was so indignant! He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
-said it was a mistake to say that women
-could not throw stones.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t see why you were indignant at
-that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “It
-seems to me—”</p>
-
-<p>“It wasn’t that. It was what came
-afterward. He said he knew it was a libel
-for they could—at each other! And every
-man in the room laughed as if he had said
-something clever!”</p>
-
-<p>“I declare,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
-“it is enough to make a man-hater of me.
-If only people would not say that it was because
-of some particular man who failed to
-admire me—”</p>
-
-<p>“There is no danger of it being laid to
-the door of any <i>one</i> man in your case,
-dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Is that
-your new gown that you are wearing to-day,
-Frances, dear?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, yes. Quite a novelty, isn’t it.
-How do you like it?”</p>
-
-<p>“Very much indeed, dear. I stopped
-and looked at it hanging in the cleaner’s
-window the other day, and thought how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
-well it looked. You remember, don’t
-you, Dorothy, my calling your attention to
-it?” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Quite well. I thought at the time that
-it was well she had not attempted to clean
-it herself. By the way, Helen’s little boy
-said such a clever thing the other day. We
-were speaking of favorite perfumes, and
-how nice it was to always use the same one,
-and he said: ‘I know what is Miss Frances’
-favorite perfume. Her gloves always smell
-of it.’ ‘And what is it?’ Helen asked.
-‘Gasoline,’ said the dear little fellow. Did
-you ever hear anything so clever in your
-life?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily,
-“speaking of gloves: I had a letter from
-Pauline the other day, and such a heart-rending
-thing had occurred to her. A nice
-man was buttoning her gloves one day, and
-he said she had the hand of a fairy—Pauline
-seemed to think that an original remark.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps it was the first time she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
-ever had it said to her,” replied the blue-eyed
-girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Um—perhaps it was. She said carelessly,
-‘Do you think so? Why, I consider
-it quite large. I wear a number six.’ She
-was sorry for that afterward.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose he looked in the other glove,
-and—saw that she had made a mistake,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear. But, shortly after that, they
-made a bet of a dozen pairs of gloves, and
-Pauline won. Oddly enough, she didn’t
-know it until the gloves arrived. They
-were number six, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw, she could exchange them for a
-larger size; he would never know the difference,”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Not in this case, dear. He had had
-her monogram embroidered on the top of
-each pair. And now he is offended that
-she does not wear them!”</p>
-
-<p>“How exactly like a man,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin. “Now, I
-have too high a regard for truth to—”</p>
-
-<p>“Waste it on such a little thing as that?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
-I know,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Well, I hope Pauline’s mishap will be a
-warning to you.”</p>
-
-<p>“She might say that she could not accept
-such a gift from a masculine friend,”
-thoughtfully suggested the girl with the
-classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“But she had thanked him very prettily,
-and said they were just her size, and how
-did he know it? before she discovered that
-she could not exchange them! Oh, I just
-don’t see any way out of it. I told Tom
-about it, and he said, ‘Pshaw, let her tell
-him the truth, and be done with it.’ And
-yet Tom is very clever—for a man.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed he is,” said the blue-eyed girl,
-warmly, “he is one of the few people who
-always understands a joke when I tell it.
-Just because I leave out a little bit of it,
-some people—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the
-classic profile, “I’ve been waiting for a
-good chance to tell you that Eunice is
-married!”</p>
-
-<p>“Is it possible?” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
-eyeglasses. “I remember that she always
-said people ought to know each other very
-well before they <i>were</i> married. That was
-why she went for a long visit to that Kansas
-girl whose brother was so much in love
-with her. She married <i>him</i>, I suppose.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why—er—no. You see, he asked her,
-and she said she could not give him an answer
-until she concluded her visit. They
-would know each other much better then.”</p>
-
-<p>“And she refused him, after all?” said
-the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, no. For some reason he failed
-to renew his offer, after her visit was over.
-She had known the man she married exactly
-three weeks when they became engaged.”</p>
-
-<p>“And the engagement lasted?”</p>
-
-<p>“Just a month, dear. And she was so
-busy all the time with the trousseau that
-she hardly had time for a word with him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps it was just as well,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde. “Has the man she
-married any money?”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose so. He was thirty-four, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
-a bachelor. A very poor man would have
-married long before he was as old as that.
-By the way, speaking of the abuse of political
-power, Mr. Dickenharry tells Nell that
-if he is really elected to the office he hopes
-for, she will have to ask all sorts of people
-to her receptions, in order that—”</p>
-
-<p>“And what did Nell reply to that?”
-asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, she just smiled and let it go. It
-will be much easier to manage all that after
-they are married. She says he is so busy
-now that she doesn’t like to thwart him
-unnecessarily. Nell is always so thoughtful
-of the feelings of others.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed she is,” said the president.
-“Anyhow if she is obliged to ask all those
-awful people to her receptions, she can snub
-them thoroughly if they accept. Oh, she
-is just the ideal wife for a politician; how
-she will help him!”</p>
-
-<p>“That is just what she says herself,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and
-she also says that she wants to join this
-club as soon as her trousseau is off her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
-mind. She thinks our debates on political
-subjects will be of great benefit to her. In
-the meantime, she wants me to make
-notes of the discussions, and let her have
-them.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and let Mr. Dickenharry make use
-of all our original ideas in his speeches!”
-cried the president, hotly. “I am surprised
-at you, Emily, for—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I didn’t say I meant to do it, dear;
-I only said she wanted me to. It is so
-much easier to promise a thing, and then
-forget it, you know. Girls, I went to see
-dear old Mrs. Pepperly yesterday, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“What, that cross, disagreeable woman!”
-cried the brown-eyed blonde. “What on
-earth made you do such a thing?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I always liked her, dear. When I
-got there, I was <i>so</i> surprised. Her son is
-home from Mexico on a visit, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, don’t you remember, Emily, I
-told you that on Sunday?” said the president.
-“I mentioned that he had made a
-lot of money there, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“How strange of me to forget it; I believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
-I do remember it now. We used to
-be quite friends before he went away, too;
-which makes it all the stranger. Do you
-know, I’m afraid I shall have to accept one
-of those lovely Mexican opals he brought
-with him, or hurt his feelings! I’d hate
-to do that, too, when I haven’t seen him
-for so long.”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way, what is Mrs. Pepperly’s
-number?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
-“I—I have been meaning to call on her for
-ever so long. What a clever, original
-woman she is!”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, do go. She said she expected you
-would come to see her now. I’m afraid
-you will not have an opportunity to see the
-opals though. Her son has given all the rest
-of them to her, and they are at the jeweler’s
-being set. And, by the way, he insisted
-so that I had to let him have mine set
-for me. I don’t know what Dick will say,
-but really I could not hurt the feelings of
-such an old friend by refusing—and of
-course he knows nothing of Dick!”</p>
-
-<p>“For my part, I consider opals unlucky,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
-said the brown-eyed blonde. “I wouldn’t
-wear one for anything!”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve heard others say the same thing,
-dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin; “but luckily they were people who
-were not likely to have the chance! So
-far as I am concerned, the good luck of
-receiving such a handsome present will
-quite overbalance anything unpleasant
-which might follow!”</p>
-
-<p>“Nobody ever had such ill luck as I
-have, and I never owned an opal in my
-life,” wailed the girl with the classic profile.
-“You know how unpleasant my Aunt
-Clara is, don’t you? Well, the poor old
-soul seemed so lonely in that great big
-house that I asked her to make me a nice
-long visit, knowing that she intended to go
-abroad soon, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“She might take you along. Good!”
-said the girl with the Roman nose. “Did
-she accept?”</p>
-
-<p>“She did. Said she would stay three
-whole months. At the end of that time,
-she expects to marry a delicate clergyman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
-with three grown daughters, and take the
-whole party to Europe.”</p>
-
-<p>“And that is all the compensation you
-receive for thinking of others!” cried the
-girl with the Roman nose. “Shall you let
-her come?”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall not. I shall tell her that unless
-she hears from me within two weeks, she
-may know that I am down with a threatened
-attack of scarlet fever. She has a horror
-of illness, and wild horses couldn’t drag
-her here after that. But I shall have an
-exciting time with my sire, if he ever finds
-it out!”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph, your father may never find it
-out,” said the girl with the eyeglasses;
-“and if he did, you could simply say that
-you really thought you were getting scarlet
-fever, and only concealed the fact from him
-to save him anxiety.”</p>
-
-<p>“Pardon me, but you forget that I am a
-younger daughter. Papa has already had
-so much experience with my sisters that I
-have to be very careful in my explanations.
-This thing of being the third daughter is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
-as bad as marrying a widower—worse, for
-that is voluntary.”</p>
-
-<p>“Not always—on the part of the widower,”
-said the blue-eyed girl. “Dear,
-dear, how queer some things are! I know
-a pair of twins, and one of them is called an
-old maid, the other a young widow. If
-anybody can explain—”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw, I know a brother and sister who
-have hair of the same identical shade. He
-is called red-headed while she is a Titian
-blonde,” said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“And I went to school with a girl who
-was always called snub-nosed by everybody
-but the man she married,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin; “he said her
-nose was ‘tip-tilted, like the petal of a
-flower.’ Can you explain that?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” said the president, shortly, “she
-has money. Oh, girls, I went to the photographer’s
-last week, and I haven’t had
-the courage even to snub my sister-in-law
-since I got the proofs. Indeed, sometimes
-I almost feel grateful to Tom for marrying
-me—though of course I don’t let him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
-know that. You have no idea how I felt
-when—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes, I have,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, with a shudder. “I once knew an
-awfully nice man, who turned out to be an
-amateur photographer. He took two hundred
-and seventy-five pictures of me one
-summer, and I used to know just who my
-enemies were. They would pretend that
-they recognized me in them all!”</p>
-
-<p>“That’s nothing,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “I once appeared as
-Cinderella at a charity entertainment, and
-an amateur photographer took a picture of
-me in costume. My foot was thrust forward,
-and oh, girls, it looked the size of a
-pumpkin. And the photographer actually
-took credit to himself because the face was
-an excellent likeness!”</p>
-
-<p>“I was once photographed by an amateur,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde; “he
-said my picture was his masterpiece. I
-always keep it on my dressing table during
-Lent,” she added.</p>
-
-<p>“I once knew an amateur photographer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
-quite well,” said the girl with classic profile,
-“but for each photograph he took of
-me I made one of him!”</p>
-
-<p>“With the result—” said the president.</p>
-
-<p>“That he gladly bartered his collection
-for mine. Somehow, we haven’t been
-very good friends since. I often think
-things might have turned out very differently
-if he hadn’t bought that camera;”
-and she sighed, softly.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, girls,” said the president, “I am
-afraid that we must adjourn, though I had
-hoped we might find time for a social session
-after the day’s work was concluded.
-However, I promised both Tom and the
-dressmaker that I’d meet them at five
-o’clock. She won’t wait, and he will; so
-I—”</p>
-
-<p>“But why not make him go to the dressmaker’s
-with you,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Because I want to tell him just what I
-think of his behavior—smoking in the drawing-room,
-just because I happened to be
-out. If he once heard Madame contradict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
-me in the way she does, I could never hope
-to produce any impression on him again.”</p>
-
-<p>Emily and Dorothy walked home in
-silence, and the former noticed, with alarm,
-that Dorothy did not attempt to protect
-her skirts from the mud. When they
-reached her door, she turned and said:</p>
-
-<p>“If I am not here when you come to-morrow,
-you may know that I have gone to
-take up social settlement work, and devote
-my time to the poor. If you never see me
-again, you may know that I forgive all my
-enemies. It may make Frances feel better,
-though I must say that she does not
-deserve it.”</p>
-
-<p>“And Jack, dear; what shall I say to
-him?”</p>
-
-<p>“If it is any comfort to him, you might
-say that I do not regret my fruitless efforts
-to make peace with him. I hope you will
-think of me sometimes at work among the
-poor and the afflicted. And now, good-bye—perhaps
-forever!”</p>
-
-<p>Emily had walked perhaps a block, when
-she heard her name called once more.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Yes, what is it,” she said.</p>
-
-<p>“If you know any one who wants a nice
-little dog, send him to me. I—”</p>
-
-<p>“What! You surely don’t mean
-Clover?”</p>
-
-<p>“I just do. After what has happened
-to-day, I never want to see the little beast
-again! And, Emily—!”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear.”</p>
-
-<p>“If you were in my place, would you
-wear the blue or the geranium pink gown
-at the dance to-night?”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter X<br />
-
-<small>Woman as a Parliamentarian</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“Oh, dear me,” said the president, “I
-don’t see why men can never understand
-things.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
-“Are we to understand that you have just
-discovered that fact?”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” said the president,
-“but I’ve just had an argument with my
-husband—that’s why I am late to-day,
-girls. He will insist that this club ought to
-have a constitution and by-laws, and a lot
-of other unnecessary things, in spite of the
-fact that we get along nicely just as well
-without them.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose he would like to draft them
-for us,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “That is always the way with men.
-When they see women doing anything well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
-they always want to come in, and take the
-credit of it.”</p>
-
-<p>“So they do,” said the girl with the
-classic profile. “I suppose he would want
-us to have parliamentary rules, too—as if
-anybody would obey them! Anyhow, it is
-only a man who can do but one thing at a
-time. I suppose it is necessary in a club of
-men that only one person have the floor at
-a time, and all that sort of thing.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose it is,” said the president, “no
-man that ever lived could tell what anybody
-else was saying while he was talking himself.
-Well, I only wish they could see how
-orderly our meetings are, and how well we
-keep to the subject in hand, without any
-rules or regulations. By the way, let us
-discuss ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ to-day.
-What do you say?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, pshaw,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, “you said the subject was to
-be ‘Woman as a Factor in the Business
-World,’ and I was to speak on it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, you can use the same line of
-argument, anyhow; I forgot to tell you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
-that I had changed my mind. Girls, do be
-quiet while she reads her paper on—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, but I am not prepared, anyhow,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose. “I was
-obliged to stop in the midst of it to write
-the invitations for my five o’clock tea. A
-nice job it was, too, for I just couldn’t get
-all I wanted to say on a card!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, I heard a man saying only the
-other day, that you write the most charming
-notes he ever read,” said the girl with
-the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you for telling me, dear. I shall
-use the telephone exclusively after this—the
-idea of living to know that everybody
-says when you are spoken of, ‘Yes, what
-charming notes she does write.’ Think of
-knowing that you are expected to be brilliant
-when you write to say you can’t come
-to dinner because your face is swollen, or
-to ask how to take coffee stains out of your
-new evening gown.”</p>
-
-<p>“I know all about that,” groaned the
-brown-eyed blonde; “once in an evil hour
-somebody called me ‘vivacious,’ and I’ve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
-cultivated three wrinkles in trying to live
-up to it. Think of having to be vivacious
-at a church sociable, or when the man to
-whom you have just been revealing your
-views on the subject of friendship turns out
-to be engaged!”</p>
-
-<p>“Awful!” shuddered the girl with the eyeglasses,
-“but pity me, all of you. People
-who like me always say that I am a delightful
-conversationalist; those who do not,
-simply remark that I talk all the time.
-Sometimes, when I am low-spirited, it seems
-to me that there is not much difference between
-the two.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, but think of me!” moaned the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “Somebody
-once discovered that I had a ‘little
-head running over with curls,’ I calculate
-that I have spent a fortune in patent curlers
-and alcohol lamps since then!”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose that is why you wouldn’t go
-to the seashore with me last summer,” remarked
-the president. “Well, for my part,
-I only wish I knew who it was that first
-called me a ‘nice little woman’—it’s as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
-bad as being named Smith or living in a
-row!”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw, I wouldn’t mind that a bit,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose, “there’s
-nothing like a reputation for amiability—you
-can be as ill-natured as you please,
-once it is gained.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph, you seem to forget that I have
-a husband to remind me of things,” said
-the president. “Well, there is one person
-I don’t envy, and that is Barbara.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph, I don’t think she is so beautiful,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose;
-“for my part, I think her nose might be
-called a snub.”</p>
-
-<p>“Neither do I,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin; “the lower part of her
-face is actually coarse.”</p>
-
-<p>“Say what you please,” said the president,
-“she has the reputation of being a
-beauty, and if she doesn’t look as well as
-usual she just has to stay at home. She
-has a cold now, and her complexion is
-awful.”</p>
-
-<p>“Is it?” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
-nose, “I must certainly stop in to see her
-to-day. I never saw her when she had a
-really bad cold.”</p>
-
-<p>“And so shall I,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, “she really ought not to be
-neglected when she is ill.”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall go, too,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin. “And by the way, Dick
-has been teasing for an introduction to her
-for ever so long. This will be the very
-time to take him to call on her—when she
-is certain to be at home, I mean.”</p>
-
-<p>“I understand,” said the president; “it
-is very thoughtful of you to want to cheer
-up the poor thing. Girls, shouldn’t you
-love to see her face when she finds that
-Emily has brought a strange man to call
-when her complexion is in such a condition.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I don’t suppose that she will mind
-Dick,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “nobody
-else does, you know.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, sweetly. “Of course he
-has eyes for nobody else when I am in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
-room; but I did not expect you, Frances,
-to acknowledge as much.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, Dorothy,” cried the president,
-“here you are, at last! It isn’t like you
-to keep anybody waiting—that is, of course,
-except a man; they are accustomed to it,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, does Dorothy ever keep a man
-waiting?” said the brown-eyed blonde,
-elevating her eyebrows. “I had understood
-that she usually met them in the
-front hall when—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear, but then I am always dressed
-to see masculine callers. I have so many,
-you know. Why, Evelyn, I would not
-have been late for the world, but my new
-gown—”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m sure I don’t blame you for it,
-dear. I couldn’t have helped making a
-dramatic entry in such a poem myself.”</p>
-
-<p>“But it wasn’t that which made me late,
-dear. I fancied there was a tiny wrinkle in
-the back of the waist. After examining it
-in every mirror in the house, I discovered
-that it was only the way I twisted my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
-shoulders to look at it, which made the
-wrinkle.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I am glad that your mind is at
-rest about it, anyhow,” said the girl with
-the eyeglasses, “one’s back is so defenseless.
-Annie once sat behind me at the theater,
-and I endured agonies lest the bow at
-the back of my collar was crooked. When
-we came away, I found that she had actually
-been so absorbed in the people on the
-stage that she didn’t know I was there. I
-had been wanting to see that play for
-months, and, to save my life, I couldn’t
-have told you a thing in it after I saw it.”</p>
-
-<p>“I know just how you felt,” said the
-president, “I once went to a matinée with
-Eustace just before Tom and I were married,
-and I expected to have great fun, because
-there was so much danger of being
-found out. Toward the end of the first
-act, I heard that horrid Miss Blanque in the
-seat back of me, saying, ‘Oh, Tom, what
-would she say if she knew!’ I can tell you
-that my blood boiled when I thought of
-such duplicity, and I was tempted to turn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
-and wither them on the spot with a single
-glance!”</p>
-
-<p>“And did you?” eagerly asked the girl
-with the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“Why—er, no. I thought Tom might
-ask why I had come with Eustace, though
-that was very different.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very different, indeed,” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “And did you—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I didn’t enjoy that play a bit. I
-told Eustace I had a headache at the end
-of the second act, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“No doubt by that time it was true
-enough. Such duplicity in one whom you
-trusted was—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. And he had always said he did
-not admire Miss Blanque at all. Well, I
-went home and wrote him a scorching note.
-I said that but for Eustace, I should never
-have discovered that he was flirting with
-another girl while pretending to think of
-nobody but me!”</p>
-
-<p>“That was quite right. I hope he was
-ashamed of himself!”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, no; he wasn’t. He had been at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
-a stockholder’s meeting all that afternoon.
-My own father was there, and he called
-him as a witness! And I actually had to
-explain why I had gone to the matinée with
-Eustace!”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, my goodness, how awful!” cried
-the girl with the Roman nose. “But you
-said you heard Miss Blanque call him
-Tom!”</p>
-
-<p>“So I did. It was Tom Dashaway who
-was engaged to Elaine. And wasn’t it a
-joke? She never found him out at all!”</p>
-
-<p>“It is awfully hard to get ahead of a
-man,” sighed the girl with the classic profile;
-“and it is the irony of fate that when
-one <i>does</i> succeed in doing it, the victory is
-usually of such a character that, in order to
-retain it, one must say nothing at all about
-it!”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Oh, I am so enraged with Harold
-that I feel ready to die! I had an engagement
-with him on Saturday afternoon,
-and I forgot all about it and went out with
-Marie. I never thought of him at all until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
-I saw him coming up the street, and then I
-dragged Marie into a shop. I was so excited
-that she thought a mad dog was coming,
-and almost created a scene!”</p>
-
-<p>“And did he recognize you?” asked the
-blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“I’m afraid so. He didn’t come, as
-usual, on Sunday; and I took the dilemma
-by the horns, and wrote him a note, saying
-that I remained at home all Saturday afternoon
-expecting him; and why didn’t he
-come, as he had promised?”</p>
-
-<p>“Good idea!” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin; “then, he would think he
-had mistaken some one else for you. You
-could pretend to be very much offended at
-that, and so snatch victory from the very
-jaws of defeat.”</p>
-
-<p>“So I thought. But his reply—oh, I
-knew I should die of rage! It said: ‘My
-dear Miss Marion: Pray pardon me for
-quite overlooking my engagement with you
-on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I know you
-were at home—for I saw you at the window
-as I passed!’ And as long as I live, I shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
-never be able to tell that man what I really
-think of him!”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind, you can tell everybody else—and
-that is almost as satisfying,” said the
-president; “more so, perhaps; for then you
-need not hear what he has to say in
-reply.”</p>
-
-<p>“I am so glad to see you looking so well
-to-day, Dorothy, dear,” whispered the girl
-with the dimple in her chin; “it pleases me
-to see that you still take an interest in
-dress, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Pray, why shouldn’t I take an interest
-in dress? Really, Emily Marshmallow, you
-are the queerest girl I ever did see! Here,
-you see me trying to conceal my poor
-broken heart with smiles, and then you begrudge
-me the slight pleasure I take in appearing
-decently clad. And when I mean
-to go and teach in a free kindergarten—well,
-next week, and wear a black gown
-with white collar and cuffs for the rest of
-my natural life!”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m sure I don’t mean to begrudge
-you anything, dear. And Jack says that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
-he is sure that if you would just see him,
-he could explain the whole thing—”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course, you have been on his side all
-along. That is the way of the world;
-everybody sympathizes with the one who
-is in fault, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“He said that he was hurrying to catch
-up with you on the street yesterday, and
-that Frances—this is what he says, dear—not
-knowing what he was doing, called him
-to rescue her hat, which had blown away.
-By the time he had done it, you were out
-of sight. You see, Dorothy, he seems to
-fancy that you are—well, rather nice to
-Clarence, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I thought Clarence was coming.
-So I am rather nice to the one human being
-who really understands me, am I? Well,
-you may just tell Jack Bittersweet that I
-shall keep on being nice to him as long as I
-choose—and he might know me well enough
-by this time to be sure that I shall keep my
-word!”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me, Dorothy, you surely are not
-crying, are you?” cried the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
-blonde. “Do tell me what is wrong; perhaps
-I can help you.”</p>
-
-<p>“I am afraid not, dear. I was just telling
-Emily that there is so much trouble in
-the world that I sometimes feel actually
-guilty when I think of my own absolutely
-cloudless existence! By the way, have you
-heard that Clarence Lighthed has just
-bought that pretty place in Astor Street,
-which was for sale? He must think that
-my knowledge of architecture is valuable,
-for he told his agent to make an offer for it
-just because I admired it so much!”</p>
-
-<p>“Poor Effie Bittersweet,” said the president.
-“I—ah, I don’t know what has made
-me think of <i>her</i> just at this time, but Madame
-told me yesterday that she had been
-obliged to alter all her gowns for her. They
-are a full half-inch too loose, she says!”</p>
-
-<p>“Really? Is Effie ill?” cried the blue-eyed
-girl, in surprise. “How odd that you
-never thought to mention it, Frances! I
-should have gone to see her immediately,
-had I known it. Pray, tell her so when
-you see her next.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“If you are so anxious to see her, why
-not go with me, and tell her so, yourself,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde, dryly.</p>
-
-<p>“In this gown? and when all of hers are
-at the dressmaker’s! I couldn’t think of
-doing such a mean thing. I only thought
-that as you are always at her house, you
-could take a message for me; that is all.”</p>
-
-<p>“Tom says Clarence asked him the other
-day, if he didn’t consider that the best
-thing a fellow could do was to marry some
-nice girl, and settle down,” said the president,
-suddenly.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes? And what did Tom say?” asked
-the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“He must have said ‘yes,’ dear; otherwise
-he wouldn’t have dared to mention
-the occurrence to me at all.”</p>
-
-<p>“What <i>I</i> am wondering,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, innocently, “is: what on earth
-made Clarence ask him such a question?”</p>
-
-<p>“Sheer curiosity, dear,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, sweetly; “what other reason
-could he possibly have had? By the way,
-girls, have you noticed that Marie is showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
-great strength of character lately? She
-has broken with Mr. Mushley, and actually
-refused to send back any of his presents.
-She says the sight of them could not fail to
-remind him of his loss, and she would rather
-have people speak unkindly of her than
-cause him unnecessary pain!”</p>
-
-<p>“How sweet of her,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose. “I only hope he will
-appreciate her consideration. Girls, what
-do you think Elizabeth told me the other
-day? Why, that all the photographs of
-girls my brother saw when he called on
-Fred belonged to a man with whom he
-used to room, and he was only keeping them
-until he happened to run across him again.”</p>
-
-<p>“And she believed him?” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin, scornfully.
-“How silly some girls are, to be sure!
-They believe anything a man tells them.
-To be sure, Dick was telling me the truth
-when he said that he only wrote all those
-sonnets to Clara as a joke; but that was
-very different.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very different,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
-classic profile. “Girls, I heard to-day that
-Jack Bittersweet is thinking of throwing up
-his partnership, and emigrating to Australia.
-I beg your pardon, Dorothy, did
-you speak?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, dear, I was about to say that I
-think ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ is the
-most interesting topic we have ever discussed.
-By the way, I wonder if the climate
-of Australia is as unhealthy as some
-people think! I—I am so fond of Effie
-that I should hate to have anything happen
-to her brother.”</p>
-
-<p>“I think Effie could bear it, dear,” said
-the president, “even in her present state of
-health. She says Jack is so cross that a
-hyena would be amiable by comparison.”</p>
-
-<p>“Jack Bittersweet cross!” cried the
-brown-eyed blonde. “Why, he is one of
-the nicest fellows I ever knew, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“But after all, you are hardly a judge of
-masculine dispositions, dear,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin. “Your acquaintance
-with the sex has been so limited,
-you know. Oh, Evelyn, I’ve been intending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
-to ask you if we can’t take up theosophy,
-and discuss it thoroughly at one of our
-meetings in the near future. I am so anxious
-for a thorough knowledge of it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed we can,” cried the president,
-heartily. “You don’t know how pleased I
-am to hear you say that, Emily,—well, if
-there is one thing this club can safely pride
-itself upon it is its thoroughness; and I
-am sure that is more than most organizations
-can do—!”</p>
-
-<p>“I know it,” said the blue-eyed girl;
-“why, my father belongs to a club which
-has taken six months to study the financial
-problems of Europe and the United States.
-They are not yet through discussing the
-subject—and yet they have the temerity to
-call themselves students!”</p>
-
-<p>“I hope you have pointed out to them
-the superiority of our system over—”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, no, dear; somehow it does not
-seem wise to discuss such a subject with
-one’s father. Dear, dear, do you suppose
-that girls were so very different in the days
-when our fathers were young?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Humph, no,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose, “but they were much more
-afraid of remaining single. Besides, our
-fathers were young, too, in those days, and
-ever so much easier to please. Still,” she
-added, thoughtfully, “I don’t know that
-it is altogether that. No one is so easily
-subjugated as an elderly man who has become
-a widower. It is so long since girls
-have really tried to make themselves agreeable
-to him, that all their little ways are
-new to him.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m, yes—unless he has grown daughters
-of his own,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t see what difference that makes.
-They don’t try their little ways of—of being
-nice on <i>him;</i> and seeing them tried on
-some one else is very different.”</p>
-
-<p>“Isn’t it?” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “Now, for instance, it is very interesting
-to have a man pay one compliments;
-but how it does bore one to hear
-him say the very same things about another
-girl!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Doesn’t it? and yet, such is the selfishness
-of man, that he expects one to be as
-much interested,” said the girl with the
-eyeglasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “you know that old Mrs.
-Myllons is always making presents to Barbara
-and me! Well, one day in the beginning
-of the season she called for me to go
-shopping with her. Of course, I went.
-Now, it was not long after Barbara had encouraged
-her to give me that awful picture
-of Burns, and I was as eager for her to
-select a present for Barbara as for me. I
-knew I could direct her choice in either
-case. To my joy, she stopped to look at
-silks, and her choice fell upon a hideous
-piece of green which would demolish Barbara’s
-complexion completely—and I really
-think that girl would sooner part with her
-life than her complexion. I managed to
-convey to Mrs. Myllons my personal preference
-for a lovely pink which cost a dollar less
-a yard, while encouraging her to buy the
-green. You see she was planning her reception,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
-and Barbara and I were to assist
-her on that occasion.”</p>
-
-<p>“So she took it, did she?” said the president.
-“I only hope I may see Barbara in
-the green!”</p>
-
-<p>“You never will,” wailed the girl with
-the dimple in her chin—“it was for me!
-Mrs. Myllons sent it with a lovely note
-complimenting me on my unselfishness in
-wishing Barbara to have the handsomer
-piece. I dare not refuse to wear it at the
-reception; and my own father actually says
-it serves me right for trying to play a joke
-on Barbara!”</p>
-
-<p>“You must not expect sympathy from
-your father, dear,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose; “he will expect you to wear
-that gown all season, to save buying another.
-And nothing will ever happen to it,
-either,” she added. “It is only the gown
-that is dearer to you than life itself which
-has a fatal attraction for cups of coffee or
-fowls carved by inexperienced hosts!”</p>
-
-<p>“Did I ever tell you of the awful thing
-which happened to me last winter?” said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
-the girl with the classic profile. “I believe
-not, though; we hadn’t started our club
-then. Well, I just had to have a new
-gown, and I was so afraid that my father
-wouldn’t give it to me that I got it without
-saying a word to him. I knew that
-even if there was a cyclone over the bill
-I’d have the gown anyhow. That being
-the case, I got a much handsomer one than
-I would have chosen under other circumstances.”</p>
-
-<p>“Quite right,” said the president; “if
-there must be an unpleasant scene, better
-have it over something which will fully
-repay one.”</p>
-
-<p>“So I thought. Well, the gown only
-came home the evening of my sister’s
-dance; and I really wanted to enjoy that,
-so I decided not to give papa the bill until
-the next day, though the dressmaker was in
-a great hurry for her money.”</p>
-
-<p>“They always are,” sighed the president.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. I was having a lovely time until
-supper was served, and then Mr. Rocksby
-emptied a plate of lobster salad over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
-whole front of my new gown! Florence
-was near; she never got farther away from
-him than—than she could help; and—well,
-you all know how he admires amiability!
-He apologized profusely, and I, smilingly,
-said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t make the least difference.
-The gown is of no value at all, and
-I should probably never have worn it again,
-anyhow.’”</p>
-
-<p>“How lovely of you!” said the blue-eyed
-girl. “It must have made a deep impression
-upon him.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m, I don’t know about that; but it
-did upon me. I happened to turn my head
-just then, and papa was at my elbow! I’d
-rather not tell you the things he said when
-I gave him the bill for that gown the next
-morning!”</p>
-
-<p>“We can all guess,” said the blue-eyed
-girl, with a shudder. “But wasn’t Mr.
-Rocksby awfully nice to you after that?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, he wasn’t. He said that the girl
-who cared nothing for the destruction of
-such a handsome gown was too extravagant
-to make a good wife for a poor man!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
-And the hardest part of it all was the fact
-that he must have lots of money, else he
-never on earth would speak of himself as
-‘a poor man!’”</p>
-
-<p>“Let us hope your father never found
-that out,” said the president, in devout
-tones.</p>
-
-<p>“But he did. He overheard Mr. Rocksby
-saying it to Florence; and that was one
-of the things he mentioned when I gave
-him the bill.”</p>
-
-<p>“You poor dear!” said the president. “I
-declare it really depresses me to hear of
-such persistent ill-luck. Well, girls, since
-we have thoroughly exhausted our subject,
-I think we may just as well adjourn.”</p>
-
-<p>The blue-eyed girl went home with the
-girl with the dimple in her chin, and after
-they had begun to sip their tea, she said:</p>
-
-<p>“Is it true that Jack intends to go to
-Australia unless our quarrel is made up?”</p>
-
-<p>“He—he <i>says</i> he will,” was the cautious
-reply.</p>
-
-<p>“Then, I want to know what you intend
-to do in the matter?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“What I—intend to do in the matter?”
-she gasped.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Of course it is thoroughly in your
-hands. I have not made a single move
-without consulting you, and being guided
-by your advice. And if the quarrel is
-never made up, and I die of a broken heart,
-it will be entirely your fault!”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter XII<br />
-
-<small>The Club Investigates Theosophy</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“We will discuss to-day: ‘What Theosophy
-Really Teaches,’” said the president, as
-soon as she could make herself heard.
-“You expressed an earnest wish to study
-it,’ Emily, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Did I?” asked the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, looking surprised. “I had quite
-forgotten it. However, I have been so
-busy with my new hats and the chairmanship
-of a committee appointed to instruct
-tenement house mothers as to the best
-method of bringing up children, that I have
-had no time for anything else.”</p>
-
-<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
-classic profile. “How grateful those poor
-ignorant people must be for your instruction!”</p>
-
-<p>“M—I don’t know about that. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
-times, I am very much discouraged. One
-woman said she would gladly allow her children
-to wear two fresh aprons a day, if I
-would pay for the washing of them. Another
-said that she had already raised six
-children without my assistance, and she believed
-she could worry on without it a bit
-longer. Still another was so stupid that
-she couldn’t be made to understand how
-I, who had never had any children, was
-able to offer her such valuable suggestions.”</p>
-
-<p>“As if it depended on experience,” said
-the president. “The theory is ever so much
-more important.”</p>
-
-<p>“That was what I said to the woman
-who— You knew that I had resigned
-from that same committee, didn’t you?”
-said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Why, no; this is the first I have heard
-of it. And you were so enthusiastic, too!
-What on earth has made you change your
-mind?”</p>
-
-<p>“A woman. She—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! I thought, perhaps, it was a
-man,” said the brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“No. I am not as easily influenced as
-you are, dear. This woman lived up six
-flights of the dirtiest stairs I ever saw. I
-wondered at the time why she didn’t ask
-the landlord to have an elevator put in;
-probably she hadn’t thought of it. She
-lived in two rooms, and you never saw such
-awful poverty in your life. I thought, as
-she was so awfully poor, she couldn’t have
-much feeling, so I told her plainly that she
-could never expect her children to love and
-honor her if she did not at once give them
-each a hot bath, and put up fresh curtains
-and a pot or two of flowers in the windows.
-Everybody knows how cheap curtains are
-nowadays—not the real lace ones, of course,
-but—”</p>
-
-<p>“Tamboured muslin and all that,” said
-the president. “Was she grateful for your
-interest in her?”</p>
-
-<p>“I fear not. She looked at me, earnestly,
-and said: ‘You’ve been to one of
-them, haven’t you? I’ve always wanted
-to see somebody that had!’”</p>
-
-<p>“Was the woman mad?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I was afraid so, and I began to back
-out of the door, when she called, ‘Mary
-Ellen! oh, Mary Ellen! come right in here
-this minute! Here is a lady who has been
-to one of them there beauty doctors we was
-talking about yesterday! She must be awful
-old, for she’s brought up a lot of children;
-and come here to teach me how to raise
-mine; and if that beauty doctor ain’t fixed
-her up so she looks real young!’”</p>
-
-<p>“And did Mary Ellen come?” asked the
-girl with the dimple in her chin, sympathetically.</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know. I didn’t wait; but I
-am almost sure I heard several people
-laughing as I came down-stairs. After this,
-I shall devote my energies to foreign missions
-or something like that. If the heathens
-are not grateful for my efforts in their
-behalf, they at least express themselves in
-a tongue I don’t understand; and they are
-too far away for me to hear them, even if I
-<i>could</i> understand!”</p>
-
-<p>“Their ingratitude is awful,” wailed the
-president. “Well, I’m glad you have told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
-me all this. Otherwise, I never could have
-had courage to tell you my last experience
-with visiting the dwellers in the slums as a
-member of the ‘Society for Procuring Better
-Ventilation in Other People’s Bedrooms!’
-I called on one woman, who really
-seemed impressed by my arguments; she
-was quite polite, and never took her eyes
-off my bonnet all the time I was talking to
-her. I was so pleased with her that I gave
-her my address, and told her I would let
-her have a lot of pamphlets on the subject,
-if she would send for them. I knew I
-could not get one of my maids to carry
-them into that district, and besides her
-husband could easily come for them. He
-was a street paver, and no doubt would be
-glad to get the exercise.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.
-“Did he come?”</p>
-
-<p>“No. But she herself walked in on my
-reception day a few weeks later. She wore
-a bonnet which was a perfect caricature of
-mine. She said she hoped I would forgive
-her for delaying the returning of my call so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
-long; and didn’t I think my reception-room
-was too warm to be quite healthy?”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you ever hear of such impertinence!
-and in your own house, too!”
-said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What did
-the other members of the society say?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know. I resigned, by telephone,
-as soon as Tom and the doctor succeeded
-in bringing me out of my fainting
-fit.”</p>
-
-<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin, sympathetically. “And
-yet, people complain that we take so little
-interest in the poor! Only a real philanthropist
-can appreciate the rebuffs we receive.
-The only thing which helps us to
-bear them, is the knowledge that we are
-doing such incalculable good.”</p>
-
-<p>“It is very sweet and good of you to feel
-so,” sighed the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“I don’t know that I am quite so magnanimous,
-myself. Oh, Catharine, dear; you
-were speaking of Mr. Rocksby the other
-day. Did you ever hear the end of his affair
-with Florence?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Why, no,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “I only knew that it <i>had</i> an end.
-How on earth did you find out about it?”</p>
-
-<p>“I heard that she and Effie had fallen
-out, and I asked Effie all about it. Of
-course she was glad enough to tell. It
-seems that there was a dance at the club in
-Arcadia, and Florence went out to stay
-with the Brownstones and attend it. Mr.
-Rocksby happened to meet her at the station,
-and went out with her, intending to
-return by the next train. It turned out
-that there was no train back until midnight,
-so the Brownstones invited him to dine and
-go to the dance with them. They even
-brought out a dress coat of Mr. Brownstone’s
-for him to wear, and Florence told
-Effie that he looked as if he weighed twenty
-pounds less when he put it on.”</p>
-
-<p>“It’s really wonderful the way people
-always help Florence along,” sighed the
-girl with the classic profile. “Nobody ever
-does such things for <i>me</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>“I fancy Florence wishes they hadn’t
-for <i>her</i>, dear. Well, he was lovely to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
-at the dance, and after a while he coaxed
-her out on the balcony for a quiet talk.
-Before she fairly knew what he was about,
-he had fallen heavily on his knees and said,
-‘Florence, I—’ when she heard the queerest
-sound, and he sprang to his feet, with his
-hand on his back!”</p>
-
-<p>“Good gracious, I hope the poor old
-soul hadn’t hurt himself?”</p>
-
-<p>“No; I believe not. But he had split
-Mr. Brownstone’s dress coat from top to
-bottom. And though Florence tried her
-very best, she never could coax him to finish
-the sentence he had just begun!”</p>
-
-<p>“Poor Florence! No wonder she says now
-she thinks a man looks better in cycling
-garb than anything else. The sight of a
-dress coat must be enough to make her ill.”</p>
-
-<p>“I should think so,” said the president.
-“By the way, speaking of theosophy, I
-wonder why its stout and elderly devotees
-wear such flowing white robes? The
-younger ones seem content with short
-hair and general dowdiness.”</p>
-
-<p>“Good gracious, you will be wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
-next why politicians always wear diamonds
-or why dressmakers invariably appear in
-old-fashioned gowns,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose; “and I must say, frankly, that
-I can’t answer either of those questions.
-By the way, Evelyn, I suppose I am to
-congratulate you. I hear that Tom has
-just inherited ten thousand dollars.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know whether you may congratulate
-me, or not,” said the president.
-“Sometimes, I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! Then, there is no truth in the
-report?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, it is true enough, but I don’t
-know whether I am to be congratulated or
-not. You see, I was getting along very
-well as we were, and now I see that I need
-a lot of things I never thought of before—more
-than the extra income could possibly
-cover—and I shall be absolutely wretched
-unless I can have them.”</p>
-
-<p>“But you will have some of them, anyhow,
-won’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m not sure. Tom talks now of putting
-all the money into his business. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
-that case he will be obliged to work harder,
-because he will have more at stake; he
-says, also, that I shall have to be more
-economical than ever because every cent
-will be needed to extend his operations.
-On the whole,” she added, thoughtfully,
-“I am rather sorry his aunt is
-dead. It was ever so much nicer when
-she was living, and I could spend the
-expected legacy royally, in imagination, at
-least.”</p>
-
-<p>“You poor dear; to think of having cause
-to regret the death of a wealthy relative,”
-said the blue-eyed girl, “but—er—couldn’t
-Tom put you on the pay-roll as a clerk, or
-something?”</p>
-
-<p>“I did suggest that; but he said he’d
-rather pay me a salary to stay out of
-the office. I haven’t spoken to him
-since.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you know, I always think it a mistake
-to stop speaking to any one,” said the
-blue-eyed girl; “it seems unkind, and then
-one loses the opportunity to say unpleasant
-things to them, too.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I believe you are right,” said the president.
-“No married man seems to appreciate
-speechless indignation, anyhow.”</p>
-
-<p>“I must see you alone a moment, Emily,
-dear,” whispered the blue-eyed girl. “Can’t
-you come with me down to the other end
-of the room, and let me pretend to straighten
-your hair?”</p>
-
-<p>“With pleasure, dear,” replied Emily,
-but there was no alacrity in her voice;
-“only we must not stay too long lest
-Frances suspect something.”</p>
-
-<p>“What if she does? She would only think
-we are talking about her—and I doubt if
-that would make her particularly comfortable.
-It is about Jack. Perhaps, you can
-pardon his behavior, but for me the last
-link which bound us is broken, and I feel
-now that I can start for India as a missionary
-without a pang!”</p>
-
-<p>“My goodness, what has he done now?
-I’ve been afraid all along, Dorothy, that
-you would put off the reconciliation too
-long. While he confines his attentions to
-Frances, it is all right; but some time he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
-will find out that there are a number of nice
-girls in the world, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Frances has nothing to do with it,” she
-replied, with great dignity. “It happened
-this way: I was coming home about dusk
-yesterday—you remember how it rained,
-don’t you? Well, I was so miserable that I
-didn’t even attempt to hold up my skirts—it
-was a kind of a comfort to let them get
-thoroughly draggled. A gust of wind blew
-my umbrella to one side, and I saw Jack
-and Mr. Bonds just ahead of me. By the
-way, did you ever notice that—er—there is
-a certain likeness between those two?”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ve always said they looked enough
-alike to be brothers. Don’t you remember,
-dear, when you were first engaged to Jack,
-you wouldn’t speak to me for two weeks
-because I mentioned the fact?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, I don’t remember. Well, all of a
-sudden, I felt that I could forgive Jack all
-if I could just lay my head on his shoulder,
-and hear him say that he was sorry.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, Dorothy, dear, I am so glad! He
-told me this morning that he—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“If you will kindly allow me to proceed,
-without interruption, I will explain how
-that is now impossible. I was wondering
-how Mr. Bonds could be gotten rid of, so
-that Jack could go home with me and apologize
-comfortably before dinner; when he
-suddenly left him and ran up the Vansmith’s
-steps. Jack was walking slowly,
-and I just shut my eyes, and made a dash
-to catch up with him. My own voice
-sounded like a fog whistle, as I said: ‘W—wait
-a moment; I—I wish to speak to you.’
-And, oh, Emily—”</p>
-
-<p>“You surely never mean to say that Jack
-wouldn’t stop when you called?”</p>
-
-<p>“It wasn’t Jack. It was Mr. Bonds;
-Jack had gone into the Vansmith house!
-But, oh, Emily, if he really loved me, he
-would have known that I was right behind
-him, ready to forgive and forget. I shall
-sail for India some time next week, and if I
-never return, you—”</p>
-
-<p>“But, Dorothy, Jack is only too anxious
-to make up. He says that a lover’s quarrel
-is worse than a Welsh rarebit for keeping a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
-fellow awake at night. And he told me to
-tell you—”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, if this is all
-the interest you take in our discussion of
-theosophy, we might as well adjourn, and
-go to a millinery shop or an afternoon tea,”
-said the president, with some asperity;
-“and, after all the trouble I’ve taken in
-reading everything the dictionary and the
-encyclopædia have to say on the subject, I
-think you might at least pay attention to
-my remarks!”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear me, Evelyn, I really beg your
-pardon. I shall borrow Elise’s note-book,
-and study it all out before I sleep. There
-is nothing so productive of a good night’s
-rest as half an hour’s solid reading after
-one is in bed. Why, the other night, I
-took a book on philosophy to bed with me,
-and before I had read six sentences I was
-asleep. I never woke till nine o’clock in
-the morning, and the gas was blazing all
-that time. I doubt if I’d have waked then
-if somebody hadn’t knocked at my door.”</p>
-
-<p>“It was the sweet consciousness of duty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
-well performed,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “Now, if your book had been
-a really interesting novel, you would have
-been awake half the night.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
-profile, “and been as yellow as a primrose
-in the morning. I often say that a few
-pages of really good literature just before
-retiring is the best thing in the world for
-the complexion. One girl I know says
-she always reads her Bible then; but I
-don’t approve of that—if one falls asleep
-suddenly, allowing it to drop heavily upon
-the floor, it is sure to awaken the other
-members of the family. If I do that, my
-father—”</p>
-
-<p>“I know,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, plaintively. “Mamma says
-that if I take any more solid reading to
-bed I may confront papa with this month’s
-gas bill, when it comes in, for she absolutely
-refuses to do it!”</p>
-
-<p>“Pshaw, men are all alike; though I
-didn’t use to think so,” said the president.
-“Now, I always forget all about the topic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
-for discussion until half an hour before it is
-time to start for the club. A man would
-say that he hadn’t time to prepare for it,
-but a woman’s courage never deserts her.
-I am all ready at the appointed time, even
-if I have to tell the cook to have anything
-she chooses for dinner. Now, Tom thinks
-I ought to be ready by the day before, even
-if I have to give up a tea or a luncheon to
-do it.”</p>
-
-<p>“The idea!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Really, women have so many
-things to do nowadays that is a wonder
-they find time for them all; and yet,
-men seem to expect them to be just as good
-housekeepers as they were when they had
-nothing else to do. I regret to see that
-the sexes have not progressed equally.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed they have not,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde. “Who ever heard of the
-new man? And if there <i>was</i> such a creature
-he would no doubt be so effeminate
-that nobody would care anything for
-him.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic profile,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
-“sometimes, I fear that Helen’s husband
-will develop such proclivities. Of
-course it is only a harmless eccentricity
-which makes him sew on his own buttons—I
-can overlook that. But the other day he
-was getting ready to go down town while
-she was out on her bicycle. Just because
-she was wearing one of his shirts and a collar
-and tie of his, he dressed up in that
-lovely lace collarette of hers, and was
-actually going out with it on! What would
-people have said of a man who appeared in
-such feminine attire!”</p>
-
-<p>“Goodness me, I hope he is not losing
-his mind,” said the president. “However,
-if he is, Helen is always ready to supply
-him with a piece of hers. By the way,
-girls, what queer questions men do ask!
-Several of Tom’s friends dined with us last
-evening, and they actually wanted to know
-why a stout woman always selects a tiny
-dog for a pet, while a wisp of a woman will
-be tugging at the chain of an enormous
-mastiff. I simply told them that they
-must not be so curious, for, though I would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
-not confess it to <i>them</i>, I really could not
-answer the question.”</p>
-
-<p>“And you were quite right,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, indignantly; “by and by,
-they will actually expect us to give a reason
-for everything we do! Which is palpably
-absurd, since we so often do things
-without any reason at all!”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, luckily, we are not responsible
-for anybody,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Oh! I just wouldn’t be a man
-for anything in the world.”</p>
-
-<p>“Would anybody, if he could help it?”
-queried the brown-eyed blonde. “Of
-course, they all pretend to like it, but one
-can easily see the hollowness of the pretense.
-Why, they would not be half so
-anxious to criticise our actions if they
-didn’t feel that we have the best of things.
-Of course, I would not be a man for anything—”</p>
-
-<p>“Nor I,” said the president, “and have
-to give up my comfortable seat in a street
-car every time a woman entered.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“But of course it is only right for them
-to give up their seats to us,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly, it’s right. Only I shouldn’t
-like to have to do it myself.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not. Or to have to pay for
-pretty things for somebody else to wear.
-Or to have to drop a nice book, and go out
-in the rain to escort home a girl who had
-been calling on some one else,” said the
-girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Or to have to buy candy for
-somebody else to eat,” said the girl with
-the classic profile.</p>
-
-<p>“M’hm. Or to have the nearest woman
-manage one, without one being aware of
-the fact,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“I know! Or to have to fall in love with a
-girl, and marry her, just because she had
-made up her mind that one should,” said
-the blue-eyed girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Well, really the poor things have
-a great deal to endure, though many of
-their sufferings are mercifully hidden from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
-them,” said the girl with the dimple in her
-chin. “But, after all, we are very nice to
-them, you know.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course we are,” said the president;
-“we wouldn’t get nearly so many things
-out of them, if we were not. Girls, I hear
-that Annie has finally decided to marry
-Nelson.”</p>
-
-<p>“I thought she had done that long ago,”
-said the brown-eyed blonde. “Talk of a
-woman not knowing her own mind. That
-man never—”</p>
-
-<p>“He knew his own mind well enough,
-dear. It was only about Annie’s that he
-was doubtful,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “Annie told me herself
-how it came to be settled. She said that
-she couldn’t decide whether to accept him
-or not—”</p>
-
-<p>“Which means that she had done all she
-could, and was doubtful whether he would
-do the rest,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps so. At any rate it was still
-uncertain until last Tuesday. He had been
-out of town for several days, and returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
-unexpectedly. Annie had gone out to
-mail a letter, and just as she raised the lid
-of the letter-box she saw him coming up
-the street toward her. As they walked away
-together, she glanced down and saw that
-she still held her letter in her hand, but her
-pocket-book was gone!”</p>
-
-<p>“Goodness, you don’t mean to say that
-she—”</p>
-
-<p>“I do. She said she knew at once that
-she must care a good deal for a man whose
-sudden appearance was enough to make her
-post her pocketbook instead of a letter—so
-she said ‘Yes.’”</p>
-
-<p>“As soon as he asked her,” said the
-brown-eyed blonde. “Well, what he can see
-in <i>her</i>, I’m sure <i>I</i> don’t know!”</p>
-
-<p>“What <i>she</i> can see in <i>him</i> puzzles me,”
-said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully. “I
-don’t see how any girl can really love and
-honor a man who wears red neckties; do
-you?”</p>
-
-<p>“For <i>my</i> part, I can’t see what they see
-in each other,” said the president, thoughtfully.
-“Well, I really think Annie ought to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
-give me a handsome present, for it was I
-who brought it all about.”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy, did you speak ill of her to Nelson?”</p>
-
-<p>“No; but I told Tom the other day that
-I didn’t believe that girl would ever get
-married. And when I make a remark like
-that about any girl, she may as well set
-about selecting her trousseau, for somebody
-is sure to propose to her at once.”</p>
-
-<p>“And yet, I doubt if Annie would be
-grateful to you, if you told her,” said the
-blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully.</p>
-
-<p>“One must not expect gratitude in this
-world, dear. The consciousness of having
-done one’s duty is reward enough for a
-right-minded person. By the way, Emily
-dear, I hear that Dick says he will positively
-wait no longer. You must give him a decisive
-answer one way or the other, or
-he—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes; but he hasn’t yet screwed up the
-courage to tell <i>me</i> so, dear. When he
-<i>does</i>, it will be time for me to make up my
-mind. I do wonder,” she added, thoughtfully,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
-“why a girl who has one lover
-already, is sure to win the affections of another
-man?”</p>
-
-<p>“Cause and effect,” said the president,
-gloomily. “I never thought of buying that
-new hat until I heard Helen tell the milliner
-it was too expensive for her. After I
-got it home, I found it didn’t match a
-thing I possessed. I just believe Helen said
-that before me for meanness, knowing I
-would be compelled to buy it, then. And
-now the milliner absolutely refuses to take
-it off my hands. I threatened to withdraw
-my trade if she didn’t; but it had no
-effect. She knows I have more hats
-already than I need for this season, and by
-the time they are all worn out—and paid
-for—I shall have forgotten all about it.”</p>
-
-<p>“But why not pay your bill at once, and
-open another with somebody else? That—”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t care to let Tom see the old bill
-just now, dear. It wouldn’t matter ordinarily,
-but since he inherited that money
-from his aunt he is feeling unusually poor,
-and it might cause a family unpleasantness.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“How thoughtful you always are, Evelyn!
-Really, the study of theosophy
-seems to have developed your character
-wonderfully. I do hope you will explain
-it all thoroughly to me,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose; “I am really so stupid
-that even after to-day’s discussion, I feel
-that I do not fully understand it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps at some future time,” said the
-president, hastily. “I am sorry to say
-that we really must adjourn now. My
-mother-in-law is coming to dine with us,
-and I don’t want her poking about the
-house in my absence.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>Chapter XII<br />
-
-<small>A Discussion and a Surprise</small></h2>
-
-
-<p>“‘Civic Organizations Among the Ancient
-Greeks,’ will be our topic for to-day,”
-said the president. “And, oh, girls, I am
-so angry with Tom that I would go right
-home to mamma, but for the fact that she
-always agrees with him. Papa invariably
-thinks <i>I</i> am in the right; but he would say
-unpleasant things about Tom, and I
-shouldn’t like that, either. The consequence
-is that I must just endure my
-martyrdom in silence.”</p>
-
-<p>“But, what is wrong? Is it about that
-legacy from Tom’s aunt?” queried the girl
-with the Roman nose. “Dear me, I often
-think it’s so hard that really poor men are
-usually nicer than those that have money.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t see why you always think of
-money in connection with me,” said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
-president. “Heaven knows, I am not mercenary,
-and I only want to live well and
-dress properly, in order that people may
-see Tom is not stingy. No, this is quite
-another matter. It all came from the topic
-I selected for to-day. I was talking, rather
-learnedly, about ‘Civic Organizations
-Among the Ancient Greeks,’ when Tom
-asked me suddenly what ward I live in! Of
-course, I didn’t know—”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, neither do I,” said the brown-eyed
-blonde, “but it must be the same one,
-for we both live on the north side!”</p>
-
-<p>“I really don’t know, either,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “I don’t
-see what difference it makes though, for I
-could ask the clerk at the corner drug store
-if I needed particularly to know.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course you could,” said the president,
-“and so could I. But, Tom was
-awfully unpleasant—he couldn’t have been
-more so if we had been married twenty
-years instead of two. He said he didn’t
-see any use in my poking about among
-the civic organizations of ancient Greece,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
-when I did not know what ward I lived
-in.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph! I suppose next thing he will
-be saying that he doesn’t see any use in
-the Teacup Club,” said the girl with the
-classic profile, in sarcastic tones. “A man
-will say anything when he is angry.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph! I fancy he will hardly say
-anything like that, dear. He knows it has
-its use, if it is only to make me look more
-leniently on his own club. When we first
-organized it he complained a good deal
-about the demands it made on my time and
-attention, and I just said: ‘Oh, very well,
-dear, let us both give up our clubs, and
-spend all our spare time at home together.’
-After that, he held his peace on the subject.”</p>
-
-<p>“But you wouldn’t have given it up,
-would you?” asked the brown-eyed blonde,
-anxiously.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not—but Tom didn’t know
-that. By the way, Emily, what is making
-Dorothy so late to-day?”</p>
-
-<p>“I fancy she is engaged,” replied the girl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
-with the dimple in her chin, demurely; “at
-least Jack Bittersweet was on his way to
-call on her a couple of hours ago, and I
-suppose—Pardon me, Frances, did you
-speak?”</p>
-
-<p>“I—I was about to say, ‘how nice’—for
-Dorothy, I mean. By the way, girls, I—I
-am thinking of going to Omaha for a nice,
-long visit as soon as I can get ready.”</p>
-
-<p>“But I thought you had already refused
-Lola’s invitation,” said the girl with the
-dimple in her chin.</p>
-
-<p>“I—I had. But, really I have bought
-so many pretty things of late that I can get
-ready for my visit without the slightest
-trouble, and as my last visit was cut short,
-I—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I remember that quite well, dear.
-I remember that you came home a few days
-after Dorothy broke with poor Jack. But
-I don’t understand why you have been
-embroidering so much table linen lately.
-You surely will not need that for a visit to
-Omaha.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, er—no. I—I shall take it as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
-present to Lola’s mother, I think. You
-have no idea of how fond she is of me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed, I have, dear,” said the girl
-with the dimple in her chin, warmly.
-“I’ve often noticed that married women
-who have no grown sons <i>are</i> fond of you.
-It is rather a pity, as things turned out,
-that you cut your last visit short; I am
-really afraid, if you go now, that you will
-miss Dorothy’s wedding.”</p>
-
-<p>“At any rate, dear, she will not miss it
-herself. Really, I think the poor girl
-would have lost her mind if she had lost
-Jack. These disappointments are so hard
-to bear that—”</p>
-
-<p>“I shall tell her that you said so, dear.
-I am sure she and Jack will both—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily,
-“do you suppose that Greek women used
-actually to wear those dowdy gowns on the
-street? Of course they would do very well
-for tea gowns, but—”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t suppose anything of the kind,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose. “It
-was chiefly the men who made the antique<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
-statues, wasn’t it? Very well, then, the
-poor creatures had no idea of style, and
-just reproduced the gowns they happened
-to admire themselves.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
-profile; “men always detest the ruling fashion
-of the hour. And yet, they seem to
-think we dress to please them,” she added,
-derisively.</p>
-
-<p>“I know it. And the women of ancient
-Greece were just like anybody else, I suppose,”
-replied the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“However, if they really wore white as frequently
-as they seem to, they must have
-had more money than I have to pay the
-laundress.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, or the principal street of Athens—I
-forget the name of it, must have been a
-good deal cleaner than State street,” said
-the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
-don’t suppose, however, that the carving
-of statues could have made much dirt, and
-really the ancient Greeks seem to have done
-little else.”</p>
-
-<p>“At any rate their system of civic organization<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
-was—dear me, what was it? I had
-it all written down on the back of an invitation
-to dinner, and I must have lost it as
-I came along,” wailed the president. “Oh,
-dear, what shall I do?”</p>
-
-<p>“Never mind, you can tell us what you
-remember,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose, soothingly. “None of us know
-enough about it to detect the fact if you
-<i>are</i> wrong.”</p>
-
-<p>“It isn’t that; I’ve got it all at home in
-the old school book I copied it from. But,
-as I say, it was on the back of an invitation
-to dinner, and I can’t remember whether
-it was for next Tuesday or Thursday!”</p>
-
-<p>“Goodness me, that is really serious,”
-said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
-“but perhaps Tom will remember.”</p>
-
-<p>“Tom remember the date of an invitation
-to dinner! How little you know about
-men. Why, he would tell me the wrong
-day, if he did remember, just to escape
-putting on his dress coat and going with
-me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph! from what Helen says, you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
-may be thankful that he goes at all. Her
-husband does not. She says—”</p>
-
-<p>“Helen didn’t manage him properly at
-first, that’s all. When Tom first began to
-declare he wouldn’t go to dinners, I would
-just say, ‘Very well, dear, we’ll both remain
-at home, and tell our would-be hostess
-the true reason why we didn’t come. And
-now, I often reap the benefit of that Spartan
-policy. Of course, he is sometimes detained
-at the office by important business,
-or even called off by a telegram just as we
-are about to start. However, I always remember
-that he is only human after all,
-and seldom revenge myself in any other
-way than by telling him that Mr. Troolygood
-sat next me at table. Life will be a
-much more complicated affair for me if that
-dear fellow ever takes it into his head to
-marry.”</p>
-
-<p>“I think you are perfectly safe for some
-time to come, dear,” said the girl with the
-classic profile, “his married sister, with
-whom he lives, is anxious for him to marry.
-She has the habit of inviting any girl he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
-seems to admire, so constantly to the house
-that she soon loses all her charm for him.”</p>
-
-<p>“No man likes courtship made easy,”
-said the girl with the Roman nose. “Mr.
-Troolygood will surely die a bachelor unless
-he succeeds some day in unearthing a
-girl whom his sister dislikes. That is
-hardly probable, either, since he invariably
-admires a girl with money—a habit, by the
-way, which I have also noticed in other
-young clergymen.”</p>
-
-<p>“It is not confined to young clergymen,
-dear,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses.
-“Talk about women being mercenary,
-I have often noticed that men think
-much more of money than we do. We
-know that they must provide for us somehow,
-and the doing of it is their affair.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin, “what excellent mental training
-we do receive at this club! Dorothy
-was wondering the other day how we ever
-got along without it; and, indeed, so was I.
-A reputation for being intellectual is the
-nicest thing in the world; once you have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
-it, you can be as silly as you choose, and
-people will feel actually grateful to you for
-unbending. It has its drawbacks, though.
-I find one must be more careful than ever
-to have cuffs and gloves immaculate.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
-profile. “Girls, a college professor asked
-me the other day why we always wear veils
-on the street!”</p>
-
-<p>“And what did you reply?” queried the
-girl with the Roman nose.</p>
-
-<p>“To keep our faces clean! What did
-you suppose?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! I thought you told him the
-truth. However, the more intellectual a
-man is the less he understands women.
-One of his students would—”</p>
-
-<p>“Know better than to expect the truth
-in reply to such a question? Of course he
-would,” said the president; “but oh, girls,
-if an octogenarian knew as much about us as
-a sophomore <i>thinks</i> he does, what a queer
-world this would be!”</p>
-
-<p>“Unpleasant rather than queer,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “Of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
-course we understand men thoroughly; but
-that is a very different matter.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, very different,” said the girl with
-the Roman nose. “But aren’t they queer?
-Why, I once knew a man who called a girl
-a ‘most adorable little flirt,’ and then felt
-very much aggrieved when she kept on
-flirting after they became engaged!”</p>
-
-<p>“Lots of girls never have an opportunity
-to flirt until they <i>are</i> engaged,” remarked
-the girl with the dimple in her chin. “To
-some men, an engagement ring on a girl’s
-hand has the same effect that a ‘Keep off
-the grass’ sign has on children.”</p>
-
-<p>“True,” said the girl with the Roman
-nose. “Oh, Marion, shall you also visit
-Lola this year?”</p>
-
-<p>“Not this century,” replied the girl with
-the eyeglasses. “Didn’t you hear what
-happened the last time she was here?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, no; except that she was to dine
-with you. What happened? Did she discuss
-art in a monologue from soup to coffee?
-or, did—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, she did that; but it wouldn’t have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
-really mattered, except for—you see it was
-this way: when she was here last summer,
-she gave me one of her, well, <i>she</i> calls them
-paintings. I accepted it with profuse thanks;
-and hung it in the darkest corner of the attic
-as soon as her train was well out of Chicago.
-When I heard that she was coming
-back, I fished the picture out of its corner,
-and gave it a prominent place in the parlor,
-telling her it had been there all the time.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I’m sure she ought to be satisfied
-with that,” said the president; “not
-many people care enough for Lola to hang
-her pictures even temporarily on the parlor
-walls. The one she gave me is in the
-cook’s bedroom—the poor woman has been
-complaining of insomnia lately.”</p>
-
-<p>“No wonder. Unluckily I forgot to
-coach my family, and when we came in
-from the dinner table, my brother Frank
-joined us. You know Lola <i>is</i> pretty when
-she remembers to comb her hair and remove
-her painting apron.”</p>
-
-<p>“Mercy on us! did he criticise her painting
-while she was present?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“No. He only said, ‘Hello, where did
-you get this new picture? I never saw it
-before. Looks like the one that has been
-vegetating in the attic!’”</p>
-
-<p>“You needn’t tell us the rest, dear; we
-all know Lola. It was too bad, when you
-had only done it to spare her feelings, too!”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear! dear!” said the girl with the dimple
-in her chin. “I wonder why the most
-hopeless artists are ever the most generous
-with their productions? They seem to
-wish to give them away, whereas—”</p>
-
-<p>“Self-preservation, dear. When one has
-done something dreadful, one dislikes to be
-constantly reminded of the fact!” said the
-girl with the classic profile. “You know
-my eldest sister, don’t you? Well, her
-husband has an awful temper, but he seldom
-gives Sophie any trouble. Whenever
-he begins to be unpleasant, she says: ‘Isn’t
-it fortunate, dear; if you should die, or we
-should ever separate, I could have a good
-income, anyhow—I could just publish in
-book form the poems you wrote to me before
-we were married!’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“And what then?” asked the president,
-breathlessly.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, he kicks the dog or snubs his typewriter;
-but he never says another word to
-Sophie.”</p>
-
-<p>“And yet, Sophie used to be considered
-dull at school,” said the president, thoughtfully.
-“Well, that’s only another proof that
-even genius needs a special opportunity.”</p>
-
-<p>“Speaking of opportunities,” said the
-girl with the eyeglasses, “have you heard
-of Marie’s last mishap? No? I thought
-not. You know that delightful young physician
-who cares nothing for society, and
-declines all non-professional invitations, and
-never calls on a woman under seventy.
-Well, Marie has developed neuralgia, grip,
-and nervous prostration in swift succession,
-and he has been called in to attend her.
-You see, it is this way: it gives her an opportunity
-to see him in bewitching tea-gowns,
-and she studies new poses on the
-sofa when she is not taking powders.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! And when are they to be married?”
-asked the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Never, dear. He says he had long loved
-her silently, and was trying to summon up
-enough courage to tell her so. Now, however,
-he sees that she is too delicate to
-make a good wife for a hardworking professional
-man!”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph! No wonder Marie’s little
-brother told mine he wants to go away to
-boarding-school,” said the girl with the
-Roman nose. “Well, I always did hate
-deceit. I never—”</p>
-
-<p>“By the way,” said the president, “I
-thought you had such a bad headache that
-you could not go out to-day.”</p>
-
-<p>“That was when mamma wanted me to
-accompany her to a meeting at the orphan
-asylum, dear. I felt ever so much better
-after she was gone.”</p>
-
-<p>“I am so glad you care so much for the
-club,” said the president. “I gave up a
-luncheon at my mother-in-law’s, in order
-to come, myself. I wanted awfully to go—all
-the other guests were lovely old ladies—perfect
-walking encyclopædias on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
-subject of servants, and the proper time to
-hunt moths or cut first teeth.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I forgot to tell you, dear,” said the
-girl with the dimple in her chin. “Tom’s
-mother sent you a message by me that she
-had put the luncheon off until Friday because
-you were so disappointed at your inability
-to be present.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, if she expects me to waste a
-whole morning on those old frumps, she is
-very much mistaken, that is all. And you
-are no true friend of mine, or you would
-have told her I had an engagement for that
-day, too!”</p>
-
-<p>“Humph! You seem to forget that I
-am afraid of her, too. She was my old
-Sunday-school teacher, and she would as
-lief be disagreeable to me as to you. Besides,
-it is not as if Tom had no unmarried brothers.
-One has to consider her feelings, you
-know, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Very true, dear. You always were
-charitable, Emily—I can just as well go to
-bed with a cold on Friday. Well, I fear we
-must adjourn now. What a profitable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
-meeting we have had! I only wish Dorothy
-could have heard some of the arguments
-that—”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, indeed, Dorothy needs all of the
-good sense she can possibly obtain in
-any form,” murmured the brown-eyed
-blonde.</p>
-
-<p>“Not now that she is about to be married,
-dear,” said the girl with the dimple in
-her chin. “However, I am sure that nothing
-save death or a boil on her chin will
-ever keep her away from another meeting.
-She says she considers the founding of this
-club her life work.”</p>
-
-<p>“And a noble one, too,” said the president,
-warmly. “Well, if ever a girl entered
-upon matrimony with bright prospects, <i>she</i>
-is that one. I verily believe she could
-make Jack Bittersweet do anything she
-wanted, whether he liked or not!”</p>
-
-<p>“At any rate, she has begun well,” said
-the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.</p>
-
-<p>When the girl with the dimple in her chin
-reached the blue-eyed girl’s home, she ran
-up the stairs to her friend’s room, two steps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
-at a time, and burst open the door. That
-young person was discovered, radiant with
-smiles in spite of the traces of recent tears;
-she was seated at her desk, and the waste
-basket was overflowing with crumpled
-sheets of her best note paper.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, you dear, Dorothy,” said the visitor,
-“tell me all about it, do! I was dying
-to come earlier, but I wanted to see what
-Frances would do when she heard that Jack
-was coming here, so I had to stay all
-through the meeting. Evelyn says that
-no girl ever had brighter prospects in marrying
-than you, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! then, they all know I am to be
-married, do they? Did Jack tell? I
-thought he would hold his peace, because—”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, not exactly; but he told me that
-he was on his way here to ask you to forgive
-him for everything he ever did! And
-he said he just wouldn’t come away until
-you set your wedding-day, and so—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! he told you that, did he? Well,
-it is set, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Dear old Jack, he must be the happiest
-fellow in the world, for he—”</p>
-
-<p>“M—I can’t say that he looked it when
-he went away; however, some people have
-such a way of concealing their emotions. I
-never had myself; I am as open as the day—anybody
-could know just what I intended
-to do all the time.”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course; I told Jack how it would be
-from the start. But I don’t see why he
-looked so melancholy when he came away.
-Didn’t you set the wedding day early
-enough to please him?”</p>
-
-<p>“He said he didn’t want to know the
-day, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Didn’t want to know the day of his
-own wedding! Why, the poor boy must
-be crazy; he—”</p>
-
-<p>“The date of his <i>own</i> wedding! Emily
-Marshmallow, are you out of your mind?
-I said the date of <i>my</i> wedding, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Would you mind feeling my pulse,
-dear, or examining my eye to see if there is
-a look of insanity in it! For really, I don’t
-see how you and Jack can be married to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
-each other on different days, unless you are
-thinking of matrimony on the instalment
-plan; and that—”</p>
-
-<p>“Married to each other? Jack Bittersweet
-and I? Why, Emily Marshmallow,
-you haven’t listened to a word I have been
-saying, when I have been telling you for
-the last half hour I am to marry Clarence
-Lighthed, the only man I ever loved, next
-month, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, Dorothy, don’t! If Jack did not
-ask you to marry him to-day, it was only
-that he hadn’t the courage, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“He did, dear—twice. But you see, I
-had accepted Clarence an hour before he
-came. Well, it is a great comfort to know
-that I never encouraged poor Jack! You
-will bear me out in that, I know. And oh,
-Emily, Clarence is the dearest person in
-the world! You can’t imagine how happy
-first love makes one! I—I wouldn’t say a
-word to Frances now if I saw her with
-one eyebrow a full half inch higher than
-the other. But, what is the matter?
-You—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I—I feel a little faint, dear; that is all.
-Did you—er, try to soften the blow to
-Jack?”</p>
-
-<p>“I did. I advised him to marry Frances;
-said that I knew she would make him happier
-than I could ever have done, and their
-marriage was the one thing needed to complete
-my own happiness.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, he wouldn’t marry her now if—not
-if she was a wealthy young widow.
-Did—did Jack say anything about me?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, er—yes; he seemed sort of
-offended with you for something. I don’t
-know what it was. The only reference I
-made to you in our whole conversation, was
-to tell him that you had seen all along that
-I intended to marry Clarence. Of course
-if you had not been able to make him understand
-that fact, it was his own stupidity,
-and not your fault. Oh, I tell you, I
-always defend my friends—even before they
-are attacked! But what is the matter?
-You look sort of queer?”</p>
-
-<p>“I—I was only wondering what they
-would say at the club! They—they seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
-to have an idea that you would marry Jack,
-and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Marry Jack Bittersweet! What on
-earth could have put such an idea into their
-heads? I only hope, Emily, that you—”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, no, dear; nothing of the kind.
-I—I merely told them that he was on his
-way to ask you to marry him, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Very thoughtful it was of you, dear. I
-only wish I could ask you to be bridesmaid
-for your pains; but Clarence has somehow
-gotten an idea that you are not a friend of
-his. There was no one else to oppose the
-match, and I—I doubt if he’d have asked
-me quite as soon if you hadn’t; so I shall
-try to forgive you, in time, for the things
-you have said about him.”</p>
-
-<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin
-gasped, but her only reply, was: “I really
-don’t know what the other members of the
-club will say. They—”</p>
-
-<p>“The club. I am so glad you mentioned
-it. There was a meeting to-day, was there
-not? I was just writing Evelyn a letter
-when you came in, saying—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“That you want us to meet twice a week
-after this! How nice; that is just—”</p>
-
-<p>“No, dear; it was a letter of resignation
-I was writing. Dear Clarence has such a
-horror of intellectual women, that I—”</p>
-
-<p>“But, Dorothy, you know when you
-founded the club, you said the membership
-would be for life, and—”</p>
-
-<p>“Emily Marshmallow, I never said anything
-of the kind! And, if I <i>did</i>, only a
-person of your colossal selfishness would
-expect me to waste my time on a mere
-club when I want to devote eighteen
-hours a day to the selection of my trousseau,
-and the other six to Clarence! And,
-if you want to know my real opinion of the
-club, I consider it the greatest bore among
-my social duties!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a><br /><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<div class="copyright"><br /><br />
-<b>PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY<br />
-&amp; SONS CO. AT THE LAKESIDE<br />
-PRESS, FOR WAY &amp; WILLIAMS,<br />
-CHICAGO, U.S.A. MDCCCXCVII<br /></b>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-<div class="tnote"><div class="center">
-<b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></div>
-
-<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired. This text uses both single
-quotation marks and double quotation marks within dialogue. This was
-retained as printed.</p>
-
-<p>Page 82, “nowaday” changed to “nowadays” (nowadays don’t intend)</p>
-
-<p>Page 216, “absense” changed to “absence” (bears my absence)</p>
-
-<p>Page 245, removed repeated word “heard” (you heard Miss Blanque)</p>
-
-<p>Page 296, “he” changed to “her” (criticise her painting)</p></div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong.
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50751 ***</div>
+
+<h1 class="faux"><i>The</i> Teacup Club</h1>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 510px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="510" height="800" alt="Cover" />
+</div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<div class="maintitle"><i>The</i>
+Teacup Club</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a><br /><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<div class="bbox">
+
+<div class="maintitle"><i>The</i><br />
+Teacup Club</div>
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br />
+BY<br />
+<span class="author">ELIZA ARMSTRONG</span><br /><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/emblem.jpg" width="150" height="160" alt="emblem" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br /><br />
+<i>CHICAGO</i><br />
+WAY AND WILLIAMS<br />
+1897<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="copyright">
+COPYRIGHT<br />
+WAY AND WILLIAMS<br />
+1897<br />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>NOTE</h2>
+
+
+<p>A portion of the matter in this little book
+originally appeared in <i>The New York Journal</i>,
+and is used by the courtesy of W. R. Hearst,
+Esq.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a><br /><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+<td align="left" colspan="2"><small>CHAPTER</small></td>
+<td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">I&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE TEACUP CLUB IS FORMED</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">II&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE CLUB DISCUSSES WOMAN IN POLITICS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">III&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">MAN’S REAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IV&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">CONCERNING THE HEROINE OF TO-DAY</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">V&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE CLUB SETTLES SOME CURRENCY PROBLEMS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VI&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE PIONEER NEW WOMAN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VII&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">WOMAN IN LEGISLATION</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VIII&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">AN EXECUTIVE MEETING</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IX&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF POLITICAL POWER</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">X&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">WOMAN AS A PARLIAMENTARIAN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XI&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE CLUB INVESTIGATES THEOSOPHY</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XII&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">A DISCUSSION AND A SURPRISE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a><br /><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter I<br />
+
+<small>The Teacup Club is Formed</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“You can never be sure of pleasing a
+man,” sighed the blue-eyed girl, who was
+calling on her dearest friend; “that is, if
+you try to please him,” she added reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose not,” replied the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “unless you succeed
+in concealing from him the fact that
+you are trying to please him.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; yes, I suppose there is something
+in that. However, we ought not to be
+hard on the poor things. The whole truth
+with the sterner sex is that they are never
+really practical. They—”</p>
+
+<p>“How clever you are!” cried the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, admiringly.
+“Sometimes it does seem a pity that you
+are to marry Jack, instead of studying law,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+or—theosophy or something like that.
+Really, a very little study would fit you for
+the bar, but of course Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t intend to marry Jack,” said
+the blue-eyed girl, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>“O, my goodness, does he know that?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know whether he knows that
+or not; but he does know that I’ve broken
+my engagement with him. I sent back his
+ring, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear; that ring must have already
+cost its real value in messenger fees alone.
+Let me see, how many times have you sent—”</p>
+
+<p>“And you may know that I am in earnest
+when I tell you that I am to pour tea for
+Nell to-morrow, and everybody will comment
+on its absence.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you want me to come over and
+stay with you to-night, dear?” queried the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“No, thank you, dear. I can just as
+well talk it over with you now. Of course
+it was Jack’s fault.”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin was
+silent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, I did think
+that you, of all people, would sympathize
+with me, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here, Dorothy; of course I sympathize
+with you, but you remember
+when you quarreled with Jack the last
+time I—”</p>
+
+<p>“I remember the last time that Jack
+quarreled with me,” replied the blue-eyed
+girl, with dignity.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I sympathized violently with you,
+and the consequence was that you wouldn’t
+speak to me for a month after you made up
+with him!”</p>
+
+<p>“O, of course, if you really do sympathize
+with me, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“You might know that. But tell me all
+about it. Is it that you want a new ring
+which is too expensive for anything save a
+peace offering? Or is Edwin coming home
+on a visit? Or has—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing so frivolous, my dear; this is a
+serious matter. Jack—that is, Mr. Bittersweet,
+joined a new club without even letting
+me know that he meant to do it. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+shouldn’t have minded if he had only told
+of it beforehand—”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not, dear; for then you could
+have made him give it up!”</p>
+
+<p>“Exactly. Well, when I did find it out,
+I told him that I plainly saw he did not
+really love me, and that it was lucky I had
+discovered the fact before it was too late!”</p>
+
+<p>“How very original you are!” murmured
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Go on, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, it is all over and I never was so
+hap—happy in my life! Where is my
+hand—handkerchief? I—I got s—something
+in my eye on the way here, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Here it is, dear, and let me draw down
+the window shade, so the light will not
+hurt your poor eye.”</p>
+
+<p>“You needn’t, dear. I saw them coming
+up the street a minute or two ago and
+all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet
+thinks he can make me jealous by
+parading up and down with a made-up
+thing like Frances, he is very much mistaken!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I suppose you have coaxed Edwin’s sister
+to write and tell him that you have
+broken with Jack?” queried the girl with
+the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“No, I haven’t. I did that last time
+and he was so unpleasant after we made
+up!”</p>
+
+<p>“Who was unpleasant? Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not, goosie. A man is
+always nicer than usual just after making
+up. No, it was Edwin; he—men are so
+awfully selfish, you know! Just because I
+was nice to him while I was angry with
+Jack, he imagined I had treated him badly—did
+you ever hear of such a thing? How
+did he ever expect me to bring Jack to his
+senses in time for the opera season, without
+a little jealousy as an incentive?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, you know, men are so awfully
+vain that he probably thought—”</p>
+
+<p>“That I really liked him? Perhaps he
+did. I never thought of that. Still, badly
+as he has behaved, I can’t help a kindly
+feeling for him. You see, I had such a
+lovely new gown for the opera and everybody<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+knew that I expected to go often,
+so—”</p>
+
+<p>“You might even have had to give in
+and acknowledge that you were wrong, but
+for Edwin!”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear,” replied the blue-eyed girl,
+with great dignity. “Never that. I really
+expected to marry Jack, you know, and it
+would never have done to establish such a
+precedent. How could I ever expect a
+happy married life, if I began it by acknowledging
+that I could ever be in the
+wrong?”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear. By the way, do you
+think a peep at my lovely new waist would
+do you any good?”</p>
+
+<p>“You seem to have misunderstood me
+entirely,” retorted the blue-eyed girl,
+severely, “I am feeling quite happy. Indeed,
+I don’t know that I ever felt happier
+in my life, unless it was the day upon which
+I was mistaken for my younger sister!”</p>
+
+<p>“But what are you going to do in regard
+to Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Emily Marshmallow, how stupid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+you are to-day! You seem to imagine that
+I want to be flattered, like a man, by being
+asked to explain things. I told you,
+didn’t I? that Jack and I quarreled about
+his membership in a new club. Very well,
+I too, have decided to join a club!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, that isn’t a bad idea. But
+what kind of a club? An Ibsen or a Browning
+one, I suppose. I notice that men
+dislike particularly to have us members of
+really intellectual clubs.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I did think of either an Ibsen or
+a Symphony club, but neither of them just
+seemed to suit me, so—well, the fact is
+that I’ve decided to found a club of my
+own.”</p>
+
+<p>“But even then you can’t always have it
+to suit you, because the other members—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes, I shall dear. You see, I’ll
+make all the—the by-laws and resolutions
+just as I want them, before I invite any one
+to join the club. I think I shall ask Evelyn
+to be the president, because she is married
+and accustomed already to making somebody
+do as she wishes.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear, I’m only afraid that you
+are too clever to—”</p>
+
+<p>“Succeed? Not quite so bad as that, I
+hope. Now, you see, the chief objection
+to Jack’s new club was that he wouldn’t
+tell me anything about it. Said he didn’t
+know just what its purpose was. As if a
+man would join a club without knowing—”</p>
+
+<p>“I begin to see now. You mean to keep
+the purpose of your own club a secret,
+too?”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s just it, and when Jack hears how
+nice it is, he’ll find out that we are a great
+deal cleverer than he thinks. I shall make
+the membership for life too, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“But you haven’t even told me the purpose
+of the club yet.”</p>
+
+<p>“The Advancement of Woman, dear.
+Jack hates advanced women and when I
+make up with him—”</p>
+
+<p>“But you said a moment ago that you
+would never—”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, Emily,” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, hastily, “do stop talking a moment
+and let me get in a word edgewise:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+I’ve been trying for half an hour to get a
+chance to ask you where the new waist you
+offered to show me, is, and I can’t—”</p>
+
+<p>“Here it is in my wardrobe and isn’t it a
+dream? You may try it on, if you like.”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, dear; but no. I care so
+little for such frivolities, now that I have
+come to enjoy the real intellectual life.
+Did you ever see such darling sleeves? It
+does seem that a girl who could not be
+happy in them must—”</p>
+
+<p>“Have at least a boil on her chin! Yes,
+doesn’t it? But really, Dorothy, you make
+me ashamed of caring so much for such
+vanities. Why, those very sleeves cost me
+two whole nights’ rest!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind about that, dear; we can’t
+all be intellectual. Look here, Emily
+Marshmallow, if you’ll promise never to
+breathe it as long as you live, I’ll tell you
+the last mean thing that Frances—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, do! She has a new gown that
+would arouse the envy of Dr. Mary Walker.
+All chiffon, spangles, embroidery and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know. My story has reference to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+that very gown. You know how very mysterious
+she always is about her new things!”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. As if anybody cared to know
+about them! Do tell me if her waist is
+made—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I—you see, it was this way: I
+knew she was having her new gown made
+at Madame’s, and I accidentally discovered
+that she was to be fitted on Friday at two.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I see. Then, you called upon
+Frances at one o’clock, thinking that she’d
+take you along, rather than risk offending
+Madame by being late?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; Frances isn’t afraid of Madame—she
+doesn’t owe her anything. I just happened
+in at Madame’s at half-past two.
+They told me she was busy, but I said I
+knew she wouldn’t mind if I stepped into
+the fitting-room for a minute, as I had a
+letter from Paris and wanted to tell her all
+about the new skirts.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, you clever thing!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. So in I bounced, and there stood
+Frances, all in billowy waves of turquoise
+blue and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But I thought her new gown was green
+and white, with—”</p>
+
+<p>“And you should have seen how sweetly
+she smiled. So sweetly that I knew she
+was wild with rage!”</p>
+
+<p>“But did you make it right with the Madame?
+Did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pretended that I must have left the
+Paris letter at home, and told her I’d fetch
+it the next day. Then, after a good, long
+look at Frances, I came away and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And ran in to tell all the other girls
+how her new gown was made?”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Annie first: you know, she
+hasn’t a bit of originality and she said, at
+once, that she’d have her new one just like
+it. Then, I dropped in at Evelyn’s tea
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Told all the others, too. M’hm.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But what do you think that cat,
+Frances, had done? She’d been there before
+me and told them all that I had come
+into the fitting-room out of sheer curiosity—I
+curious, the idea! And the gown she
+was trying on was not her own, after all,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+she said, but one about which Madame had
+asked her opinion and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Gracious, do you suppose that was the
+truth?”</p>
+
+<p>“Alas, I know it;” groaned the blue-eyed
+girl, “it belonged to Jack’s sister,
+Effie! Now, Effie detests Annie and when
+she sees her in a gown which is an exact reproduction
+of her own, she will—”</p>
+
+<p>“Won’t she, though? Well, my dear,
+Effie was an unknown quantity before, but
+now you may depend upon one thing—she
+will use any influence she may have with
+Jack against you.”</p>
+
+<p>“True. And all because of such a silly
+thing, too! But, then, people are so
+frivolous. Well, you will join my new
+club, won’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, yes. You had better invite
+Frances, too; she will tell Effie all about it,
+and the first time Effie is offended with
+Jack, she will tell him, thinking to annoy
+you both—”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall, though it is hardly necessary,
+either, for, once started, everybody will talk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+of nothing else. But, whatever you do,
+don’t tell Dick a word about it. Evelyn’s
+husband is sure to tell him, anyhow, and
+then he can’t say that women never keep
+secrets.”</p>
+
+<p>“What utter nonsense. Of course women
+can keep secrets! Why, I once knew a
+girl intimately for two whole years and in
+all that time she never told me that her
+curls were false. I wouldn’t have known
+it to this day, if I hadn’t walked into her
+room one day when she had washed them
+and hung them up to dry. I’ve told that
+story to a dozen men, and I’ve never
+yet found one of them magnanimous
+enough to acknowledge that it proved my
+point!”</p>
+
+<p>“You can’t prove anything to a man,
+dear, unless he wants it proved. Well, I
+must go. You’ll not fail me at the first
+meeting of the Teacup club, then?”</p>
+
+<p>“The Teacup club,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, disappointedly,
+“Why I thought it was to be a really intellectual
+club, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“So it is. But, you know, real merit is
+always modest. If a lot of men get up
+such a thing, they give it a six-syllabled
+name; but we wish to evade, rather than
+seek, notoriety and, besides, as I said before,
+once we get it started, the whole town
+will talk of nothing else!”</p>
+
+<p>It fell upon a bright sunshiny day, and
+the meeting for the organization of the Teacup
+club was well attended.</p>
+
+<p>“And all the girls are wearing their newest
+gowns, too,” whispered the blue-eyed
+girl to the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“that shows that they appreciate the importance
+of the undertaking.”</p>
+
+<p>“And what an awfully becoming hat you
+are wearing,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “If I owned such a milliner’s
+dream I should not mind anything that
+could happen to me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which means that you have something
+unpleasant to tell me,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “You need not be uneasy,” she added,
+“I’ll not move a muscle, for Frances is
+looking this way.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Well, then, I heard her tell Nell that
+Jack comes to her almost every day for
+sympathy and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph. When a man says ‘sympathy’
+he means flattery! Is that all?”</p>
+
+<p>“All? Why I thought—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear. You see, I thought perhaps
+you had stronger proof than her own assertion.
+Why, Frances, dear, how well you
+are looking to-day! I have not seen you
+for such an age that I thought you must be
+out of town.”</p>
+
+<p>“Has it seemed so long to you, dear?”
+returned the brown-eyed blonde. “Now, to
+me the days go so swiftly that, as I sometimes
+tell Ja—Mr. Bittersweet, I mean—I
+often forget whether it is Saturday or
+Monday!”</p>
+
+<p>“So you have seen the poor fellow, have
+you?” returned the blue-eyed girl, with an
+angelic smile; “it is so good of you to console
+him. But, indeed, you are always
+good about such things and so modest
+about it, too, that but for the men themselves,
+we should never know how hard you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+work just to induce them to come and be
+comforted!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—why,—I—” stammered the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, indeed, I was defending you only
+the other day. I was quite angry with
+Marion for saying that your house should
+be called ‘An Asylum for the Rejected.’
+I was so indignant that I just told her that,
+for my part, I thought we all ought to be
+grateful to you for consoling the poor fellows
+and helping to keep them out of mischief
+when they are feeling so badly. I reminded
+her, too, that you must do it out
+of pure philanthropy—for you never seem
+to get anything out of it. Really, I never
+saw you looking quite so well; you have
+such a fine color and—oh, here is Evelyn,
+at last, and we can call the meeting to
+order!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Evelyn is wearing her old gown,”
+cried the girl with the classic profile, “I
+call that downright mean! I had thought
+I could get such a good chance to study the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+draping of it while she was on the platform.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps, that is why she didn’t wear
+it,” returned the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Mercy, is it me they are calling to order?
+Why, didn’t you tell me before; I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, girls,” the little woman on
+the platform was saying, “I don’t know
+that I ought to be president. It seems to
+me that we should have an election or
+something.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is not necessary,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “don’t you remember? I asked
+you to be president, in the first place. But
+if you’d rather, I’ll move that you are to
+be the chief officer, and Emily, here, will
+second the motion, won’t you Emily?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes of course,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“That does seem more regular,” said the
+little woman on the platform, in a relieved
+tone. “I wonder if I ought to make a
+speech of acceptance?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not unless you choose;” said the blue-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+girl, “harmony is the chief study of
+this club, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if it is to be a club for the study of
+harmony, I can’t join;” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “I don’t know a thing
+about music and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid you have not been paying
+attention,” said the blue-eyed girl, severely.
+“The club is organized for the advancement
+of woman and I don’t know a girl
+anywhere who would be more benefited by
+it than yourself. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose
+we ought to assess dues, or something.
+I know that Ja—I mean a man I know—is
+always talking about dues at his clubs.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, but this is to be entirely different
+from a man’s club,” said the president,
+“and, then, what is the use of assessing
+dues, anyhow?”</p>
+
+<p>“We might give the money to charity,”
+suggested the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, if we did that, why not let
+each of us give what she wants to charity
+and be done with it?” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, of course,” said the president;
+“dear me, I had no idea that it was so easy
+to organize a club, or I’d have done it long
+ago. It isn’t half as much trouble as giving
+a tea and you don’t run any risk of
+offending people by forgetting to invite
+them and then having to convince them
+that the card was lost in the mails.”</p>
+
+<p>“Talking of teas,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me,” said the president, gently,
+“but if this is a club for the advancement
+of woman, ought we to talk about
+teas?”</p>
+
+<p>“But you began it, yourself,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, “I only—”</p>
+
+<p>“I think I said merely that the club is
+ever so much nicer than a tea,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“And so it is,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“though, by the way, Nell’s last one was
+lovely—there were enough men present to
+amuse us, whereas—”</p>
+
+<p>“There are usually so few that they have
+to be amused, lest they get lonesome,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh,
+girls, have you heard that Clarissa—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oughtn’t we to be attending to business,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“instead of talking about Clarissa? I saw
+her myself only an hour ago and if there
+was anything exciting to tell, she would
+have—”</p>
+
+<p>“But this <i>has</i> a connection with the
+club,” insisted the brown-eyed blonde.
+“She wants to become a member!”</p>
+
+<p>“She just can’t be anything of the
+kind,” said the blue-eyed girl, “the idea!
+A girl whose reputation for intellectuality
+rests upon the careless combing of her hair
+and a habit of wearing hats six months behind
+the mode.”</p>
+
+<p>“But how can we get out of it, if she
+says she wants to join?” said the president,
+with an anxious air.</p>
+
+<p>“Tell her that one of the rules of the club
+is that no person over the age of twenty-two
+years can become a member,” suggested
+the girl with the dimple in her
+chin; “she celebrated her twenty-third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+birthday about a week ago, you remember.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it isn’t one of the rules,” objected
+the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, we can make it a rule, right
+now,” said the blue-eyed girl, calmly. “I
+know just how it would be if we let Clarissa
+into the club—she’d insist upon having
+everything her own way right along. I
+hate such selfishness myself, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“So do I,” said the president; “by the
+way, oughtn’t we to make a note of that
+rule, at once?”</p>
+
+<p>“What would be the use of that?” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we
+have all heard it. Oh, girls, I already see
+the benefit we are to derive from the influence
+of this club! Not a single soul has
+said a word in regard to Clarissa’s pretentions
+to being only twenty-three!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, that’s true,” cried the president,
+“and very considerate of us it was, too,
+when we all know how ridiculous it is!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls, I must tell you something,”
+cried the girl with the eyeglasses. “I went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+with Clarissa to a reception given by her
+literary club the other evening and it was
+simply awful!”</p>
+
+<p>“Not a decent toilet in the room, of
+course,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I didn’t expect that—I knew it
+was a culture club. It seems that there
+had been an awful time over the programme.
+Some of the members wanted to
+have an Ibsen evening, while others declared
+for Browning. Finally, they decided
+upon a mixed programme, selections from
+them both, you know. I did not know
+that when I went.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose, “otherwise, you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would gladly have accepted the invitation—and
+been suddenly taken ill on the
+appointed day, of course. Well, when the
+papers and selections were being read, I
+studied my programme to keep my eyes
+from those appalling coiffures, and when I
+saw the word ‘Music’ on it, I felt like a
+person who has found an oasis in a desert!”</p>
+
+<p>“And had you?” queried the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+who had left the platform and joined the
+group about the narrator.</p>
+
+<p>“No. They played something from
+Wagner!”</p>
+
+<p>“And you?” said the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I was in a comatose condition by
+that time. Nothing mattered. After the
+interminable programme they served refreshments.”</p>
+
+<p>“You felt better then?” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“No, I didn’t. They had tea and wafers!
+Tea and wafers after Ibsen, Browning and
+Wagner! And then Clarissa vanished and
+I couldn’t get away. The people present
+were all very distinguished; one of the
+members had written an epic poem which
+would have appeared in Harper’s if it had
+not been lost in the mails; one of them had
+invented a rational dress for men and another
+had once been asked to deliver a
+lecture upon ‘Thought Transference’
+before a mothers’ meeting at an orphan
+asylum!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, no wonder you wanted
+to go home!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“I did—badly. By and by, while I was
+wandering about the rooms in search of
+Clarissa, I found a woman who looked as
+unhappy as I felt. I was afraid to speak
+to her, lest she be somebody very remarkable,
+but she asked me, timidly, if I was
+the lady who had actually worn a rainy day
+dress, in public. I assured her that I was
+not, and after that we got on famously.”</p>
+
+<p>“But who was she?” the president asked.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know her name, but after we
+had discussed Ibsen and Browning a little,
+I asked what she had done. She replied,
+modestly: ‘Oh, I am the person who always
+read the Woman’s page in the daily papers!’
+After that, we talked just like ordinary
+people, and I didn’t see Clarissa when
+she came to look for me!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, girls, we really ought not
+to laugh so,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “because this club is devoted to the
+advancement of woman, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“That is entirely different,” said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+president. “Did Ibsen, Browning or Wagner
+ever do anything for the advancement
+of woman, I’d like to know?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+promptly. “How very absurd!”</p>
+
+<p>“Besides, our club is laid out on entirely
+new lines,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, isn’t it?” returned the president;
+“Oh, girls, I quite forgot to tell you that
+we shall have to pay rent for this room if
+we hold our meetings here, and we haven’t
+made any provision for paying it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But what is the use of making provision,
+when it isn’t due yet?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er, that is very true,” said the
+president; “I only wish I was as good a
+business woman as you!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I often feel that I have a great
+deal to learn yet,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+modestly. “By the way, Evelyn, what did
+your husband say when you told him that
+you had decided to join a club?”</p>
+
+<p>“He said—Oh, girls, I’m almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+ashamed to tell you, but then Tom is
+only a man, after all. He said: ‘Then,
+may the Lord have mercy upon my
+wretched digestion!’”</p>
+
+<p>“As if women had nothing to do but
+cook and keep house! when lots of us
+know nothing about either of them,” said
+the girl with the classic profile, indignantly.
+“Girls, I wonder why it is that if a woman
+studies law or anything like that, somebody
+is sure to say that she is going outside of
+her sphere, while nobody thinks anything
+of the kind if a man becomes a chef or invents
+a food for infants?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if you expect logic from a man!”
+said the president, shrugging her shoulders;
+“however, I expected it, too, before I was
+married. I know better now.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear, isn’t the Advancement of
+Woman delightful?” cried the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “After this, when we want to
+know anything, we needn’t go to the
+trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or
+the encyclopædia; we can just discuss it at
+the club, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Why do you bother with those horrid
+books? I never do,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “They are so heavy
+and always dusty, too. Now, I just ask
+the nearest man what I want to know. If
+he happens to be wrong, I can always cite
+my authority and it gives the next man a
+double pleasure in setting me right.”</p>
+
+<p>“What a clever thing you are,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses; “you always make
+me think of what somebody said about er—Juliet,
+I think: ‘To know her is a liberal
+education.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, that is nothing. Why, I know a
+Vassar girl who has studied Greek and all
+that sort of thing and she invariably misspells
+several simple words whenever she
+writes to a man, so he may think himself so
+much cleverer than her and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And I know a girl who asks every man,
+the first time she meets him, to explain
+the Australian ballot system. You see,
+it is a thing they all have to know, so
+they—”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, I should think she would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+get awfully tired of the answer,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“She does. She told me not long ago
+that she really must invent a new stock
+question, for she could hardly keep from
+yawning now, while—”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of yawning,” broke in the
+brown-eyed blonde, “Teddy Crœsus
+doesn’t send Molly flowers or bonbons
+any more!”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see what that has to do with
+yawning,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>“More than you may think, dear. You
+know Molly always asks a man if a premonition
+of danger has ever been the means
+of saving his life. She doesn’t ask it the
+first time they meet, but saves it for some
+special occasion. Well, one evening at a
+reception, Teddy seemed disposed to talk
+to Florence too much, and Molly asked him
+the question then, because she knew—”</p>
+
+<p>“That he would stay with her as long as
+she allowed him to talk about himself! Yes,
+of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Well, he was in the midst of a
+long story about how he once escaped from
+being in a railroad wreck by missing his train.
+Molly was listening with breathless interest
+when she saw Florence stop within two
+feet of her. She couldn’t resist one
+glance of triumph and that glance was her
+ruin.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was? Did he look up just then and
+remember Flo—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. But just as Molly looked at
+her, she gave a mighty yawn. Well, you
+know, yawning is contagious and Molly had
+been at a ball the night before, so she
+yawned, too. Teddy’s eyes were on her
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And now Florence gets his violets and
+bonbons! Well, isn’t that a story without
+a moral?” cried the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“It certainly is,” groaned the president.
+“Well, girls, I fear we must adjourn,
+though it is hard to break up such an intellectual
+talk. For my part, I shall go back
+to the petty cares of life with renewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+energy after a breath of air from a higher
+plane.”</p>
+
+<p>“I, too,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “I feel now as if petty gossip and
+scandal could never interest me again.”</p>
+
+<p>The president and the blue-eyed girl had
+walked four blocks, when the former suddenly
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>“There, I knew I had forgotten something,”
+she cried; “at first, I thought it
+was only to order dinner, but now I remember
+that I did not suggest a topic for discussion
+at our next meeting!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, “nobody would
+have had time to prepare anything for it, if
+you had; there is so much going on in our
+set this week, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” replied the president, “and
+all the members are so much interested in
+intellectual topics, anyhow, that they are
+quite prepared to discuss them extemporaneously
+as we did to-day.”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter II<br />
+
+<small>The Club Discusses Woman in Politics</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Teacup club was called to order fifteen
+minutes before the appointed time at
+its second meeting. “We are all here,
+you know, and there is no use in waiting,”
+observed the president, as she rapped for
+order with a jeweled hatpin.</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, who had been reading up in
+parliamentary usage.</p>
+
+<p>“I am so glad to see you all here,” said
+the president, “I was afraid that Effie’s
+luncheon might—”</p>
+
+<p>“Keep some of us away? Not from this
+club,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+“I believe she chose the day just on purpose
+to break up the meeting, so I declined
+her invitation.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you?” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+nose, “I didn’t. Effie is not popular
+enough to offer her guests badly cooked
+food, so I went and excused myself as soon
+as we rose from the table on the plea that I
+should be late for the club if I remained
+longer.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wish I might have seen Effie when
+you said that,” remarked the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “However, your turn came
+when the door closed after you.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think not, dear,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose, calmly, “Effie is not
+yet distinctly engaged to my cousin
+Clarence, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“She has to be on decent terms with his
+family! I might have thought of that,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“If they had been married, now of course
+I shouldn’t have dared to do it, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not. Oh, girls, speaking
+of what happens after the door closes,
+makes me think of what happened to Effie
+herself once. It was just after the affair
+with Teddy Crœsus, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“The time she thought to make people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+believe she was engaged to him, and took
+him to dine with her grandmother—”</p>
+
+<p>“And her grandmother failed to understand
+the situation and congratulated them!
+Indeed, I do,” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose, “although, on account of
+being her dearest friend, I failed to hear
+it until two days after everybody else
+had.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, you know she went to a breakfast
+at Nell’s a few days after that,” went
+on the girl with the eyeglasses, “and left
+early. As she reached the corner, she remembered
+a message for Nell and went back
+to deliver it. She burst into the room unannounced
+and found all the girls talking at
+once.”</p>
+
+<p>“About her, of course! What did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Any other girl would have known
+that, but Effie said: ‘Oh, girls, do tell me
+all about it; what has happened?’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well?”</p>
+
+<p>“And it was so sudden that not one of
+them could think of a thing to say until she
+had flounced out in a rage!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“The moral is: Never go back after once
+saying good-by,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“by the way, Dorothy, why weren’t you
+at Effie’s to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“I fancy my invitation was lost in the
+mail,” replied the blue-eyed girl. “I shall
+mention it to Effie as soon as I see her, so
+she will not feel that I’ve slighted her intentionally.
+Why, Frances, dear, did those
+mean things let you sit all through luncheon
+with the end of your, ah—detachable hair
+showing and a dab of powder on your nose?
+How mean and envious some people are!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I think it is cooler over on the other
+side,” panted the brown-eyed blonde, “and
+besides I must see Emily a minute.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Dorothy, you must have just
+heard something awfully nice, you look so
+happy and smiling,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “but really this delightful
+club is making us all amiable.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, isn’t it?” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“I couldn’t be really mean to anybody
+now, if I tried.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Excuse me for interrupting you, girls,”
+said the president, “but I want to announce
+our topic for discussion, and if I don’t do
+it at once I may forget it. Suppose we
+choose “Woman as a Political Factor?”
+That is a broad enough field even for us,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“So it is,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Well, I know one thing—whenever
+a woman really knows what she wants
+in a political line, she gets it.”</p>
+
+<p>“She does—and has ever since Eve held
+that first caucus with the serpent in the
+garden,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose, who had been furtively consulting
+her book on parliamentary usage.
+“Oh, girls, have you heard that the man
+Nell expects to marry is a politician?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; but it seems a very suitable
+match,” said the president, “for I don’t
+know a girl anywhere who can shake hands
+as gracefully as she does.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Evelyn, how generous you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
+believe you could find something nice to
+say about everybody.”</p>
+
+<p>“I really believe I could,” said the president,
+modestly, “and, after all, it is easy
+enough, for if you don’t like the subject of
+your remarks, you can always say it in such
+a tone that it does more harm than good.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are so just,” sighed the girl with
+the classic profile, “and yet, men always
+declare there is no real fellowship among
+women!”</p>
+
+<p>“They confuse their own wish with the
+true state of affairs,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “They know that one
+woman is often more than a match for the
+whole male sex and when a number of
+women band together they—”</p>
+
+<p>“Usually get more than they want,”
+said the president. “I often wonder,
+though, why it is always so much easier to
+convince other men that you are in the
+right than it is to persuade the men of your
+own family?”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps we put it in a more flattering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+way to strangers,” suggested the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “we just can’t
+help it, though, for we can’t always
+be—”</p>
+
+<p>“Looking up?” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Of course not—if we were
+our necks would grow so stiff that—”</p>
+
+<p>“We could never see our own boots; besides,
+we would be such frights that no man
+would look at us and so—”</p>
+
+<p>“It would do no good in the end,” finished
+the blue-eyed girl. “Still, I sometimes
+fancy, after all, that it might be well
+to be as nice to papa and the boys as I am
+to the men I dance with!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “we must be getting
+into metaphysics now! I’m not quite sure
+as to what metaphysics may be, so I always
+conclude that everything I don’t understand
+must—”</p>
+
+<p>“Be metaphysics? Do you? For my
+part, I always confuse metaphysics with
+hydraulics, though there is some difference
+between them I know,” said the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+blonde. “Let us ask Evelyn to explain
+them right now. She—”</p>
+
+<p>“Some other time, dear;” said the president,
+hastily. “You know we are discussing
+Woman in Politics to-day and—”</p>
+
+<p>“It would be unparliamentary to discuss
+anything else,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>The president looked at her gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>“What a logical mind you have, dear,”
+she said. “I only wish you could be with
+me sometimes when Tom comes home late
+from his club. I know that there are all
+sorts of flaws in the stories he tells me, but
+somehow I never find them until after he
+has given me money and I’ve kissed him
+and made up.”</p>
+
+<p>“What a pity,” sighed the girl with the
+Roman nose, “for if you found out the real
+flimsiness of his stories sooner, you could
+get more money.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear, so I could,” wailed the president,
+“it is an awful thing to have a husband
+and not a logical mind!”</p>
+
+<p>“So it is,” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+nose, “but, Evelyn, don’t tell anybody
+your opinion of me, for if you do, it may
+end in my having a logical mind and no
+husband, which is worse!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, isn’t this beautiful!” cried the girl
+with the eyeglasses, suddenly. “Really,
+girls, I am so stupid—that is not stupid as
+compared to a man, of course, but to the
+rest of you—that I wonder you allow me
+to belong to the club!” and there were
+tears in her eyes as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>The president came down from the platform
+and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>“Stupid! the idea of a girl with such a
+genius for hairdressing being stupid,” she
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>“And that girl a chafing-dish cook whose
+Welsh rarebits are sometimes successful,
+too!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! speaking of chafing-dish cookery,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“You know that Annie used to be engaged
+to Eustace, don’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But what has that to do with
+chafing-dish cookery?” said the girl with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+the Roman nose. “Girls, I have the loveliest
+recipe for making—”</p>
+
+<p>“It has a great deal to do with it.
+When he married Claire, Annie just smiled
+and selected a chafing-dish as a wedding
+present. She knew that Eustace was a
+confirmed dyspeptic and that Claire’s hands
+are so pretty that she could not possibly
+resist an opportunity to display them, so
+she would cook all sorts of dishes and—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, I hear that they have
+agreed to separate,” said the president. “I
+met Claire on the way to the manicure the
+other day. I wonder where Eustace is?”</p>
+
+<p>“He is in a sanitarium,” replied the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, “the doctor
+thinks he will have to be taken into court
+on a stretcher when the divorce proceedings
+come up!”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet you told me the other day that
+Annie had no originality; I’ve learned this
+since then,” whispered the girl with the
+dimple in her chin to the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I only meant in the matter of gowns,
+dear,” was the apologetic reply. “By the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+way, Frances seems not quite herself, to-day.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve noticed that. I fancied you might
+have said something to her which—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, never; why, I consider Frances
+one of my dearest friends—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know that, dear. But what is the
+use of a friend, if you can’t be disagreeable
+to her sometimes?”</p>
+
+<p>“True. I sometimes think it is one reason
+that married women keep their friends
+longer. They have husbands to—”</p>
+
+<p>“Act as lightning rods and carry off their
+displeasure! Yes; it must really be quite
+a convenience.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very likely. Don’t you feel, after all,
+that Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“Jack? Oh, I suppose you mean Mr.
+Bittersweet! No, I don’t feel any such
+thing, Emily Marshmallow, and you are no
+friend of mine if you champion him after
+the way he has behaved to me!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I was only going to mention that he
+had resigned from that new club. He told
+me so himself.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he has, has he? Well, isn’t that
+just like a man? And after he had paid all
+his dues for a year in advance, too, and
+gotten nothing out of it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he—he did it hoping to please
+you, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“His actions are perfectly indifferent to
+me, I assure you. Besides, if I made up
+with him to-morrow, Frances would always
+think I was jealous. I jealous of her—the
+idea! And, oh, Emily, the way he—he
+flirts with that girl is enough to b—break
+my heart!”</p>
+
+<p>“If you two girls have anything interesting
+to say, I wish you would say it
+aloud,” broke in the president. “Of course
+I am not curious, but some of the others
+may—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing at all interesting,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, promptly; “I—I was just
+telling Emily that this club seems the one
+thing needed to fill my cup of happiness to
+overflowing!”</p>
+
+<p>“And mine!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “By the way, isn’t it too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+provoking that curls are coming in again,
+just as veils are going out!”</p>
+
+<p>“And just at the windiest season of the
+year, too,” wailed the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Really, I often think that the fashions are
+invented by men—they are so contrary!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me,” said the president, “I did
+not quite catch what you were saying, because
+Emily and Marion were both talking
+at the same time. It seems to me that
+since I have been married, I can’t follow
+even two conversations simultaneously, as
+I used.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of that,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “who do you tell your
+secrets to now that you are married?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I’ve hit on a splendid plan,”
+cried the president, “when I feel that I
+must just tell a secret or die—and I often
+feel that way—I wait until Tom is asleep
+and repeat the whole story in his ear. It
+relieves my mind and does no harm.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be too sure of that,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “My sister
+Helen doesn’t agree with you at all. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+mentioned it to her the other day and she
+thought it clever, and resolved to emulate
+your wisdom, so she tried it on her husband,
+and he wasn’t asleep, only pretending.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I always test my husband with a
+question or two, first,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“So did Helen. She asked him if he
+could fail to see how much she needed a
+new bonnet and wanted to know how much
+his share of the alumni banquet amounted
+to. He only snored in reply, and of course
+she thought she was safe and repeated the
+secret.”</p>
+
+<p>“With the result?” queried the blue-eyed
+girl, who was listening, breathless.</p>
+
+<p>“That it was all over his club the next
+day,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “It would not have made any difference,”
+she added, soberly, “only the secret
+was a rather clever trick I had played on
+Dick a few days before—and he belongs to
+the same club!”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet they say a man can keep a
+secret!” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Who says so?” queried the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Other men? Oh! I
+didn’t know but that you had heard some
+woman say so.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not unless a man was listening, dear,
+and that man a person whom—”</p>
+
+<p>“She wished to flatter immensely!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Or who happened to know some
+of her own secrets! Girls, I’ve been wondering
+what on earth Annie sees in that
+horrid Fred Van Stupid? Now, I can understand
+the interest a girl takes in a brainless
+man who has a great deal of money,
+because then—”</p>
+
+<p>“He is exposed to so many temptations
+and her influence is sure to do him good,”
+finished the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “for my part, I always let Ned Goldie
+come to see me oftener than usual during
+Lent. I feel that I am really doing some
+good and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Violets are an absolute necessity then
+and they are so dear that very few men can
+afford to present them in quantities.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, of course I let him bring me flowers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+if he wants to—it is so much better for
+him to spend his money in that way than
+to lose it at poker, that I feel quite a missionary.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; I don’t know about that, dear,
+though it’s very lovely of you to feel so,”
+sighed the president, “the fact is, that you
+are actually encroaching on what is really
+my violet money. Ned will play poker
+with my husband at the club at other seasons
+of the year, when he is not allowed to
+see much of you. He always loses and I
+make Tom divide his winnings with me,
+so—”</p>
+
+<p>There was a look of high resolve upon the
+face of the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“After this, I shall make him bring me
+twice as many, so I can divide with you,”
+she said, sweetly. “Oh, no, don’t thank
+me; I do so love to feel that I am doing
+some good in the world and I do so disapprove
+of games of chance!”</p>
+
+<p>“You haven’t made up your mind as to
+whether you will accept him or not, have
+you?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Not yet, dear. His chances and Dick’s
+are about even, at present. Of course he
+doesn’t know that, though; I couldn’t
+exert such a good influence over him, if he
+was sure one way or the other.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” sighed the president. “Oh,
+girls, I don’t know why men are so much
+more willing to be influenced for good before
+they are married than after. You may
+be sure of one thing though, Emily; he
+will say horrid things about you, if you
+finally do refuse him.”</p>
+
+<p>“No doubt,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “but when one tries to do
+good in this world, one can not begin to
+count the cost.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Emily Marshmallow, what an angel
+you are!” cried the blue-eyed girl, kissing
+her. “You are always so busy doing good
+to others, that you never seem to give yourself
+a thought!”</p>
+
+<p>The brown-eyed blonde had by this time
+quite recovered her equanimity and was
+chatting, in low tones, with the girl who
+wore the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Poor, dear Dorothy is looking rather ill,
+isn’t she?” she remarked, after a while.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I hadn’t noticed it before, but
+now that you speak of it, she does. However,
+she can’t expect to look young
+always. By the way, I hear that she has
+quarreled with Jack Bittersweet again.”</p>
+
+<p>“Has she seen him lately? I didn’t
+know that she had,” returned the brown-eyed
+blonde, smiling affectionately into the
+mirror.</p>
+
+<p>“Your hair is looking lovely to-day,” returned
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “Look
+here, Frances, do, like a dear, tell me all
+about the quarrel. You know all about it,
+of course, and I’ll not tell a soul. You
+know how well I can keep a secret and, besides,
+you owe it to me, for you wouldn’t
+have known a thing about Fred and Clarissa
+but for me!”</p>
+
+<p>“But I hadn’t a thing to do about the
+quarrel, oh, really now I hadn’t. Of
+course, people think it was all on my account
+but—why, I was in Omaha when I
+heard of it.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“By the way you came back from Omaha
+earlier than you expected, didn’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—no; that is only a week earlier.
+How well Jack looks, doesn’t he? And
+what a flow of spirits he has.”</p>
+
+<p>“Is it possible? Now, Effie says that he
+is as cross as a bear. But, then, Effie is
+his sister, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“What she says is of no consequence.
+Well, since you know so much already, I
+may as well tell you the rest. I fear that
+it is Dorothy’s insane jealousy of me which
+made the trouble. Of course I have not a
+spark of vanity, but I can’t help seeing—”</p>
+
+<p>“But I heard that the quarrel was over
+Jack’s membership in a new club.”</p>
+
+<p>“That might have been, dear, but people
+that are engaged don’t always quarrel over
+the real bone of contention. Of course, I
+only hope I really had nothing to do with
+it; I have so many such things on my conscience
+already that I don’t want any
+more,” and she sighed softly.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but tell me about the quarrel, do.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well—er—the fact is that Jack hasn’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+said a word to me about it, which makes me
+quite sure that I am the cause of it, unwilling
+as I am to think it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, you really don’t know any of
+the facts?” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Excuse me now, dear, I see Emily
+beckoning me; she wants to ask me about a
+new seamstress I’ve discovered. Frances
+doesn’t know a bit more than we do,” she
+whispered to the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Jack hasn’t told her a thing, so
+he evidently still cares for Dorothy, and
+she—”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s just it,” wailed the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “I’d have succeeded in
+making it up long ago, if they didn’t care
+quite so much!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear,” said the president, “I am
+afraid that I am awfully stupid to-day, but
+the fact is that—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, I heard that you slept at a
+hotel last night, Evelyn,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose, “how on earth did that
+happen?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was all Tom’s fault,” returned the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+president, in an aggrieved tone, “only he,
+being a man, will not admit the fact. You
+see, he didn’t want to go to the reception
+at all, so he—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, Nell said she met him in the street
+and gave him a verbal invitation, which he
+accepted with effusion.”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, if Nell knew my husband as well
+as I do, she’d be aware that the more
+affably he accepts an invitation, the more
+determined he is to escape by some plausible
+excuse at the last moment. He says
+that people always accept your regrets as
+genuine under such circumstances.”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you for telling me that,” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “My great aunt
+gives whist parties sometimes and, as she
+has a lot of lovely old lace and china and
+nobody in particular to leave it to, I don’t
+like to hurt her feelings by refusing her invitations
+outright. On the other hand, if I
+accept and happen to be placed at the table
+with her, I know I shall not receive so much
+as a cracked saucer in her will!”</p>
+
+<p>“But you and Tom did go to the reception,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+I know, for I saw you there,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, “how did you
+manage it?”</p>
+
+<p>“To make him go? Oh, that was easy
+enough. I merely said that he wasn’t very
+well and as I did not like to go out and
+leave him alone, I would ask mamma to
+come and stay with him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, then he agreed to go, did he?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear—said he had meant to go all
+along. But after that everything went
+wrong: his razor refused to do its work and
+he actually pretended that it was all because
+I had sharpened a lead pencil with it
+the other day, as if that could have—”</p>
+
+<p>“But why did you tell him that you had
+sharpened your pencil with it?” asked the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Because I cut my finger on the old
+thing and thoughtfully warned him that it
+was too sharp. Then, I—well my own
+wardrobe was full and I had hung up a few
+things in his, and the skirt of my new tailor-made
+gown was hanging over his dress coat.
+He pretended that it was all wrinkled and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+creased by that. Then, I had borrowed his
+box of neckties and neglected to return
+them, and he made such a fuss over my forgetfulness
+that I determined to give him a
+lesson. I saw him lay his latch key on the
+chiffonier ready to put in his other pocket
+and I didn’t say a word when he turned
+out the gas and went off without it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But how did you expect to get into the
+house when you returned?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I slipped back into the room in the
+dark after he had gone down, and put it in
+my own pocket.”</p>
+
+<p>“As an object lesson in remembering.
+Good, I’m glad you did it,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. I told the maid not to sit up
+for us, and I saw for myself that every door
+and window was fastened tight—for once
+Tom climbed in at the pantry window when
+he had forgotten his key and didn’t want
+me to know how late he stayed at the
+club.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he complained next day because
+the window was open, too,” murmured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“men are so illogical!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no, dear; but he would have
+done so, only the clock happened to strike
+three as he came upstairs, and I counted the
+strokes aloud. Well Tom was cross at being
+kept waiting, but my gown fits so well
+that I felt at peace with all mankind.”</p>
+
+<p>“Even your own husband!” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “It must indeed fit well.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And I enjoyed the evening immensely,
+for I knew I had such a good joke
+on Tom when we got home.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and what happened then?” asked
+the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it was great fun. He searched in
+all his pockets twice, rang the bell until he
+was tired, though the maids asleep in the
+third story might as well have been in
+Greenland for all the good that did. Then,
+he tried to force each door and window before
+he came back to the carriage to tell me
+that we were locked out!”</p>
+
+<p>“And then you—”</p>
+
+<p>“I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me before,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+dear? Luckily, there is one of us who
+remembers things.’ If you could only have
+seen his face as he took the key I gave
+him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then why on earth did you sleep at the
+hotel?” queried the girl with the Roman
+nose, in a bewildered tone.</p>
+
+<p>“I—well, the fact is that I—in the dark,
+I had mistaken the key to his desk for the
+latch-key! And, oh, girls, if you had seen
+me driving home from the hotel at ten
+o’clock in the morning, in the gown I had
+worn at the reception!”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor, dear thing!” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, “no wonder you chose ‘Woman
+in Politics’ for to-day’s discussion! If men
+are such tyrants as that, our only refuge
+will be equality in suffrage and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Latchkeys,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“though to be sure, we’d need
+pockets to keep them in, if we carried
+them. Sometimes, I suspect that the
+dressmakers are in league with the men to
+keep us from gaining our rights,” she
+added.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps they are,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, with a startled air, “the men pay the
+bills and so the dressmakers may be in
+league with them!”</p>
+
+<p>“You forget one thing, dear,” said the
+president, with a superior air. “It is the
+women who make the bills. You never
+heard of a man who ordered a dress for his
+wife did you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope not,” replied the girl with the
+Roman nose, “at least, if she was obliged
+to wear it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, dears,” said the president, “we
+really must adjourn, it is awfully late, but
+of course such a serious discussion could
+not be hurried. I think I must go and
+have a cup of bouillon to refresh me after
+making such serious demands upon the gray
+matter of my brain.”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter III<br />
+
+<small>Man’s Real Attitude Toward the
+Progress of Woman</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Teacup club came to order with
+more than its usual reluctance at its next
+meeting and the president looked severe.
+“I wish you girls would stop talking about
+Helena and her affairs,” she said. “I detest
+gossip, and, besides, I want to hear all
+about her, too, and we can talk better after
+the meeting is over. The topic for to-day’s
+discussion will be, ‘Man’s Real Attitude
+Toward the Progress of Woman.’”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m glad to hear it,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “Men are such queer
+creatures that by the time a girl gets to
+understand them really she is too old to
+attract their attention. Now, if we all put
+our heads together—”</p>
+
+<p>“We may attain wisdom without its accompanying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+wrinkles,” broke in the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “that is a
+good idea, for—”</p>
+
+<p>“It is no real gain to know how to make
+them bring the proper kind of flowers and
+confectionery, if you have to spend the
+money thus saved on the beauty doctor;
+yes, that is true,” sighed the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Widowers, or men who have been engaged
+several times, are often nice,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “I like to do my own
+training, if it is troublesome. You can’t
+persuade a widower that his late wife was
+not a type of all womanhood, and that is
+horrid, especially if she happens to have
+had a taste for domestic magazines and
+molasses candy! That is why a widower is so
+much less attractive than a widow; she—”</p>
+
+<p>“Has learned that men, save for a few
+leading traits, are all different,” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “Yes, matrimony
+always widens a woman’s views of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+opposite sex, while it narrows those of a
+man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose; “I do wish men would not do one
+thing and say another. Now, they are
+always praising domesticity in women, as
+well as shrinking modesty, and yet—”</p>
+
+<p>“They always overlook the domestic
+kind of a girl when she does venture among
+people,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I know it, and as for shyness and modesty,
+it is only the girl who is bold enough to call
+attention to those qualities in herself who
+receives a social reward for them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well,” said the president, “a man
+with a couple of sisters learns a great deal
+about the sex.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I don’t know why it is, but the
+more sisters a man has, the slower he is to
+enter into matrimony.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve noticed that myself,” said the girl
+with the classic profile; “while girls who
+have plenty of brothers usually marry before
+they are twenty.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw! That is because the friends of
+their brothers get a chance to see them sew
+on buttons and make caramels,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No, it isn’t,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “it is because such a girl has
+more than one person to oppose the man
+who wants to marry her. But talk about
+masculine inconsistency! It sets me wild
+to hear men talk about domesticity and
+modesty and all that, and then hang about
+Kate, a girl who doesn’t know a frying pan
+from a—a camera, and who had as lief ask
+for a thing she wants as to hint for it—so
+unfeminine!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know it,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Why, she never has to buy a
+flower, and as for candy, she has so much
+that she actually shares it with the other
+girls! I go to see her more frequently in
+Lent, because my conscience will not allow
+me to buy any then, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And Kate has been engaged six times;
+she told me so herself,” said the girl with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+the eyeglasses. “I declare, it is enough to
+make a girl—”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m!” said the president. “Don’t
+forget, my dears, that while she has been
+engaged six times, she has not been married
+once!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er—that is true,” cried the blue-eyed
+girl. “You dear, delightful, clever
+thing! I am so glad that I just made you
+be our president.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, of course I like it dear; still,
+as somebody once said, I’d rather be right
+than president.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But, oh, girls, Tom says that all
+the men in our set are talking about this
+club. He says that Jack Bittersweet asked
+him confidentially the other day if being
+intellectual made a woman less loveable.
+Luckily, I had just agreed to let him have
+a masculine dinner party and he assured
+Jack that it did not.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl arose softly from her
+seat and going over to where the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+blonde was sitting, kissed her. “You
+dear thing,” she said. “Come over any
+day you like and you shall see the
+new sleeve design I got from Paris yesterday.”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin exchanged
+glances with the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“What time in the year do you prefer
+for a wedding?” asked the latter, apropos
+of nothing.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, speaking of weddings, that reminds
+me,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“I’d have prepared a paper on to-day’s
+topic, as you suggested, Evelyn, but Elizabeth
+asked me to help select her wedding
+dress and—well, you know, Elizabeth.
+It has taken her two days already and I
+don’t see any prospect yet of her making
+up her mind.”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet she required only five minutes
+in which to decide to accept Fred, when
+he asked her to marry him,” said the president,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“I know, dear, but then in this matter of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+selecting her dress, she had a choice,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“And I’m sure that Elizabeth’s father is
+delighted to buy her a wedding dress,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, Emily,
+pardon me—I quite forgot that Elizabeth is
+your cousin!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, dear, though I rather like
+her, in spite of the relationship. Oh, girls,
+you have no idea of what an effect this club
+is having upon me. Why, I’ve turned my
+den into a library, cut all the leaves of my
+Carlisle and coaxed papa to buy me a handsome
+writing desk and do up the walls in
+forest greens because pink and blue seemed
+so frivolous. Now, I can sit in that room
+and write papers for the club in real comfort.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t know how pleased I am to
+hear it,” cried the president, warmly. “It
+is quite worth all the labor of selecting
+topics and leading the discussion, I assure
+you. Why, Marion, how late you are!
+Don’t you know that the really advanced
+woman is even ahead of the clock?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I do,” panted the girl with the
+classic profile, “but, really, I’ve had the
+most awful time getting here at all! You
+know I’m always in trouble, but really this
+is the worst that—I’ll never go anywhere
+with Nell again, unless it’s to my own
+funeral, and I can’t help myself, then.”</p>
+
+<p>“What on earth has Nell done now?”
+queried the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “don’t you know that you must not
+expect absolute sanity from an engaged
+girl? You said you were going with her to
+the south side to call upon some of the
+relatives of her affianced. Did she take
+you over there, and then discover that she
+didn’t know their exact address? Or
+did—”</p>
+
+<p>“The address was not forgotten. We
+hadn’t meant to do any shopping to-day,
+but we stopped in to buy some thread, and
+really the new silks were so cheap that—”</p>
+
+<p>“You arrived an hour late, and penniless!
+I know,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“N—ot quite. I had ten cents left when
+we started for home, and we had to take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+two lines of cars. Nell and I couldn’t get
+seats together—in fact, we were at opposite
+ends of the car. However, I paid her fare
+and signaled the fact to her, receiving a nod
+in reply.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well?” said the president, “didn’t she
+want to pay your fare on the other line?”</p>
+
+<p>“She—well, the fact is that she had misunderstood
+the signal, and paid our fare
+again with her own last dime. And there
+we were three miles from home, without a
+penny in our pockets—and the street car
+company had a dime it hadn’t earned.
+But then Nell never had a grain of sense—I
+should think by this time she knew that
+herself.”</p>
+
+<p>“If she doesn’t, I’m sure you are not to
+blame, dear,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “However, for my part, I shall not
+blame you, even if you are as cross as a man
+who is wearing a frayed collar, for the rest
+of the afternoon.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, don’t let us interrupt the proceedings,”
+said the girl with the classic profile,
+“just tell me what to-day’s topic is, and I—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it is a perfectly delightful one!”
+said the blue-eyed girl. “Man’s real attitude
+toward the Progress of Woman,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“His real attitude is that of flight,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose, “he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be flippant, dear, whatever you
+are,” said the president, gravely, “we have
+enough of that to endure from our masculine
+acquaintances. It seems to me that a
+man laughs at whatever he fails to understand,
+and then feels that he has replied to
+the argument.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps that is the reason that men
+laugh at so many jokes in which I can see
+nothing funny,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“No doubt of it,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “but, girls, never attempt to imitate
+them. I did once, and Annie—you
+know how obtuse she is—kept asking loudly
+what I was laughing at, and I couldn’t tell
+her. When a man had just made the remark
+that he was glad to find a girl with a
+keen sense of the ridiculous, too!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Just like Annie,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “I sometimes wonder whether she is
+really obtuse or only malicious. You know
+how devoted Tommy Bonds is to music,
+don’t you? Well, Annie and I once accompanied
+him to a Thomas concert, and I
+wanted to make myself agreeable—”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope you didn’t do it by conversing
+while the orchestra was playing,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not, goosie. But I remembered
+that he always says a woman should
+be two things—sincere and fond of music.
+The soloist was a pianist, I can’t remember
+his name, but his hair was not at all remarkable.
+When he played an encore, Tommy
+leaned over to me, and said: ‘Isn’t it
+charming?’ and I replied, ‘Yes, I like it
+better every time I hear it; in fact, I often
+ask people to play it for me.’ I wish now
+that I hadn’t said that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why so?” asked the president, “it
+seems to me just the right thing to say.”</p>
+
+<p>“But Annie leaned over asking, loudly,
+‘What is the name of it?’ and, to my horror,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+Mr. Bonds said he didn’t know, and it
+was all so sudden that, to save my life, I
+couldn’t make up a name! In the silence
+which followed, some one in front of us was
+heard remarking that the encore was a composition
+by the pianist himself, and now
+played for the first time in public!”</p>
+
+<p>“And it was all Annie’s fault, too,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “By
+the way, did I ever tell you how it happened
+that Mr. Bonds gave up calling me a
+delightful conversationalist? No? Well,
+you see, he lived almost opposite to us,
+and he practiced on the ’cello until papa,
+who is very fond of De Quincey, said he no
+longer dared to read “Murder considered as
+one of the Fine Arts.” Suddenly he
+stopped practicing, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy on us, had anything happened
+to him?” gasped the president, turning
+pale.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing ever happens to people who
+deserve it. As it happened, however, we
+were no better off, for some one, a new
+resident of the street, we supposed, began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+to practice on the violin seven hours a
+day!”</p>
+
+<p>“It may not have been a newcomer,”
+observed the girl with the eyeglasses. “It
+is a fact that one vigorous soprano is enough
+to demoralize a whole neighborhood, and I
+suppose—”</p>
+
+<p>“The ’cello is quite as bad? Possibly so,
+at any rate rents went down in the neighborhood
+and placards went up. One day I
+happened to meet Mr. Bonds, and as long
+as my father was not within hearing distance,
+I said: ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you
+have given up your delightful ’cello.’ If
+you could have seen the rapture on his
+face.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’d rather have seen his face than that
+of your guardian angel,” remarked the girl
+with the classic profile; “but go on; don’t
+stop.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wish I had stopped then, but I didn’t.
+I said, ‘By the way, who is it that scrapes
+the violin all day long? I never heard
+anything so awful in my life!’ Oh, girls,
+I—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But I don’t see anything wrong in
+that,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“He did. You see, he had given up the
+’cello and taken to the violin with the idea
+of astonishing the world with his genius!”</p>
+
+<p>“And you live to tell it,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“M—yes—you see, everything has its
+compensation. When papa heard what I
+had done, he gave me a hundred dollars and
+his blessing.”</p>
+
+<p>“What luck some people have,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, “while others—oh,
+girls, I know something perfectly lovely,
+but I don’t know whether I ought to tell
+it to you or not. My conscience—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Frances,” said the president, “I
+shall be awfully hurt if you don’t tell us
+now. When a girl speaks of her conscience
+in that way, it simply means that she distrusts
+her audience. You might know by
+this time, that we never tell anything which
+transpires at a meeting of this club.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “Why, Dick teased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+me vainly a whole evening to find out the
+line of argument advanced in favor of equal
+suffrage when we discussed ‘Woman in
+Politics’ the other day. The janitor must
+have told him the topic under discussion,”
+she added hastily.</p>
+
+<p>“Very likely,” said the president.
+“What was that you wished to tell us,
+Frances, dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was something that happened to
+Nell,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Her
+fiancé had told her a great deal of his
+friend, Mr. Thynker, of Boston, who is to
+be his best man, and whom she had never
+seen. He appeared suddenly at Mr. Dickenharry’s
+office the other day, just as the latter
+was starting for Milwaukee, and there was
+barely time for him to make arrangements
+with Mr. Thynker to call on Nell the following
+afternoon. As it happened, he knew
+the Vansmiths, and was asked to the
+luncheon they gave that day, and seated
+immediately opposite to Nell. Of course
+he didn’t catch her name when they were
+introduced, and there was no chance for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+explanations. Oh, girls, I wonder if I
+really ought to finish this?”</p>
+
+<p>“If you don’t, I shall ask Nell why you
+didn’t,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, during a lull in the conversation,
+he leaned forward and, in loud, clear tones,
+asked Nell what kind of a girl his friend
+Tom Dickenharry had got himself engaged
+to <i>this</i> time!”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm,” said the president, after the
+laughter had subsided a little, “that settles
+one matter in advance, anyhow. It is easy
+to know upon whose side the victory will
+rest when they have their first quarrel after
+marriage.”</p>
+
+<p>“There is one question I would like to
+ask the members of this club,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses, “and it is one which
+nearly disrupted our little Shakespeare club:
+If you really want to please a man—any
+man—what is the best way to go about
+it?”</p>
+
+<p>“That is really such a simple question
+that there is only one answer possible,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And that is—”</p>
+
+<p>“Be born rich.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, suppose you have neglected that
+qualification,” persisted the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Learn to cook; but never let him taste
+the result of your cookery,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes—or wear his college colors,” said
+the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Let him do all the talking,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Praise the shape of his head—no matter
+what it may be,” said the president. “I
+wouldn’t tell anybody that,” she added,
+reflectively, “only that two fortune tellers
+and a palmist have assured me that my husband
+will outlive me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Bonds has a very well-shaped
+head,” observed the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“a little long perhaps, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“The rotundity of his pocketbook over-balances
+that,” broke in the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Clarissa says he is generous, too—a rare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+quality in a really wealthy man,” said the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“M—I don’t know about his generosity,”
+said the president. “A marriage
+license is about as inexpensive a thing as a
+man can buy, and yet he has displayed no
+desire to invest in one.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “lots of
+girls nowadays don’t intend to marry, anyhow,
+so—”</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder why they never think to mention
+the fact publicly until after they are
+thirty,” mused the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “oh, girls, shouldn’t you like
+really to do something wonderful?”</p>
+
+<p>“I once wore a pair of common-sense
+shoes a whole month,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, modestly.</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; who was the Englishman?”
+asked the brown-eyed blonde, “the one
+with whom you used to walk at that time,
+I mean,” she added, pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>“It was the spring that Mr. Penny-Lesse
+was here, but I don’t see what that had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+do with it,” said the blue-eyed girl, with
+great dignity.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing at all of course,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, “I only—”</p>
+
+<p>“You did not meet him, I believe; he
+was very particular about the people to
+whom he was introduced,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, sweetly. “I did
+rather an unusual thing myself once—I had
+five dollars in my pocketbook when my
+allowance came due!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but you had left the pocketbook
+at my house ten days before, and thought it
+was lost,” said the girl with the classic profile,
+“don’t you remember, I only brought
+it over after the shops were closed the evening
+before?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, “I’ve
+recently met a woman who has traveled all
+through Asia, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose she did it in bloomers and
+one of those horrid, unbecoming, stiff caps,
+too,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Well, all I’ve got to say is that a woman
+who has the courage to make such a guy of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+herself, is brave enough to face all the
+tigers and mountain lions, and—er—boa
+constrictors in Asia.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t believe there are any boa constrictors
+and mountain lions in Asia,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose. “As for
+tigers—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, how literal you are!” pettishly
+replied the brown-eyed blonde. “Well,
+buffalos then; how will that suit you?
+I’m equally afraid of all of them, myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “Marion and I have just
+had such fun. We have been telling each
+other the most awful things that ever happened
+to us in our lives.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps that is what made you late,
+too,” remarked the president, in a severe
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>“N-not exactly. You see, I knew there
+was something wrong about my watch, and
+I could not remember whether it was thirteen
+minutes fast or thirteen minutes slow,
+so—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But do tell us what was the most awful
+thing that ever happened to you, Evelyn,”
+cried the girl with the classic profile. “The
+very worst thing that ever befell me was connected
+with a timepiece. It was last summer,
+and a man who—who had been very
+nice to me was going away early the next
+morning. Men were scarce at the seashore,
+as you know, and when a lot of the
+girls saw us sitting on the porch they came
+over and spent the evening with us. We
+just could not get a chance for a word
+alone.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know—I know,” groaned the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Well, his train was to go at 5:16
+<small>A.M.</small>, and he asked me in the most meaning
+tone if I cared sufficiently to hear something
+he had to say to get up early enough to see
+him off. I—I said I did.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well?” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I set my watch by the hall clock in
+order to be sure of getting up in time; then
+I lay awake nearly all night so I would not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+oversleep myself. When I reached the station
+it was five minutes past six.”</p>
+
+<p>“Watch stopped?” asked the girl with
+the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“No; Harry had run down to spend that
+evening with Kate, and she had set the
+clock back. The man was married in October
+to one of the girls who had risen in time
+to see him off.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the president. “Speaking
+of awful things—you all know how afraid
+I am of fire.”</p>
+
+<p>“We do,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “I believe you could smell a burning
+match a block away.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, the other day our fire insurance
+ran out, and Tom handed me the money
+and asked me to go down and renew it, as
+he was very busy. I forgot all about it
+until night; then I lay awake sniffing smoke
+until Tom thought I had influenza again.
+Next morning I got ready to go and attend
+to it at once. I wanted to look nice, too,
+because one of the men in that office once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+told Tom that he had an awfully pretty
+wife.”</p>
+
+<p>“How much money did he borrow from
+Tom that time?” asked the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“I was curling my hair,” went on the
+president, unheeding, “when I smelled fire.
+I ran wildly all through the house, with a
+curl still wrapped about the iron, trying to
+locate it!”</p>
+
+<p>“And did you find any?” asked the
+brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; my own hair was burning,” said
+the president, with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>“How awful!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“That reminds me of what once
+happened to me. It was when I was wearing
+a single curl in the middle of my forehead.
+One day Frank was there, and he—he
+would twist it over his finger and quote
+poetry about it until he took all the curl
+out of it. Of course I discovered that I
+had no handkerchief and went up to get
+one.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see anything so awful in that,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear; but while I was curling it I
+dropped the hot iron down my back, and
+dared not even scream lest he find out what
+I was doing.”</p>
+
+<p>“The worst thing that ever happened to
+me,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “was in connection with Lewis. As
+soon as it was settled, I went to tell Emmeline,
+so she would give up trying to get
+him. I said I was his first love, and she
+couldn’t imagine how jealous he was. ‘Oh,
+yes, dear, I can,’ said she; ‘he was always
+so when he was engaged to me!’”</p>
+
+<p>“I wondered why you broke with him,”
+said the president. “Well, we must adjourn
+now, and I must say that I have
+never heard a subject more logically discussed
+than the one to-day!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter IV<br />
+
+<small>Concerning the Heroine of To-day</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Are you ready to go to the meeting of
+the club?” asked the blue-eyed girl, as she
+bounced into the room. “Why, Dorothy,
+dear, what is the matter? has your father
+gotten himself a new bicycle instead of one
+for you, or—”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl sat up on the couch.
+“I don’t care if I never ride a bicycle again
+as long as I live,” she replied, deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin
+turned pale. “I knew it was something
+awful when I saw you crying with the
+blinds all rolled up; but I hardly thought it
+was so bad as that. You—you haven’t
+any fever or queer feelings in your head,
+have you?”</p>
+
+<p>“If I had, it would not make any difference,”
+she sobbed. “I—oh, I’ll get even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+with Effie Bittersweet if it ruins my complexion
+and takes me all the rest of my natural
+life to do it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oho, it’s Effie, is it? Well, you’ll
+have plenty of chances to get even with
+her, once you are her sister-in-law!”</p>
+
+<p>“I wouldn’t marry Jack now, to—to
+spite Effie, and I—I doubt if I shall have
+the chance, anyhow. And as for Frances,
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, dear; I know she has behaved
+abominably, but she is punished
+already. Her aunt has brought her a new
+hat from Paris, and it is geranium pink—fancy
+Frances in geranium, can you? She
+promised it to Frances when she went
+abroad last fall, and Frances has been talking
+about it ever since. She will have to
+wear it, too, because her aunt is to make
+them a long visit, and she is too wealthy
+to have her feelings hurt.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl shook her head, sadly.
+“It is very kind of you to try to cheer me,”
+she said, “but I am beyond rejoicing. I
+only hope it is a very deep geranium pink,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+that’s all. Oh, Emily, what a desert waste
+this life is! No, don’t put another cushion
+back of me—I want to be just as uncomfortable
+as possible. You know Effie was
+here this morning, don’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose so—I noticed that you have
+two portraits of Edwin on the table.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Well, she asked me to go shopping
+with her, and I must say I was
+pleased, because she hasn’t been here since—since—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not since you quar—pardon me, I
+mean since her brother quarreled with
+you.”</p>
+
+<p>“She said she’d ask me to lunch with
+her down-town, but she had spent almost
+all her allowance.”</p>
+
+<p>“The idea of hinting to you in that bare-faced
+way! Now, if you had been a man
+it—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would have been all right, of course.
+However, I know how confidential Effie
+always grows over a cup of tea, so I
+promptly invited her to lunch with me.
+After she had accepted, I found that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+I had only fifty cents to my name. Papa
+had gone down-town and, mamma had just
+borrowed a quarter from me!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, did you tell Effie that
+your head ached so badly that you couldn’t
+go?”</p>
+
+<p>“And have her say that I was fretting
+myself ill over Jack? No, thank you. I
+excused myself a moment and went downstairs,
+for I had just remembered a habit
+Papa has of leaving money lying about on
+his desk. To my joy, I found a five-dollar
+bill in one of the drawers, and I took
+that, because I—”</p>
+
+<p>“But weren’t you afraid to take it?”</p>
+
+<p>“M—yes, but then one’s own people
+have to make up with one sometime or
+other. Well, we had a lovely time shopping,
+and I took Effie off to luncheon before
+she had had time to get cross matching
+samples. It was a lovely luncheon, and
+before we had finished Effie said she hoped
+I would visit her at Delavan in August!”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; I suppose she didn’t mention
+the fact that Jack expects to be in Canada<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+from the last week in July to the first one
+in September, did she?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; she didn’t. Oh, what a cat she
+is—and I asked her to take another ice on
+the strength of it! Well I paid the bill,
+tipped the waiter, and was just going out
+when the cashier came running after me,
+and oh, Emily, what do you think?”</p>
+
+<p>“You had left your umbrella, of course.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I hadn’t. I—I, that five-dollar
+bill was a counterfeit which papa was keeping
+as an object lesson to mamma, who had
+gotten it in change!”</p>
+
+<p>“You might have known that no man
+with a wife and grown daughter would leave
+five good dollars in an unlocked drawer,
+dear. Did Effie—”</p>
+
+<p>“Loan it to me? She hadn’t quite
+enough, and I don’t know what I should
+have done if Frances had not happened to
+come in. Effie said that she did not mind
+borrowing from Frances, because she—she
+was quite like a sister to her! And now I
+shall have to make Papa angry by coaxing
+for money to pay for all those ices Effie ate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+on false pretenses, and w—worse yet, she
+and Frances will have the pleasure of laughing
+over it together!”</p>
+
+<p>“And telling Jack about it, too,” gasped
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I know they will do that,”
+sobbed the victim. “But I hardly thought
+that even an intimate friend would be unpleasant
+enough to remind me of it!” And
+she buried her face in the cushions and
+wept.</p>
+
+<p>“Then you are not going to the club
+this afternoon? Shall I tell them that you
+are busy with the dressmaker, or the
+dentist? They know that you can make
+everybody else wait.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tell them nothing. I shall go—and
+complain of a cold in the head, which will
+explain the pinkness of my nose and eyes.”</p>
+
+<p>“But will any of them believe you?”</p>
+
+<p>“All of them. You know those horrid
+quinine tablets Evelyn is always wanting
+people to try—well, I shall take one of
+them publicly. You don’t suppose that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+any one will suspect me of doing it unnecessarily,
+do you?”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin shuddered.
+“Impossible,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl suddenly stopped curling
+her hair, and, facing her friend, remarked:
+“I can tell you one thing though—Jack
+Bittersweet shall pay dearly for this!”</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The president of the Teacup club rapped
+for order with the handle of her umbrella.
+“I am glad to see you all here to-day, in
+spite of the weather,” she remarked. “We
+have a very interesting topic for discussion. It
+is, ‘Woman in Her Character of Heroine.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed, it is interesting,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “I only wish you
+had thought to mention it to me and I
+should have prepared a paper on it. No,
+I couldn’t have done it, either, for my
+aunt from New Jersey was in town, and I
+had to take her sight-seeing. Oh, dear,
+aren’t people who live in the country painfully
+active? And what ideas they have!
+They seem to think Lincoln Park is in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+back yard and the Statue of Columbus
+across the street.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know a girl who has had a much worse
+time than that,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “She had to take her future
+mother-in-law to see the sights. The old
+lady had read up in preparation for her
+visit, and knew more about the city than
+Marie herself. Now, while the poor girl is
+being massaged with arnica and things to
+get over the effects of her exertion, the old
+lady is busy telling her son that such an
+ignorant girl can never make a good wife!”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of the bravery of women,”
+said the girl with the classic profile, “I
+know a girl who early one morning heard a
+noise in a large closet next her room, in
+which she kept her furs and cloth gowns.
+She slipped out of bed and into the hall, and
+turned the key, which was fortunately on
+the outside, and there she had the burglar
+safe in that stifling atmosphere. Then she
+fainted.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I should have fainted first.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“It took them three-quarters of an hour
+to restore her and find out what was the
+matter, then they sent for the police, and
+what do you think they found?”</p>
+
+<p>“That the burglar was dead,” breathed
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No. It wasn’t a burglar at all; it was
+her own father, who had risen early and
+gone into the closet to look for a file of papers
+which had been kept in the attic for
+twenty years. Oh, he said perfectly awful
+things when he got breath enough to speak!
+Unluckily, too, it happened just at the
+time when she needed a lot of new things.
+She said that nobody appreciated her
+bravery except a man who was paying her
+attention at the time, and he didn’t dare
+say a word before her father for fear of losing
+his good-will.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “it only goes to show that
+women are really more courageous than
+men.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course they are,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Why, only the other day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+I read of a girl who had a hole bored in one
+of her front teeth and a diamond inserted.
+Did you ever hear of a man who was brave
+enough to go to the dentist unless he really
+had to?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said the president. “Oh, girls, I
+once had my pocketbook snatched from me
+by a boy, and I just ran after him until he
+dropped it. I don’t know that I should
+have been so brave,” she added, “but for
+the fact that, beside my card, it contained
+several unpaid bills of which my husband
+knew nothing. If the police had caught
+the boy with it, they would have communicated
+the fact to him, and I never should
+have heard the last of those bills.</p>
+
+<p>“I hope he appreciated your bravery,
+anyhow,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the president; “his
+only comment was that it served me right
+for carrying my pocketbook in my hand.
+Oh, you can’t make a man understand that
+a woman fears nothing. By the way, I wish
+several of you would come home to dinner
+with me. I broke Tom’s lovely bit of old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+Venetian glass to-day, and I had rather not
+be alone with him when he finds it out.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll go with pleasure,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose, “is anybody else
+coming?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nobody but Mr. Troolygood,” said the
+president. “I always ask him in such an
+emergency, because he prophesied that Tom
+would break my heart within two years of
+our marriage. Tom knows that, and—well,
+I could dance on the graves of his ancestors
+if Mr. Troolygood was present, and
+Tom would encourage my efforts.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I don’t see why you ask us to-day,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“he ought to be—”</p>
+
+<p>“Sufficient? Yes, I suppose so; but—well,
+the truth is that he is rather hard to
+entertain, and Tom is so busy in his presence,
+being nice to me, that he is no help
+at all.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should be delighted to dine with you,
+also,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but really
+I have such a cold that I don’t dare to be
+out at all after nightfall.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Have you a cold?” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “why, I didn’t notice it when I
+met you in the restaurant this morning.”</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t you, dear? But then you are
+not very observant. You had not even
+noticed that there was a wrinkle in the waist
+of your new gown, until I pointed it out to
+you. Evelyn, dear, mightn’t I take another
+of your quinine tablets now? I really
+think that I am feeling better already.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do not take too much of it, dear, if
+you value your peace of mind,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses. “I’ve had such an
+awful cold this week. I don’t know how I
+ever caught it, unless it was sitting in that
+hot church on Sunday. Mamma would have
+me go, and I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps you caught it standing on your
+front steps Monday evening,” suggested
+the girl with the classic profile. “I saw you,
+as I passed, and wondered how long—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it was only a moment. The parlor
+was full of people, and I just stepped out
+with Frank a moment to—to ask him how
+he expects to vote at the coming election.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I thought you both looked as if you
+were discussing politics. Of course, he had
+to think well on the merits of the opposing
+candidates before he gave an opinion
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw, it is impossible to know
+how one catches cold, and it does one no
+good to know, anyhow,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Unless it is some one else’s fault,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+have a cold myself, and I don’t dare to
+mention the fact to my family. They are
+so unsympathetic that they—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would want you to wrap up and wear
+overshoes if it was July,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“They would, they would,” wailed the
+girl with the eyeglasses, “well, I just knew
+that I had to be well in time to go to Mrs.
+Brownsmith’s card party. The way that
+Marie tries to attract Frank’s attention is too
+dreadful, and I knew she would be there.”</p>
+
+<p>“If she had to unscrew her coffin lid to
+get out,” said the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. They wanted me to take all
+sorts of horrid remedies at home. I
+wouldn’t do it, though; the very idea
+made me cross. Finally, on Wednesday,
+Frank dropped in to see if I was better and
+said I must take some quinine. Of course,
+I couldn’t refuse and hurt his feelings,
+especially as he remained all the afternoon
+and watched me take it. By his advice, I
+took a large dose of it that night, and when
+I woke up in the morning my cold was
+almost gone, but oh, I had the queerest
+buzzing in my ears!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, nobody could see that,” said
+the president, “so you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Kept on taking it all day, and was able
+to go to the card party, after all; though
+the quinine had made me as deaf as a
+statue. It made little difference at first,
+because Marie kept close at my elbow, and
+Frank and I were not alone a moment. I
+couldn’t get rid of her at all until, just as
+mamma said she would not wait another second
+Mrs. Brownsmith called Marie to her,
+and Frank—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Improved the moment,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “What did
+he say?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I don’t know,” sobbed the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “He whispered, and I
+couldn’t hear. And before I could ask
+him to repeat, Marie was at my side. As
+he put me into the carriage, he said: ‘You
+will let me have my answer by messenger
+to-morrow, won’t you?’ And I—I don’t
+know w-whether he ask-asked me to marry
+him, or only to go to the m-matinee!”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor, dear martyr,” cried the
+president. “Dorothy, dear, you had better
+not take any more of those tablets, because—”</p>
+
+<p>“But dear, Dorothy is in no danger of
+having to answer such an important question,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear; I have answered it
+already—in the negative,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “Ah, you can never know,
+Frances, how painful it is to be obliged to
+tell a man who loves you that there is no
+hope.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear,” said the president, hurriedly,
+“I’m afraid that, in spite of all my
+efforts, we have not discussed to-day’s
+topic as consistently as usual. It does
+seem to me sometimes that you girls talk
+as much as men. Of course you do not expect
+to be listened to as they do, still—”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose; “did I ever tell you of
+the time I went to make a round of calls
+with Ethel, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Found she was leaving her sister’s cards
+by mistake?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Indeed you did. And wasn’t it
+funny that she left one for Maria, to whom
+her sister hadn’t spoken for a year? Just
+like Ethel, too.”</p>
+
+<p>“This was another time,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “You know how
+much Ethel talks? Well, we called on one
+woman I had never met before, and she
+asked Ethel subsequently if I was not deaf
+and dumb!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, she knew better when she
+met you next time,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+eyeglasses; “but what is the topic for discussion
+to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘The Heroine of To-day,’” said the
+president, “and I think—”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose that is the bachelor girl,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Or the one who marries a foreigner,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Talk about bravery! Why, I knew a girl
+who became engaged to a Russian before
+she could pronounce his name.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of that,” said the girl with
+the classic profile, “isn’t it horrid of Elizabeth
+to send out her wedding cards so long
+ahead. No chance this time to say that we
+didn’t know it in time to select a present.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall pretend that I never received my
+invitation at all,” said the president; “one
+must protect one’s self somehow.”</p>
+
+<p>“I do hate to go shopping with her nowadays,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “if I don’t buy a lot of things myself
+I am miserable, and if I do her reproachful
+gaze seems to say, ‘I know the cost of this
+will come out of my present.’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“As if you wouldn’t ask your father for
+the money for that, anyhow!” said the girl
+with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“I shall do nothing of the kind, dear; it
+would make too much trouble. I don’t
+know why a man will cheerfully give a wedding
+present himself, but let—”</p>
+
+<p>“One of the women of the family ask for
+money for the same purpose and he feels
+that he is being robbed,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose it is on the same principle
+that makes a man insist upon treating every
+other man he meets and then grumble because
+his wife wants oysters after the play,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Just as he feeds a girl on candy before
+he marries her and then complains of dentists’
+bills afterward,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “men are so illogical!”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed they are,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “one of them will keep on
+telling a girl that she has a swan-like carriage,
+and then think her vain if he catches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+her watching her own movements in the
+glass.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why does she let him catch her at it?”
+queried the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Oh, girls, you know that awful, dark green
+necktie that Dick has been wearing! Well,
+I endured it until I felt as if I should scream
+if I saw him wear it again, so I begged it
+from him; told him that I wanted it as a
+souvenir to hang beside his college cap and
+his football colors. As soon as he sent it
+to me I threw it into the fire.”</p>
+
+<p>“And he came in before it was reduced
+to ashes?” asked the president, in sympathetic
+tones.</p>
+
+<p>“No. He appeared with another just
+like it, the very next day—said he didn’t
+like it himself, but since I had admired it
+and he wanted to please me, he had matched
+it before he sent it to me!”</p>
+
+<p>“And that was your only reward for trying
+to save his feelings,” sighed the blue-eyed
+girl. “Really, Emily, I often think
+you are too good for this world.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, I shall soon be out of it if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+so many sorrows are heaped upon my head.
+By the way, girls, I’ve been learning to
+ride my bicycle, and talking of heroism, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“How many times have you fallen?” exclaimed
+the girl with the classic profile. “I
+heard the other day of a girl who learned to
+ride in a single lesson, without falling once,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph. I’ve often heard of that girl
+myself—but I’ve never seen her. I’ve
+fallen nineteen times; that is, not counting
+the time mamma called after me to be careful,
+and the time that Dick said I had ridden
+almost a half block since he let go of
+my belt—because you know, it was not my
+fault that I fell upon either of those occasions!”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the president,
+“but, girls, we really must not talk about
+bicycling, because if we do we shall drift
+away from our discussion, and I can’t bear
+to depart, even momentarily, from the high
+standard of the club. We were speaking
+of Elizabeth a moment ago; has any one
+seen her lately?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I
+make a point of avoiding the girl who is
+about to be married, the mother of the
+cleverest baby in the world, and the woman
+who is designing her own house. Really,
+you know, I don’t mind letting someone
+else do all the talking, but I <i>do</i> like a change
+of topic once in a while.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know I was just as sensible as any one
+could be while Tom and I were engaged,”
+said the president, “and yet, people did act
+so oddly. Why, they would go right away
+if I began to talk of him at all; they didn’t
+even stay long enough to see how sensible I
+was.”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, I believe that Jane and
+Mr. Sooter are engaged,” said the girl with
+the classic profile; “Jane denies it but—”</p>
+
+<p>“Then I think you are mistaken,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “I know
+Jane, and she seldom understates a case.
+Why do you think they are engaged?”</p>
+
+<p>“He has given up sending her flowers
+and candy, and begun presenting bric-a-brac
+instead.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, that is nothing; he may once
+have been engaged to a girl who was a
+china maniac, and these may be the presents
+she returned.”</p>
+
+<p>“Possibly. By the way, Kate has grown
+so wary now that she only gives the man to
+whom she happens to be engaged presents
+which she can use after she breaks with
+him; never pipes and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, by the way, I know how her last
+engagement came to be broken in so many
+pieces that it could never be mended,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Do tell us all about it; we are all so
+intimate with Kate that we wouldn’t dare
+to tell anybody, because it would seem that
+we were betraying a confidence,” said the
+girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, when she was engaged to Mr.
+Yaleblue, she gave him a lovely meerchaum
+pipe, which of course came back with her
+other presents when the engagement was
+broken. By the next Christmas she was
+engaged to Dan, and it seemed such a waste
+to let it lie in the case, and she gave it to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+him, telling him a pretty little story of how
+she bought it when she was in Paris, and
+kept it hanging in her den ready for Prince
+Charming when he appeared. You wouldn’t
+think a little thing like that would have
+broken the engagement, would you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, of course not,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “how on earth did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he just asked how it came that it
+was so strong of tobacco!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, girls,” said the president, “I
+am afraid that we really must adjourn,
+though there is still a great deal more to
+say on both sides of the discussion. But I
+have just remembered that I have invited a
+whole party of you to dinner, and neglected
+to mention the fact to the cook!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter V<br />
+
+<small>The Club Settles Some Currency
+Problems</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“The topic for to-day’s discussion will
+be ‘Currency Problems of the Present
+Day,’” observed the president, after the
+club had come to order, “and I hope you
+are all prepared—”</p>
+
+<p>“There is only one currency problem in
+the present day—to my knowledge, at
+least,” broke in the girl with the classic
+profile, “and that is: how to make two
+dollars do the work of ten.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, there is something actually
+masculine in your flippancy,” said the president,
+with ferocious gentleness. “The question
+before us is one of the deepest gravity,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nobody knows that better than myself,”
+said the girl with the classic profile,
+“don’t I lie awake night after night, wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+how to get my new things out of the
+money my father has allowed me for the
+purpose, or, better yet, how to coax more
+out of him without letting him realize the
+fact.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t talk about money, please; it
+makes me blue,” wailed the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “What with never
+having enough for myself and constantly
+seeing other people with more than I like
+them to have, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“What I want to know is—and you
+ought to be able to tell me, girls—why a
+woman who looks all sweetness and gentleness
+should suddenly develop into a raging
+lioness, just because her own son wants to
+marry some nice girl,” sighed the girl with
+the eyeglasses, waking suddenly out of a
+reverie.</p>
+
+<p>“Humph,” returned the blue-eyed girl,
+“there are some things I don’t quite understand
+myself—such as the banking system,
+and the reason why your dressmaker tells
+you calmly that she must have two yards
+and a half more of your dress material,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+when you have plainly informed her that
+you bought a remnant. But as for your
+question, it is so simple that a man could
+answer it. No woman ever did, or ever
+will, like to play second fiddle to another
+one, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, nonsense,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “it is just a question of tact.
+Let a man make his mother believe that she
+has chosen his wife and she—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and wouldn’t it be pleasant to
+have your mother-in-law tell you, every
+time she wanted you to discharge the cook
+or do without a new gown, that her son
+would never have married you but for her!”
+cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of mothers-in-law,” said the
+girl with the classic profile, “Nell is to have
+a new woman in that capacity. I found
+her crying the other day because she had
+heard that Madame considered her too
+domestic to make her son a good wife!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I know,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“and did you hear of Alice’s woes? No?
+Well, you know, she and Morton fell in love<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+at first sight, and became engaged two
+weeks later. After the engagement was
+announced, she was invited to visit his people
+in Iowa, and went in fear and trembling,
+for she did not know much about
+them, and Morton could not be there at the
+time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hadn’t the courage, you mean,” murmured
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Very likely, dear. Well, his mother
+was as bad as Alice had feared. Her ideas
+were all in direct opposition to Morton’s,
+and the poor girl almost fretted herself into
+nervous prostration trying to please them
+both. After all, when she got home, she
+found—”</p>
+
+<p>“That she had been mistaken in her feelings
+for Morton, and it didn’t make any
+difference whether they were pleased or
+not!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
+knew how it would end when you began.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. She discovered that Madame was
+only his stepmother, after all! Imagine
+trying to please a mother-in-law and a stepmother
+combined!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I’d rather not fancy it,” said the president,
+with a shudder. “Girls, I only hope
+you will be as lucky when you are married
+as I am, for—”</p>
+
+<p>“You aren’t going to tell us all of Tom’s
+virtues again, are you?” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>“When my mother-in-law becomes unpleasant,
+I just ask her to go with me to
+spend the day with Tom’s grandmother,”
+went on the president, affecting not to hear
+the last remark, “she doesn’t dare to refuse,
+because the old lady has some china
+which we both want, and she’s afraid I
+may succeed in wheedling it out of her! It
+is great fun to hear my own mother-in-law
+lectured by <i>her</i> mother-in-law on the sins
+which the former thinks I have appropriated
+entirely to my own use.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, ah—doesn’t Tom’s mother take it
+out of you on the way back?” queried the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. You see, I am careful not
+to sit with her in the train, and Tom always
+meets us at the station; besides, she’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+hardly in her usual form, and I could be a
+match for her,” she added, modestly.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“speaking of mothers-in-law makes me
+think of wedding presents. Did you—oh,
+did you hear about the plates I gave Elizabeth?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I did,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “and a girl who gives away
+old Crown Derby like that is either an angel,
+or not quite sane—I don’t know which!”</p>
+
+<p>“Say anything you like; I haven’t the
+spirit to reply. And after you’ve heard
+the story—well, it was this way: I ran
+across the dozen of them in a little second-hand
+shop, and the proprietor didn’t seem
+to know their value and asked a very moderate
+price.”</p>
+
+<p>“I beg your pardon, dear,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, “I take back
+all that I said before!”</p>
+
+<p>“You needn’t. I saw that I could beat
+him down, so I didn’t take them then, but
+went in a day or two later, taking Elizabeth
+along to make sure they were genuine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+Really, she does know something about
+china, though—”</p>
+
+<p>“She doesn’t know anything else,” finished
+the president. “Well, they were genuine,
+weren’t they?”</p>
+
+<p>“They were, Elizabeth became so affectionate
+on the spot that I saw she knew
+what I wanted them for. I didn’t take
+them then, but went back the next day to
+find that the man had raised his price; he
+said another person wanted them—as if I’d
+believe that. Well, it went on for a week,
+until the price demanded was so outrageous
+that I should never have paid it, but
+for the fact that Elizabeth had told everybody
+what lovely Crown Derby plates she
+was to have, and I wasn’t going to have
+her say that I couldn’t afford them!”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses; “besides, it is necessary to
+give Elizabeth a handsome present, since
+she is marrying a wealthy man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course; if he was poor, a very simple
+thing would—ah, be in better taste, so
+that the contrast would not be so great.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Well, I bought the plates, and
+took them to her myself, because I wanted to
+see her face when she opened the package.”</p>
+
+<p>“But she wasn’t surprised, was she?”
+asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, she was. She—well, she was the
+other person who wanted to buy them, and
+whose inquiries had trebled the price I had
+to pay for them!”</p>
+
+<p>“In the face of a tragedy like that, it
+seems hopeless to offer consolation,” said
+the girl with the classic profile. “Still, Elizabeth
+will be obliged to give you a handsome
+present when you are married.”</p>
+
+<p>“Let us hope that she will not have had
+time to forget her obligations,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, sweetly. “Of course, she
+has a good memory, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“I only hope somebody will give her two
+chafing-dishes,” broke in the president. “I
+only have one, and if I was not the sweetest
+tempered mortal in the world Tom and
+I would quarrel seriously over it. Perhaps,
+I ought not to speak of myself in that
+way, but—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“You surely ought to know your good
+points better than anybody else does,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear. You see, Tom thinks
+he is a chafing-dish cook, and really he <i>can</i>
+cook; but the last time he made a rarebit
+my waitress gave warning, because of the
+state in which she found the dining-room—which
+was very mean of her, because we
+had waited on ourselves to save trouble.”</p>
+
+<p>“Partly for that, and partly because you
+wanted to talk about Coralie, and her sister
+is her cook, I remember—I was there,”
+said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but she didn’t know that we
+wanted to talk about Coralie, and I told her
+that it was to save her trouble.”</p>
+
+<p>“Wasn’t that the time that the rarebit
+made you ill, and the doctor couldn’t come
+because he, too, had eaten some of it?”
+asked the girl with the dimple in her
+chin.</p>
+
+<p>“It was. I told Tom, then, that he
+must leave out either the doctor or me
+when he made rarebit again!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“With the result?” queried the girl with
+the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“That we didn’t speak for three days,
+dear. It was during that time, that I went
+to Annie’s chafing-dish party. She wanted
+me to make a cheese omelette, and I sent
+over for the dish. My messenger found
+Tom in the dining-room with a whole party
+of men—”</p>
+
+<p>“Cooking on your chafing-dish?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. Trying to entertain them while
+the new waitress hunted for it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, where was it? You hadn’t taken
+it?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. The cook had borrowed it
+for a chafing-dish party of her own, and
+neglected to mention the fact to either Tom
+or me!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I suppose really that each family
+should possess two chafing-dishes,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes—or none at all,” said the president,
+sighing.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I am very much interested in
+this discussion,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+Roman nose; “but I wonder if a thorough
+knowledge of currency problems will do us
+any practical good. None of us are earning
+our own living, and when papa talks
+about currency problems at home it is only
+to point the moral that times are hard, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“There is where your knowledge will be
+most useful,” broke in the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “you can bring it out
+to prove that times are <i>not</i> hard, and run
+off a lot of statistics to prove your point.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I don’t know any statistics,”
+wailed the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid you have not been paying
+strict attention to-day,” said the president,
+gravely. “However, if you are in danger
+of losing in an argument, be sure to say,
+with a smile of superiority, ‘I suppose you
+know what the statistics are?’ Now, people
+are not in the habit of carrying statistics
+around, like cough-drops, and they will
+simply give up the battle on the spot. If
+they don’t, rattle off a lot of figures; they
+can’t refute them immediately, and if they
+attempt to do it afterward, you can just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+say, in a supercilious tone, ‘I thought we
+settled that matter yesterday.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I declare,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “that is just my own father’s
+line of argument, and yet it never occurred
+to me that I could imitate it. I do hope
+you will take very good care of your health,
+Evelyn,” she added. “People who are
+very intellectual are <i>so</i> apt to die young.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall,” said the president. “I’ve no
+notion of dying and having Tom a widower
+while he is still young enough to be attractive.
+It would not make so much difference
+after that, for I shall take care that he does
+not accumulate enough money to make him
+fascinating at seventy-five!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear,” sighed the blue-eyed girl,
+“I wonder why so few men have money
+until their hair is only a memory!”</p>
+
+<p>“Case of the wind being tempered to the
+shorn lamb,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “after all, a man must sacrifice
+something on the altar of success.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph; isn’t it usually his wife?” said
+the girl with the classic profile.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Not if she is clever,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Girls, I once knew a
+woman whose husband made a fortune in
+two years, and he wouldn’t give her more
+than the merest pittance for dress and entertaining.
+In fact, the only bills he would
+pay, without grumbling, were those of the
+doctor. And what do you think she did?
+She selected the doctor whose bills were the
+most outrageous, and settled herself to be
+a chronic invalid. She said she was determined
+to get something out of her husband’s
+fortune.”</p>
+
+<p>“Good,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “I do hope she really enjoyed
+herself after that.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid not. You see, the doctor
+seemed anxious to earn his money, and insisted
+that she had some desperate disease.
+I doubt if she really enjoyed his subsequent
+visits.”</p>
+
+<p>“All her husband’s fault, too,” sighed
+the brown-eyed blonde, “and yet, I doubt
+if she reproached him for it. It seems to
+be a woman’s province to suffer in silence.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I’ve often heard my mother make
+that very remark to my father,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “I had
+rather not quote his reply. Girls, I heard
+the funniest story yesterday; Annie
+wouldn’t tell me who was the heroine of
+it, really, sometimes she is as provoking as
+a man. I’ll be even with her, however,
+for I’ll never rest until I find out who it
+was, then I shall tell everybody, and Annie
+will never be able to convince her that she
+didn’t tell the whole. It seems that this
+girl had quarreled with the man to whom
+she was engaged, and a week later she received
+a letter addressed in his handwriting.
+She did think of taking it to a mind reader,
+but it was near the end of the month, and
+she hadn’t the money, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, Emily, dear, when can you
+come to lunch with me?” broke in the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “I don’t see half as
+much of you as I’d like to, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Any day you like, dear. Where was I?
+Oh! She hadn’t the money, and the tea
+kettle happened to be handy, so she—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But, why not open it with a hair-pin,
+like any other letter?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“She wanted to return it unopened if she
+didn’t like its contents. It proved to be
+perfectly horrid; he not only didn’t acknowledge
+that he was in the wrong, but he
+actually brought forward facts to prove that
+she was! Of course, no girl would endure
+that, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you mean to say that Annie told
+you that?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I didn’t think it possible that any
+girl—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I don’t see any harm in that; of
+course every girl wants her own way.
+Well, she sealed up the letter again, wrote
+on it, ‘Returned unopened’ and sent it
+back.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “I was thinking that might have been
+Clarissa, but she is too intellectual to do
+anything so clever. Anyhow, I’m glad
+she got the better of him.”</p>
+
+<p>“But she didn’t, dear. She discovered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+after the messenger had been gone an hour,
+that she had sealed up the envelope without
+replacing the letter in it! Can any of you
+guess who it was that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but if
+I had done such a thing, I should never
+have trusted Annie with it. Why, are you
+going, dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m going over to Annie’s this very
+minute,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I—I have something to say to her that
+will touch even <i>her</i> hardened conscience!”</p>
+
+<p>“So it was Marion, after all,” mused the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, after the
+door had closed behind her friend; “well, at
+any rate, after this Annie will tell me the
+whole of a story when she begins it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I must say, though, that if I was in her
+place it would be a long time before I began
+one,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“So you, too, have been confiding in
+Annie?” said the blue-eyed girl, sweetly.
+“By the way, I am to stay over night with
+her, but I promise you that whatever she
+may repeat will be safe with me.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“While we are discussing currency problems,
+I want to say what a nuisance the
+check system is,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I always did hate to get
+my money in that way, and I had an experience
+the other day which surely ought
+to cure my father of giving them to me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, you weren’t suspected of being
+a forger, were you?” asked the president,
+turning pale.</p>
+
+<p>“N—no, I believe not, but—it happened
+that my father gave me a check when I was
+going shopping, and I found before I cashed
+it that I must have five dollars more. Father
+had gone to Indianapolis, and mother,
+well—the fact is, that she will not loan me
+money any more, because I sometimes forget
+to return it. I didn’t know what to do
+until I suddenly remembered that Ned
+Goldie was the person who had to cash the
+check for me at the bank; then I knew I
+was safe. Pshaw, it just shows that you
+can never depend on a man!”</p>
+
+<p>“He surely did not refuse to cash it?”
+asked the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“N—no, but he—girls, I’ll tell you just
+what I did. I said, ‘By the way, Mr.
+Goldie, just give me five dollars more, will
+you? Father can make it right next time
+he comes in.’ And, if you will credit the
+fact, he actually said he couldn’t do it. A
+man with whom I had danced the german
+the evening before!”</p>
+
+<p>“I never believed Ned Goldie would be
+so stingy,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “What excuse did he make?”</p>
+
+<p>“Said it was against the rules of the
+bank, but he would be delighted to <i>lend</i> me
+the extra five dollars. Did you ever hear
+of such impertinence in your life? As soon
+as my father comes home, I shall tell
+him that he must transfer his account to
+another bank, for after this I feel that Mr.
+Goldie is not a person to be trusted with
+money!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear,” said the president,
+gravely, “that is very bad. Don’t mention
+it outside of the club, girls; for if the
+bank directors found that he was being rude
+to the daughter of one of their customers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+he would lose his position at once. And
+there may be some apology or explanation
+he can make to your father, too, dear;
+though I confess I don’t see what it can
+be. Well, girls, I’m afraid we must adjourn,
+and I must say frankly that I am
+pleased with the work we have done to-day.
+The only reason that I suggested
+such a weighty topic for discussion was,
+that Tom had declared that the club was
+unable to grapple with it. After that, of
+course the only thing possible was to show
+him that he was wrong.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which you can now do conclusively,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “and I
+am quite sure he will be surprised at the
+novelty of some of the arguments advanced
+this afternoon!”</p>
+
+<p>“What is it, dear?” asked the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, as she and the blue-eyed
+girl turned the corner. “You have
+been so bright and cheerful to-day, that I
+am sure something is seriously wrong.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed there is. Jack has behaved
+abominably! It was enough when he told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+Effie that Frances is the most amiable girl
+he ever knew; but—”</p>
+
+<p>“That proves conclusively that he is not
+engaged to her, dear. No man ever knows
+anything about a girl’s temper until he <i>is</i>
+engaged to her.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if you want to defend him, I shall
+say no more; but I did think—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, I don’t want to defend him. I
+only—”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, all I’ve got to say, Emily Marshmallow,
+is that you are prejudiced against
+the poor fellow. I might have known that
+from the start. I only wish I had not taken
+your advice and broken my engagement.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, you didn’t do it on my advice,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“it was all done before you said a word to
+me about it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, anyhow, I knew you would advise
+me to do it; and now you are not satisfied
+with what I’ve done. But go on,
+don’t spare me—I am too miserable to care
+to defend myself! I—I don’t believe I
+shall live very long, anyhow. I shall tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+them to give you my marquise ring, as a
+token of forgiveness, when I’m gone. I
+hope you will remember me when you look
+at it—and be sure to notice if the stones
+are quite secure in their setting.”</p>
+
+<p>“I w—will; I promise you,” sobbed the
+girl with the dimple in her chin; “but don’t
+you think a trip—well a trip to Old Point
+Comfort might save your life. They tell
+me it is very gay there now!”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl shook her head.
+“Nothing can save me now, dear; why I
+can hook all my gowns now without holding
+my breath, and yesterday I ate no
+luncheon at all—took nothing between
+breakfast and dinner but a couple of cream
+sodas, a box of caramels, and a cup or two
+of afternoon tea. You know nobody can
+live long at that rate. Well, I am sorry for
+Jack Bittersweet when I am gone; a lifetime
+of remorse and—and Frances is not a
+pleasant thing to look forward to!”</p>
+
+<p>“You haven’t told me yet about Jack,
+dear, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“True; and some one should know the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+true story when I am no more. Here is
+the place where they make such nice chocolate;
+let us stop in and drink a cup while I
+tell you. You take the chair facing the
+mirror, dear,” she said, as they selected a
+table, “my personal appearance is no longer
+a matter of importance to me.”</p>
+
+<p>“You said that Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“Has behaved abominably. It is a long
+story, but I—I shall probably never tell
+you another long story, so you can
+afford to listen to this one. You know the
+little beggar boy with the beautiful brown
+eyes that I told you about a week or two
+ago?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; but about Jack. I—”</p>
+
+<p>“This is about Jack. I told you how I
+sympathized with that boy’s sad story, and
+went with him to investigate it, didn’t I?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but you never told me whether his
+home was—”</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t get there. He led me through
+the most awful slums, telling me all the
+time how his father would beat him, when
+he failed to bring money home, and how he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+knew I was the beautiful lady he had
+dreamed of, as soon as he saw me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well? Go on, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, nothing; only the horrid little
+wretch suddenly dived down an alley and
+disappeared; and, oh, Emily, I—I believe
+he made a face at me as he went! Worse
+yet, when I felt for my pocketbook it was
+gone, and I had to walk all the way home!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, had he taken it?”</p>
+
+<p>“I surely had not given it to him. I had
+almost forgotten the affair, when the cook
+came up yesterday to tell me that he was
+in the kitchen, and had brought my pocketbook
+back, with a long story about having
+seen another boy take it. Said he had followed
+him, when he left me, and taken it
+away from him, in turn.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I declare; and there was all your
+money intact after you had doubted his
+honesty!”</p>
+
+<p>“Not a cent of it, dear; and the cook
+said he was wearing a nice new suit. I told
+her she had better go back to the kitchen,
+and count the spoons, and I called loudly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+after her, ‘Tell him I never want to see his
+deceitful face again!’ The housemaid had
+come to the door of my room, too, and was
+trying to put in a word, but I wouldn’t
+listen to her.”</p>
+
+<p>“Trying to excuse the little wretch; the
+idea!”</p>
+
+<p>“That was what I thought. But, oh,
+Emily, just then the front door closed with
+a bang which shook the house to its foundations,
+and then I noticed for the first time
+that the housemaid was trying to give me a
+card!”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, Dorothy, you never
+mean to say—”</p>
+
+<p>“That it was Jack’s! Indeed I do. He
+had heard me scream over the bannister
+‘Tell him to go away; I never want to see
+his deceitful face again.’ And he—he must
+have thought I meant it for him. Oh,
+Emily, was there ever such a miserable girl
+as I!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VI<br />
+
+<small>The Pioneer New Woman</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“I think the topic for to-day’s discussion
+should be ‘The Pioneer New Woman,’”
+observed the president of the Teacup Club.
+“Have you all got that down in your note-books?
+You don’t know how it pleases
+me to see your methodical ways; it shows
+the real intellectual advancement of our
+club. Why, for my part, I have gained so
+much that I am not afraid to discuss any
+subject with any one.”</p>
+
+<p>“We have advanced,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “I feel it, too. By the way,
+has any one seen my note-book? I haven’t
+had it for three weeks—are you sure that
+none of you have gotten it by mistake? I
+forgot to put my name in it, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know where it is,” said the girl with
+the classic profile. “You loaned it to Kate—she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+told me so herself,—in order that she
+might read up on some of the topics we
+have already discussed, and so qualify for
+admission to the club.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall blackball her, for my part,”
+spoke up the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “She is so frivolous that she would
+drag down our high standard. Besides, she
+once left me out when she gave a luncheon,
+and told people that it was because she had
+all the decorations in yellow, and feared
+they would not shade with my complexion.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, Kate is color blind, any
+way,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and she is a little deaf, too,” remarked
+the president, “and really does not
+know just how sharp her own speeches
+sound.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps not,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “but I shall blackball
+her just the same. By the way, Alice is
+giving a birthday dinner party next week—twenty-six
+covers, one for each year. Clever
+idea, isn’t it?”</p>
+
+<p>“For whose birthday?” asked the girl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+with the classic profile. “Her own? Ah,
+really, I knew she was forgetful, but this is
+carrying it too far.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder why otherwise sensible people
+will tell such stories about their ages,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t know,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Neither do I,” said the girl with the
+classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, it doesn’t matter who knows
+my age, as yet,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Nor mine,” remarked the girl with the
+classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Nor mine, either,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“No, indeed,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde; “I got twenty-two birthday gifts
+the other day on my twenty-second birthday.”</p>
+
+<p>“Are you twenty-two? Why, so am I!”
+cried the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Just my own age, too,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And mine; how odd!” cried the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“That is one of the advantages of the
+new womanhood,” said the president; “its
+beautiful candor. Now, I tell everybody
+that I am twenty-two years old.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wish you would tell Mrs. Van Tompkins,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.
+“She wouldn’t take my word for it the
+other day, though I told her that I couldn’t
+be mistaken, as you had told me so at least
+six times in the last eighteen months.”</p>
+
+<p>“Cora asked me the other day if there
+was any age qualification for membership in
+this club,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses,
+during the slight pause which followed
+the last speech. “She says she has
+not yet celebrated her twenty-first birthday.”</p>
+
+<p>“Born on the 29th of February, then,
+wasn’t she?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Yes, it is true that the new womanhood is
+breaking down old traditions. We are not
+at all jealous of each other now.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+dimple in her chin; “we have learned to
+value our own attractions properly. Why,
+the other day I stopped Amy and Fred to
+tell her there was a dab of powder on her
+nose. Formerly another girl would have
+been jealous of her dazzling complexion,
+and let her go on as she was.”</p>
+
+<p>“How sweet of you,” murmured the girl
+with the eyeglasses; “and yet, I doubt if
+she was really grateful.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was not the question, dear; I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear,” broke in the president, “if
+my watch is right it is time to adjourn, and
+yet. Why, here is Elise! What has made
+you late to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“A discussion with a stupid man,” cried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “Only
+think, he actually said that no woman was
+mathematician enough to count up her own
+birthdays correctly. I was so enraged—why,
+he said that ‘I am twenty-two’ is the
+same thing to a girl as ‘Polly wants a
+cracker’ is to a parrot, or the Spanish fandango
+to a guitar player—but what on earth
+is wrong? You all look so queer.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“It’s nothing at all, dear,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “We were just looking at your
+new hat, that is all. I think your watch
+must have stopped, Evelyn dear, for mine
+is only—”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it has,” said the president.
+“Tom talks so much, sometimes, that I
+quite forget to wind it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, it needs a rest sometimes,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“I know that mine—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear!” said the president, “I know
+I am a fright to-day, and nothing but a
+sense of duty has brought me here. Why,
+I actually have not had a chance to curl my
+hair properly for six days, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Been getting ready your new gown,
+have you?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “I only wish I had mine off my
+mind.”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t my new gown,” said the
+president. “It was Tom. He has had a
+heavy cold, and the house smells so strong
+of camphor that there will not be a moth
+within a block of it this year. I don’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+mind being bidden a tragic farewell at mid-day,
+but I do mind being waked up at midnight
+for that purpose.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it was nothing serious, was it?”
+asked the brown-eyed blonde. “I thought
+the other day, when he came to the top of
+the stairs and called to you that he was
+dying, that a man who was breathing his
+last would manage to do it with less noise.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw!” said the president. “That
+was nothing to the time he waked me up at
+one o’clock in the morning to tell me that
+he was dying, but if I let that mug-faced
+young preacher who used to come to see me,
+officiate at his funeral he would come back
+and haunt me. It took a hot-water bottle,
+a mustard plaster, two hot toddies, and the
+camphor to quiet him that time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “I wonder why a man always
+thinks a cold or a boil fatal—when he has it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he doesn’t himself,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose; “but he always
+wants the women of the family to act as if
+they did.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses;
+“but do you know what Dolly
+does? As soon as her husband complains
+of being ill she begins to weep and tear her
+hair and lament that he will die, she knows
+he will. That frightens him, and when she
+insists upon putting him to bed, and giving
+him a bowl of hot ginger tea (which he detests),
+he pretends that he was only joking,
+and flees to the office, when she calls him
+up every half-hour to ask how he is. She
+says he seldom complains of his health nowadays.”</p>
+
+<p>“You know my sister Amelia, don’t
+you?” said the girl with the classic profile.
+“Well, her husband had a heavy cold last
+week. He waked her up at two o’clock to
+tell her that he was dying, and that he knew
+he had not been a good husband to her, and
+could not go without her forgiveness. She
+wept, and said that he had not been very nice
+to her, and had never given her half enough
+money. Upon this, the dying man sat up,
+and began to argue the case. From argument
+they passed to something warmer.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+He went down to the office next day, and
+hasn’t said a word about dying since.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wouldn’t mind Tom thinking he was
+dying once in awhile,” said the president,
+“if he’d only allow me the same privilege
+occasionally. He won’t, though; he comes
+in and says, cheerfully, ‘Oh, you’ll soon
+be all right. You should have seen how
+much worse I was once when I had it, and
+never missed a day at the office, either!’
+The last time he did that my throat was too
+sore for me to reply properly, and I really
+thought I should die of rage.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “As if a woman
+couldn’t always stand more than a man,
+anyhow! For instance, I wonder how
+many of them could go out in thin shoes,
+and without overshoes, as we do. And yet
+you never hear a girl say that she has
+caught cold in that way.”</p>
+
+<p>“Never,” said the blue-eyed girl; “we
+have too much fortitude. My cousin
+Edith’s husband used to be always complaining
+of his health, until this last winter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+I wondered what had caused his miraculous
+recovery, until she told me a few days ago.
+She was away from home, and received a
+telegram, saying that she must come at
+once if she wanted to see him alive. The
+message was delayed, being improperly addressed,
+and when she reached home, expecting
+to find him dead, he met her at the
+door. It seems that he had called in a new
+doctor, who was the cause of his miraculous
+recovery. He said he would never have
+another physician to prescribe for him as
+long as he lived.”</p>
+
+<p>“Completely cured, eh?” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Not that time. Next time he was ill,
+and the new doctor appeared, he turned out
+to be an old admirer of Edith’s. Her husband
+is frightfully jealous, and Edith’s
+potential second husband is a very real person
+to him. Edith, as nurse, always went
+out into the hall to talk with the doctor
+after his call. She says she is sure that she
+did not remain away so <i>very</i> long; but when
+she came back, after the first visit, her husband<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+sulked; after the second, he raved;
+and after the third, he got up, declaring
+he’d live, if only to spite them both. And
+now, the doctor points to him as an example
+of his remarkable healing powers,”
+she added.</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of old sweethearts,” said the
+president, “what do you think happened to
+me the other day? I was calling on Mrs.
+Vansmith and her guest, as she had requested.
+Both of them happened to be
+out, and, to my annoyance, I found I had
+no cards with me. At last I found one of
+Tom’s in my card-case, and I left that,
+knowing that Mrs. Vansmith would understand.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, and didn’t she?” asked the girl
+with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps. But the visitors didn’t. It
+turned out that she used to be engaged to
+Tom; while I was in the kindergarten, I
+suppose. It seems that his card was handed
+to her; and you should have seen the unbelieving
+smile with which she listened to
+my explanation of the matter!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“You poor, dear,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “you must have been as angry as if
+somebody had trodden on your gown. A
+rather unpleasant thing happened to Florence
+the other day, too; Molly was calling
+on her, and a note was handed in. She
+thought it was from Teddy Crœsus, and
+pretending that she had ink on her fingers,
+asked Molly to open it for her, which she did.”</p>
+
+<p>“How stupid of Molly; she might have
+known that it was some trick of Florence’s,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Was it
+a proposal from Teddy?”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t from Teddy at all; handwritings
+are so much alike nowadays. It was a
+bill from the hairdresser, of whom Florence
+had bought those lovely little curls which
+cluster around her brow—and Molly read it
+aloud, as she had requested.”</p>
+
+<p>“But who told you about it?” said the
+girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Molly. You didn’t suppose it was
+Florence, did you? I declare, it made me
+feel like trying to persuade both of them to
+join our club. There isn’t a girl in it that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+would do such a mean thing, and the example
+might—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, it wouldn’t; they are too frivolous,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh, girls, I sometimes wish that the men
+who dance with us could hear the serious
+discussions which go on in this club,—so harmoniously,
+too.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the president, “not one unkind
+word has been spoken, even of the
+absent, since we organized. I wonder if as
+much can be said of any other club.”</p>
+
+<p>“I doubt it,” said the blue-eyed girl;
+“and it isn’t as if we couldn’t think of
+clever things to say about people, either.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” returned the girl with
+the Roman nose; “why, I know some
+things, even about the other members,
+which—”</p>
+
+<p>“So do I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Why, I heard the other day that
+you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I wouldn’t mention, for the
+world,” finished the girl with the Roman
+nose, in some agitation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I thought not, dear; it would hardly be
+wise,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“for you, especially.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure, I don’t see why I, es—”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t you, dear? But, then, you
+never were clever,” said the president.
+“Yes, I am very proud of the amiability we
+have all displayed since joining the club. I
+must say that I didn’t expect—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see why not,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “As for me, I can get along with
+anybody, so I was not at all afraid.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“your tongue would be a protection, even
+if—”</p>
+
+<p>“Other people were even <i>more</i> envious of
+me? That is hardly possible, dear; but
+I thank you for your good opinion of
+me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t overwhelm me with gratitude,
+dearest; I really do not deserve it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, luckily for you, love, people seldom
+get their deserts.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls, don’t quarrel,” said the
+president, wringing her hands; “I’ve always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+wanted this to be different from a man’s
+club, and now—”</p>
+
+<p>“Really, Evelyn, you seem to be the one
+who is doing the quarreling,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, tartly. “As for me, I
+am naturally amiable, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“It is not your fault if your temper <i>is</i> a
+bit soured by repeated disappointments,”
+broke in the blue-eyed girl; “of course not.
+Everybody says it is no wonder.”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I resign from this club,” sobbed the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I’ll not stay here another
+minute to be insulted!”</p>
+
+<p>“Girls, girls,” said the president, “do be
+reasonable. I—”</p>
+
+<p>“This is the first time <i>I</i> was ever accused
+of being unreasonable,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose; “and all I’ve got to say
+is, that I pity Tom from the bottom of my
+heart, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t doubt but that you’d be glad
+to comfort him—if I was dead,” sobbed the
+president. “If this is all I am to get for
+keeping you at peace during the meetings,
+I’ll just resign, and let you run the club to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+suit yourselves. And a p-pretty mess you-you’ll
+make of it!” And she retired behind
+her handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll resign, too, this very minute,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I knew
+just how it would be when Dorothy asked
+me to join the club, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“You were afraid to refuse, lest something
+happen, and you didn’t know all
+about it,” finished the blue-eyed girl.
+“Well, I wish to tender <i>my</i> resignation
+from the club, to take effect at once.”</p>
+
+<p>“And so do I,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“And I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“I, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“W—why, then, there’s nobody left!”
+exclaimed the blue-eyed girl, gazing about
+the room in astonishment. “Oh, w—what
+will all the men of our set say when they
+hear of this!” she wailed.</p>
+
+<p>“I never thought of that!” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “I know well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+enough, though, without thinking,” she
+added.</p>
+
+<p>“They will say that women never <i>can</i>
+agree among themselves,” sobbed the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, “and they will
+keep on saying it, in spite of the fact that
+it is a baseless libel!”</p>
+
+<p>“Of—of course, I am not an—angry,
+only hurt,” sobbed the president.</p>
+
+<p>“I am not angry at all,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “only distressed that the
+others—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I—I haven’t a hard feeling
+against any—anybody,” wailed the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, no,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“If anybody is sorry for having hurt my
+feelings, I am quite ready to forgive it,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“And so am I,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I don’t see that any of us need<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+resign,” said the president. “Does anybody
+remember the topic under discussion?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘The Pioneer New Woman,’” said the
+blue-eyed girl, “and a very interesting topic
+it is, I’m sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, as she tucked her handkerchief
+into her belt.</p>
+
+<p>“One thing is always a mystery to me,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“why does no female creature ever acknowledge
+that she is a new woman until
+she is quite an old one?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, by that time her years will
+entitle her to a seat in a street car, even if
+she wears bloomers,” thoughtfully replied
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Who really <i>was</i> the pioneer new
+woman?” asked the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Eve; although, she did not call herself
+by that name, I believe,” returned the
+blue-eyed girl. “So far as I can see, the
+new woman is just like all the rest of us—she
+wants to get everything she can out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+the world, and give as little as possible in
+return.”</p>
+
+<p>“And it is perfectly natural that she
+should,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“The only way we can make the men give
+us what we really want, is by asking for a
+great deal more, so that they will think
+themselves lucky if we compromise on what
+we originally decided to have.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, making an entry into her
+note-book, “I’ve been acting on that
+theory all my life, but I never thought to
+formulate it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me for the suggestion,” said the
+president, “but I hope you are not in the
+habit of leaving that note-book around
+where any man can see it.”</p>
+
+<p>“It wouldn’t make any difference if I
+did, dear. I went to such a fashionable
+school that no one but myself can ever read
+my chirography—I can’t myself, if it was
+written long enough ago for me to have
+quite forgotten what I said.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, you needn’t be uneasy about any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+old love letters which have not been returned,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Not at all. Nobody could tell whether
+I had written a promise of undying affection
+or a recipe for hair tonic.”</p>
+
+<p>“I do wish my father had sent me to the
+same school,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+sorrowfully.</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, old letters don’t tell half as
+many tales as old photographs,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses, sighing. “I know a
+girl who had been engaged to a man who
+returned everything she had given him except
+one photograph. She couldn’t refuse
+to let him keep it when he begged so hard.”</p>
+
+<p>“He had probably lost it, and didn’t
+know how to account for its absence,” said
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No, he hadn’t. Well, six years later,
+she became engaged to another man. I
+fancy she must have told him some stories
+about her age.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s always better to understate rather
+than overstate a case,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“So my old nurse used to say. Well,
+when she was about to be married, her old
+lover sent her a beautiful present, and with
+it an envelope addressed to her fiancé.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which she should have opened herself,”
+said the president, promptly.</p>
+
+<p>“He happened to be present when the
+box was opened, dear. The envelope contained
+the photograph taken seven years
+before—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why didn’t she say that—”</p>
+
+<p>“It was a picture of her elder sister?
+She did, dear. What really caused the
+trouble was her own name, and the date on
+the back of it, coupled with the statement
+that it was taken on her twenty-second
+birthday!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, how sly men are?”
+said the president. “And to think that
+never, as long as she lived, could that girl
+tell him what she really thought of him!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know. She used to say that she
+sometimes regretted that she <i>hadn’t</i> married
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, he is probably married to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+somebody else, by this time, anyhow,” said
+the president, “though I doubt if his wife
+would fully appreciate the enormity of his behavior,
+since it was toward another woman.”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “people are sure to be punished in
+some way or another. I wouldn’t get up
+early on Sunday morning, and go to church
+if I did not firmly believe that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me,” said the president, “it
+must be awfully late, girls, and I promised
+Tom to adjourn early and meet him down
+town. I do wonder if he has been waiting
+for me all this time!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve seen Jack,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, as the friends went
+down the stairs; “met him on the street
+this morning.”</p>
+
+<p>“And, I suppose you hurried right on,
+and never said a civil word to him,” returned
+the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed I didn’t. I called after him to
+wait for me, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And I suppose he thought that I had
+told you to talk to him, since you were so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+eager. You needn’t tell me a word that
+you said—I don’t want to hear anything
+about it. Did—did he look sort of hollow-eyed
+and worn?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘M—I can’t say that he did. But he
+said that he thought he must give up chafing-dish
+suppers.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think he must have bad
+dreams,” said the blue-eyed girl, viciously.</p>
+
+<p>“He—he told me that he had called at
+your house the other day, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose you let him go on thinking
+that I meant that message for him. A
+nice friend you are, Emily Marshmallow!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Dorothy, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t surely mean that you explained
+it all, and actually let him think
+that I wanted to apologize! Well, if anybody
+had told me such a thing of you, I
+never would have believed it.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I didn’t,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “I didn’t say a word,
+for just then Frances joined us; and if <i>you</i>
+are clever enough to get a private word with
+any man, after Frances sees him, I am not!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VII<br />
+
+<small>Woman in Legislation</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Let us discuss ‘Woman in Legislation,’
+to-day,” said the president. “I had written
+you a note, Marion, to prepare a paper
+on it, but I found it in my desk this morning.”</p>
+
+<p>“Too bad,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I should have been delighted to
+do it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Marion,” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose, “have you forgotten? You
+said you were too busy painting dinner
+cards to touch it. That was when I told
+you that Evelyn wanted you to do it, you
+remember.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I don’t,” snapped the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Of course I shan’t have a
+minute to prepare a paper for next week;
+but I should have been delighted to—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Girls,” said the president, “only think!
+Tom says this club is actually making me
+masculine.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, you must have convinced him
+that you had the better of him in an argument,”
+cried the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No—but I forgot to mail some letters
+he intrusted to me the other day when he
+was going out of town. By the way, it
+seems to me that when legislation is in the
+hands of women. What are you girls whispering
+about over there in the corner?”</p>
+
+<p>“We are only comparing samples of bicycle
+suitings,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “Dorothy has a larger selection
+than I, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I have a lot of them, myself,”
+said the president. “Has anybody seen my
+hand-bag since I came in?”</p>
+
+<p>“Here it is,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “I’ve just been comparing
+your samples with mine, and I find—”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, I’m late,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, as she bounced into
+the room. “I just stopped on my way here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+to look at a new design for bicycle suits,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been trying for half a block to
+catch you, Frances,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, as she opened the door, in
+turn; “I’ve been looking at the new bicycles,
+and was detained longer than I expected.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, shall you get a new wheel this
+year?” asked the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear,” returned the girl with the
+classic profile; “but, of course, I wanted to
+see what they are like.”</p>
+
+<p>“Naturally,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “My dears, you never heard
+of such luck as mine. You know papa said
+I shouldn’t have a new bicycle this year, if
+I had to walk—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if you call that luck,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, “my father said the same
+thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“So did mine,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Wait until you hear the rest,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, “I had my old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+machine set in order, and expected to have
+to do with it all this season. The other
+day, I went into the store-room to have a
+look at it, and, to my surprise, found it all
+splashed with mud, the enamel scratched,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“The cook had been riding it, of
+course,” broke in the president.</p>
+
+<p>“I knew that at once, and I went to tell
+mamma she must discharge her on the spot.
+However, mamma was lying down with a
+headache, and as I had some shopping, a
+luncheon, two teas and a dinner on hand
+that day, I had no chance to speak to her.
+Two days later, I remembered it, and went
+in to look at it—I knew that mamma was
+so prejudiced against bicycling that I must
+make the case very bad to excite her sympathy.
+It was bad enough, by this time,
+too; one pedal was all bent, the handle-bar
+was broken, and the enamel was a sight!”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope you made your mother discharge
+that cook on the spot!” said the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I rushed right up to mamma’s room to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+do it. I opened the door, and a familiar
+odor greeted me—a combination of arnica
+and witch hazel, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“You forgot all about the cook. Had
+your mother fallen downstairs?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; she hadn’t. The cook had been
+trying to teach her to ride my bicycle; she
+had a black eye, a sprained shoulder, and a
+skinned face. The cook had gone home
+with a dislocated collar-bone, and I had to
+wait on mamma, and do all the cooking for
+two days!”</p>
+
+<p>“And you call that luck!” groaned the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“Not that, dear. But mamma gave me
+a beautiful new wheel for keeping the whole
+thing from papa’s ears. And I sold the
+old one for enough to buy me a lovely new
+suit,” she added, triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>“I am glad <i>somebody</i> has had a stroke
+of luck,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“As for me, I’ve just had an object-lesson
+in the selfishness of this world, which is
+enough to make a misanthrope of me for
+life.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, has your grandmother decided
+to buy a wheel for herself instead of for
+you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“No. But you see it scratches the
+enamel to learn on a wheel—not to mention
+the other accidents which may befall it.
+Now, Nell’s bicycle is old, and I sent to
+borrow it to ride while I was taking my lessons.
+She actually refused it, unless I
+would lend her my new one while I had
+hers. Did you ever hear of such selfishness
+in your life?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “By the way, I suppose Jack
+Bittersweet will teach you to ride?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes; but how did you guess it?”
+There was a note of triumph in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, that was easy enough. He is
+always teaching somebody, you know. I
+told him the other day that I was afraid
+people would soon think him a professional.”</p>
+
+<p>“B—but he told me that he only teaches
+people whom he—likes,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, faintly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Why, of course, dear. But, Jack
+hasn’t a bit of discretion; he likes everything
+that wears petticoats, I verily believe.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—I— By the way, Evelyn, dear,
+what is to-day’s topic? You had started
+the discussion when I came, and I didn’t
+like to interrupt you to ask.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is ‘Woman in Legislation,’” said
+the president, after a peep at her note-book,
+“By the way, Frances, I know the cheapest
+place in town for arnica, if you want—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mine doesn’t cost anything, dear.
+Papa always has a bill at the drug store. I
+know the clerk, and he has promised if I
+use a very large quantity to put it down as
+toilet soap and postage stamps. Papa has
+never ridden you know, and he might not
+understand.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“What a comfort bicycling is,
+anyhow. For instance, if you meet a
+strange man, and the conversation lags—”</p>
+
+<p>“Get it on bicycles, and it runs smoothly
+enough,” said the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I wish <i>I</i> could do the same,” wailed the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Well it is lucky for
+me that the dancing season is over, for my
+arms are a perfect sight.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if it is only your arms!” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, cheerfully. “<i>I</i>
+always fell on my face when I was learning.
+The only comforting thing about that was,
+that I soon became unrecognizable, and
+could fall right up and down my own street
+without a soul knowing who I was. It was
+very convenient, too, for they hadn’t far
+to take me when I had a really bad accident.”</p>
+
+<p>“How long did you have to wait to sit
+for your photograph?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Six weeks, dear—and then it had to be
+a profile.”</p>
+
+<p>“Elizabeth had rather a hard time of it,
+too,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin; “she would learn in her lovely new
+suit, and by the time she could ride, she
+hadn’t enough of it left to make a bathing
+costume.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Tom tells a rather good bicycle story,”
+observed the president. “He met a member
+of his club, who is a noted scorcher, the
+other day. He was wheeling along a very
+disreputable specimen of a woman’s machine.
+‘Hello,’ said Tom, ‘got yourself
+into trouble?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply, ‘I ran
+into a woman up yonder, and I’m afraid
+it will be cheaper to buy her a new wheel
+than to have the old one repaired.’
+‘Humph,’ said Tom, who knows him pretty
+well, ‘it’s a wonder you didn’t just ride
+away and leave her, when you found what
+you had done.’ ‘I did,’ said the scorcher,
+‘but it didn’t do me any good.’ ‘Policeman
+saw you, eh?’ ‘No. The woman
+turned out to be my wife!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Good!” said the blue-eyed girl. “I
+came very near not getting my bicycle last
+year. Papa said I should have one if I
+learned to make a good pie. I agreed to
+do it, but I had reckoned without the cook.
+She said flatly that she wouldn’t have me
+messing up her kitchen. Finally, I compromised
+by agreeing to trim her a hat, if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+she would make the pie. It was really
+quite the same you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Quite,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“And did it turn out all right?” asked
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“The hat did; but the pie—well, the
+cook had lived with us for three years, and
+that was the first time she had turned out
+an uneatable pie!”</p>
+
+<p>“But, why didn’t you ask your father
+to let you try again?” asked the girl with
+the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I did, dear; but I took no chances that
+time; I bought the pie from the Woman’s
+Exchange. And I must say that I think I
+quite deserved the bicycle after all I had
+been through to earn it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed you did,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “By the way, Emily, I hear
+that you and Dick had an almost fatal quarrel
+while you were both learning.”</p>
+
+<p>“We did,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “It happened this way: I was
+able to ride at least two blocks without assistance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+so I got up very early, and went
+to the park alone to practice. I was getting
+along very well until I heard somebody
+coming up behind me at a terrible pace.
+That made me so nervous that I fell right
+off. The cyclist who had frightened me
+was Dick, and he actually kept right on
+without offering to help me!”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he didn’t know it was you,”
+suggested the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, he did; but he kept right on, and
+a perfect stranger had to take me and my
+bicycle home. Two hours later he appeared
+with his arm in a sling, and explained.
+He said it was first time he had
+ridden outside of the riding school, and he
+had gotten a terrific pace which he couldn’t
+have stopped if a rich uncle had been in his
+way. He said that if something in his machine
+hadn’t broken, he verily believed
+he’d have circled the globe without stopping!”</p>
+
+<p>“So you forgave him, didn’t you? You
+always were amiable,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Ye—es. Especially as he offered to
+have my bicycle repaired; papa having
+declared the last time that he wouldn’t pay
+another cent for repairs, if it stood in the
+attic all summer!”</p>
+
+<p>“That was good of you. Some girls
+would not have been so just,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, don’t praise me too much,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, modestly.
+“Nobody who knew me happened
+to be in sight when it occurred—else I
+might not have let him off so easily.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, how modest you are,” said
+the blue-eyed girl. “I never knew a human
+being with so little vanity in my life.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Did I tell you about Florence’s
+latest trouble? No? Well, you know that
+horrid Mr. Brownsmith, who rides beautifully,
+begged to be allowed to teach her.
+She accepted, and as soon as she had
+learned to ride well, she wondered how to
+get rid of him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why didn’t she ask her father to—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Forbid him to the house? That’s just
+what she did. I believe you have heard
+this story before.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And her father?” queried the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Absolutely refused to do it. Said he
+was the finest young man he knew, and only
+wondered that he cared for her society.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I declare! And Florence?”</p>
+
+<p>“Would have had to treat him just like
+anybody else, if he hadn’t heard all about
+it, and stopped calling of his own accord.
+Now, every time her father sees him, he
+asks why he hasn’t been to the house for
+so long!”</p>
+
+<p>“How unreasonable men are to be sure—Florence’s
+father, in particular. Why,
+he actually refuses to speak to Dickey Doolittle,
+whose third cousin married a British
+baronet, and who has all his garments made
+in London!” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“I know—he says it makes no difference
+to him <i>where</i> Dickey gets his clothes; so
+long as he pays for them promptly,” said
+the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Which is the last thing Dickey would
+even think of doing,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, he may <i>think</i> of it,” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “I suppose
+that even Dickey thinks sometimes.”</p>
+
+<p>“You have been reading the comic papers
+again,” said the president, severely. “Whenever
+I hear old jokes I—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, sweetly, “but I had a long talk with
+your husband only yesterday.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, rousing herself from a
+reverie, “I’m afraid I’ve not been paying
+attention to the discussion. I can’t even
+remember whether we decided that women
+should be legislators or not.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sorry to hear that,” said the president.
+“I fear it is too late to go over the
+discussion again for your benefit. I thought
+you were taking notes of it as we went
+along—I saw you jotting something down
+in your note-book.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was only my calculations for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+bicycle suit. There must be something
+wrong about them, too, for I make it
+twenty-seven dollars, and I only have
+twenty-one dollars and thirty-eight cents to
+my name, even if somebody pays my car-fare
+home.”</p>
+
+<p>“I only make it twenty-six dollars and
+two cents,” said the blue-eyed girl, “and I
+have allowed for everything just the same
+as you have.”</p>
+
+<p>“But then you are so economical that
+your sums in addition always come out less
+than mine, dear. I think you had better
+go over it again; or let Evelyn do it for
+you.”</p>
+
+<p>“I make it twenty-eight dollars and sixty
+cents,” said the president. “Try it Frances,
+and see if I am right.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, don’t,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“if anybody else adds it up, it may come
+out thirty dollars, and then I can’t afford
+it at all. Well, I do hope one thing,—that
+when women are legislators they will arrange
+that we all have more money to spend.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course they will,” said the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+“else why should they bother to be legislators
+at all?”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“What a comfort you are with your
+knowledge of parliamentary usage,” said
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I have gained that by joining this
+club, if I have gained nothing else,” replied
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I
+observe, too, that papa and the boys are
+less inclined to engage in argument with
+me than they were before they knew the
+kind of topics we discuss here. Not that
+I give myself any airs over it, of course,”
+she added.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, none of us do that,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “But there is another
+benefit which I derive from the club.
+Mamma allows me to spend a good deal
+more money on my wardrobe, now that
+she is afraid that I may begin to look intellectual
+if I’m not well dressed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, speaking of bicycle suits; did you
+ever hear what happened to Molly’s old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+one?” asked the blue-eyed girl. “No?
+Well, she was determined to have a new
+one this year, so she put the old one away
+without any moth-balls, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“It was completely ruined by the moths,
+so that she had to get a new one?” asked
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No, it was comparatively uninjured;
+but the moths from it had got into all her
+brother’s spring garments, which were
+hanging up near it. Molly is thinking of
+going away on a nice long visit about the
+time that he discovers it.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; if I know anything about men,
+she had better,” said the president. “Poor
+Molly, I suppose she had meant to coax
+him for another suit. How unlucky that
+girl is, and she doesn’t in the least deserve
+her ill-luck, either.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. She often says it would be easier
+to bear if she did. Now, last year that
+very same brother was always coaxing her
+to ask Ida to pay her a visit. Finally, he
+said he’d give her fifty dollars if she would
+do it, and she thought she might as well be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+good-natured and oblige him. However,
+she was busy, and put it off a week or two,
+and when Ida’s letter of acceptance actually
+came he had fallen in love with another
+girl, and let Molly do all the entertaining!”</p>
+
+<p>“Just like a man. Did he give her the
+money?” asked the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No. He compromised on half, because
+Molly had put off asking her. And
+Ida stayed two weeks longer than she had
+been asked for, and made eyes all the time
+at the man Molly really liked herself.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, poor Molly,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “she says the next
+time her brother offers to pay her for having
+a girl to visit her, she will send the invitation
+by telegraph!”</p>
+
+<p>“And demand payment in advance,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde; “of course he would
+be willing to pay for the telegram, anyhow.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and take it to the office, too,”
+said the president, with a sigh. “Tom used
+to send off all my telegrams before we were
+married—he always said it was too far to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+the office for me to go myself. Now, he
+says that the exercise will do me good.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he doesn’t want to pay for
+the message,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I never pay for my telegrams, I
+always send them at receiver’s cost. People
+are so curious to know what is in a telegram
+that they pay without a murmur.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m, I shall have to try that,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“But not on me,” cried the president.
+“I’ll never forgive you if you do. Oh,
+girls, did you hear the awful thing that
+happened to Milly when she sold her bicycle?
+No? Well, she only got ten dollars
+for it, because the man said it was in
+such an awful condition that he only took
+it to oblige her, and it would be a dead loss
+on his hands. He told her to come in in
+about ten days, and he’d have some second
+hand ones in such good condition that they
+would be the best bargains in town.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was very nice of him, since he
+made nothing on the transaction,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“So Milly thought. At the end of that
+time she went back, and found one that
+she liked very much, it being the same
+make as her old one. He wanted sixty
+dollars for it, but she beat him down to
+fifty, and took it home with her at once for
+fear he would change his mind. What do
+you think she found when she got home?
+That she had bought her own old machine
+back again!”</p>
+
+<p>“But how did she know that?” asked
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“By the number on the plate, goosie.
+He had put on new pedals, raised the seat a
+bit and given it a new coat of enamel—making
+forty dollars on the transaction!
+And when Milly wanted her husband to
+punish him for his rascality, he only laughed
+until she actually thought seriously of applying
+for a divorce!”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “One man will do a mean thing and
+another will uphold him. You don’t find
+women doing such things for each other!”</p>
+
+<p>“No, indeed,” said the girl with the dimple<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+in her chin; “our own standard of
+feminine behavior is so high, that we hardly
+even give each other credit for the good
+things we do!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve often noticed that,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses, “and I regret to see
+that men are unable to appreciate our lofty
+motives, and often set it down to envy.”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness,” cried the president,
+with a guilty start, “it must be long past
+time to adjourn, and I don’t want the
+janitor to look at me as he did last time we
+were late. Why, he couldn’t have been
+more unpleasant if I had been his own wife!
+And the look which always reduces Tom to
+instant submission hadn’t the least effect
+upon him!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been dying for an opportunity to
+speak to you all afternoon,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, to the blue-eyed
+girl, as they turned the corner, “I met
+Effie Bittersweet to-day, and she spoke so
+nicely of you that I am sure she thinks you
+and her brother are about to become reconciled.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“It isn’t Jack this time, dear,” was the
+calm reply. “The fact is, that Clarence
+Lighthed has been paying me a good deal
+of attention lately, and she was afraid you
+would think her jealous.”</p>
+
+<p>“Clarence! Well, I never—how on earth
+did you manage it, Dorothy?”</p>
+
+<p>“Strange as it may appear, I didn’t
+manage it at all; he did it entirely of his
+own accord. But though that is the honest
+truth, there isn’t another girl of my acquaintance
+who would even <i>pretend</i> to believe
+it if I told her.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose not, dear; and yet men must
+sometimes admire girls of their own free
+will. Well, Effie must be feeling very
+badly, then, for she said that of course she
+knew I would laugh at her for saying it,
+but for her part, she considered Dorothy
+Darling the prettiest girl in our set.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, I’ll remember that when
+Clarence calls to-morrow afternoon. You
+couldn’t persuade Effie to drop in with
+you for a cup of tea, could you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Ye—es, I suppose I could, if you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+promise to put enough rum in my cup to
+fortify me for the walk home. And I have
+always wanted to own a hand mirror like
+that silver one of yours. Do you suppose
+anybody will ever give me one?”</p>
+
+<p>“You may have mine, if you will promise
+to bring Effie in at precisely half-past
+four; Clarence will be reading poetry aloud
+by that time.”</p>
+
+<p>“I promise; and I might just as well
+stop in and get the hand mirror now. You
+won’t want me to leave you a moment to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed, I shall not. By the way, of
+course I told you that I cracked the mirror
+breaking taffy the other afternoon! No?
+Why, I wonder how I could have overlooked
+the fact.”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, dear, Ned Crœsus will
+have it mended for me—and thank me for
+letting him do it, instead of Dick. By the
+way, how can you endure so much of Clarence’s
+society? You always said he was so
+stupid.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was when he used to talk of nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+but Effie. Any man would be stupid,
+if his only theme was another girl. You—you
+couldn’t let Jack know about Clarence,
+could you? If it was any one else
+Effie would tell him the first time she was
+provoked with him. Frances will be careful
+not to let him know, and men have such
+silly ideas about interfering with other peoples’
+affairs, that I doubt if any of them
+say a word to him about the matter.”</p>
+
+<p>“I might. Yes, I know I could, if only
+I was sure that you would not blame me
+if it turned out badly.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, to think of
+refusing to do a little thing like that for me—when
+I’ve just given you that lovely
+hand mirror, which I like better than
+anything I own. I just believe you
+want Jack Bittersweet yourself, and I’m
+sure you are welcome to him, for aught I
+care!”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here, Dorothy, I think you forget
+that Jack is two whole inches shorter than
+I; and if you think I am capable of caring
+enough for <i>any</i> man to make myself look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+like a—a bean pole for the rest of my natural
+life, you are very much mistaken!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, if you are sorry to have hurt
+my feelings, of course I shall overlook it.
+I only hope, however, that you will not
+rely too much on my natural amiability and
+push me too far. If you should see Jack
+in the near future you might, as you suggested,—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, I didn’t suggest at all. You must
+just tell me what you want me to say to
+Jack and, if I get a chance, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“You are entirely mistaken. I don’t
+want you to say anything to Jack; after the
+way he has treated me, I have too much
+pride to raise a finger to bring him back.
+I only thought that, as you are a friend of
+his, you might like to warn him that there
+are others who appreciate me, if he does
+not.”</p>
+
+<p>“B—but I rather fancy that he will expect—er
+some kind of an explanation of
+the—the occurrence at your house last
+week. Suppose I just say—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, then, all I’ve got to say is, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+if Jack Bittersweet is too stupid to understand
+a simple accident, I don’t care if he
+never speaks to me again. Clarence Lighthed
+is one of the very nicest fellows I ever
+knew, and I am one of the hap—happiest
+girls in the world. Don’t look at me as if
+you thought I was crying! I am not—and
+if I was, it would be out of p—pure joy!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VIII<br />
+
+<small>An Executive Meeting</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Why, Frances, is that you? And on
+your way to the Club, too,” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, as she caught up with the brown-eyed
+blonde, “how lucky I am; I shall
+have a nice long talk with you as we go
+along! How well you are looking to-day,
+quite fresh, I declare! Dear me, I should
+have put on my gloves before I left home,
+but I was in such haste that—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, Dorothy, it seems to me
+that you are not wearing as many rings as
+usual this winter. Surely, I miss the diamond
+you used to wear!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no I’m not; so much jewelry is
+always vulgar, and rings are <i>so</i> hard on one’s
+gloves. Mercy, we have walked a whole
+block, and you haven’t told me a bit of
+news!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Haven’t I? By the way, I heard Ja—a
+man I know, say something about you
+yesterday which was quite a surprise. I
+don’t really know whether I ought to repeat
+it, or not.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he wouldn’t have said it before
+you unless he expected you to repeat it,
+dear. You must tell me what it is, or I
+shall fancy it was not really unpleasant,
+and, really I’ve had so many compliments
+of late that it will be quite a change. I am
+actually afraid that Cla—a friend who thinks
+too well of me—will make me vain, and
+that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Impossible, dear. By the way, I hear
+that Clarence Lighthed comes to see you
+occasionally now, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not oftener than once in twenty-four
+hours, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And really he has been so devoted
+to so many girls that—”</p>
+
+<p>“It is a wonder that he has never thought
+of <i>you!</i> Why so it is, now that I think of
+it. But never mind, there may be a chance
+for you yet. Pardon me, you were about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+to repeat something you had heard about
+me, and I’m afraid I interrupted you.”</p>
+
+<p>“Was I? Dear me, I have quite forgotten
+what it was; nothing very important,
+I’m sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true. By the way, I heard something
+about <i>you</i> the other day, too. It was
+extremely complimentary—so much so indeed,
+that you will think I am trying to
+flatter you, if I repeat it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed? Oh, I remember now what I
+was about to tell you. It was—so you
+really heard something nice about poor little
+me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I really did. I’ll tell you after
+you have finished your story. I really
+must not interrupt you again.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Ja—I mean the man I know—said
+the other day that he thought you—now
+you mustn’t mind this, at all, Dorothy; I
+told him at once that nobody else had ever
+said such a thing of you.”</p>
+
+<p>“How kind of you to champion me, dear;
+I really did not expect it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes; I often do it. He said—I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+wouldn’t repeat it to you, but the absurdity
+of the charge takes all the sting out of
+it. He said, ‘I consider Dorothy Darling
+the most heartless flirt I ever knew!’ Isn’t
+it too funny!” and she burst into a peal of
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl paused to pat a little
+dog before she replied: “How well you do
+tell a story, Frances, dear. Look at that
+poor, old blind man over yonder; let us
+cross over and give him some pennies,”
+and she was almost dancing as she crossed
+the street.</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he is an impostor, after all,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde. “By the way,
+you said somebody paid me a nice compliment
+the other day. Do tell me what it
+was, and if I ever get the chance—be it
+twenty years from now—I’ll do the same
+for you.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes, indeed. Old Miss Lucy
+Brownsmith said to me, only the other day,
+‘Really, Frances is quite a nice-looking
+girl now that she has given up lacing so
+tightly.’ I knew you would be so pleased.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+Well, here we are at the Club; I am afraid
+that I must have walked too fast for you,
+dear; you look quite flushed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Emily, dear,” she whispered, as
+she embraced her friend in the cloak room,
+“Jack is wild with jealousy! He told
+Frances the other day that I was the most
+heartless flirt he ever knew!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, he is ready to go half-way toward
+making up! Oh, I am so glad that
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Half-way? Do you suppose, Emily
+Marshmallow, that after allowing Clarence
+Lighthed to bore me almost to death for
+two weeks, I shall be willing to go half-way
+to make up with Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“But you said the other day that unless
+you <i>did</i> make up with him, you would
+learn to be a trained nurse and devote
+your life to others, and I thought—”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind what I said the other day—that
+was before I knew how jealous Jack
+was. And all I’ve got to say, is this: if
+you expect me to make a fright of myself
+in a gray cloak and bonnet and cotton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+gown just to please <i>you</i>, you are very
+much mistaken!”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the eyeglasses put her head
+in at the door, “Come into the club-room
+right away, girls,” she said. “Evelyn is
+here, and she has something of the greatest
+importance to tell us.”</p>
+
+<p>The president was evidently excited as
+she called the meeting to order. “I am
+just as angry as I can be,” she said.
+“What do you think I found in my mail
+to-day? A letter from a man who is old
+enough to know better, suggesting a topic
+for discussion by this club. That topic
+was, ‘The Best Method of Keeping the Hat
+on Straight.’”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t say so!” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “Well, it only shows
+that our mental advancement has made him
+uneasy.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the president. “Then,
+as if that was not enough, he suggests a
+small mirror fastened to the inside of an
+umbrella or parasol as—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw!” said the brown-eyed blonde,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+“a highly polished silver handle answers the
+same purpose and attracts less attention.”</p>
+
+<p>“Talk about hats,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “men are just as fussy about
+their own. Did you ever see anybody put
+on a man’s hat to suit him?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never,” said the president. “I had an
+awful time when Tom’s arm was broken.
+I would put on his hat as carefully as I
+could—he always would tip it too far back
+himself—and yet, each time he would remove
+it, look suspiciously into the crown,
+and put it on again himself.”</p>
+
+<p>“As if it makes any difference how a
+man looks, anyhow,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “So long as they are nice and
+generous, no girl cares—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” broke in the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “and it is frequently
+the pocket of a last year’s overcoat which
+harbors the largest box of candy.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should like to know how a man manages
+to keep his hat on without veil or
+pins,” said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“He doesn’t always do it in a high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+wind,” said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“And yet he always wonders why a
+woman holds her hat on when she is driving,”
+remarked the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“You know what a fuss men always make
+about big theater hats,” said the president.
+“Well, thinking to please Tom, I got a tiny
+bonnet, which was so becoming that it attracted
+as much attention as a regular
+mountain of feathers and velvet.”</p>
+
+<p>“And wasn’t he pleased?” asked the
+girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Not when the bill came in, and he
+found that it cost rather more than a large
+hat. I said that he ought to be content to
+pay for the principle of a thing. He replied
+that it looked as if the interest was all about
+all he could afford. I suppose he thought
+that was sarcastic.”</p>
+
+<p>“Men have such queer ideas of humor,
+anyhow,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “why, I know a man who once
+laughed heartily at a joke on himself.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he owed money to the man
+who made it, or wanted his vote for something,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I’d like to know who first invented
+hat-pins,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “I am sure it was not a woman,
+because—”</p>
+
+<p>“It was a man, and he was either an old
+bachelor or a bigamist,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I had two pins running
+straight into my scalp all during service on
+Sunday. Dick was with me, too, and it
+was so hard to look saintly when—”</p>
+
+<p>“Men always ask why we don’t tie our
+hats on, when we complain of pins,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Wouldn’t we look nice with our jaws tied
+up like those of a small boy with the toothache?”</p>
+
+<p>“To say nothing of having our hearing so
+impaired that we couldn’t be sure whether
+compliments whispered into our ears were
+intended for us or were merely remarks
+made about other girls,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Well, girls,” said the president, “I see
+you all resent it, as I do; and I’m just going
+to write that horrid man a letter telling
+him that the Teacup Club has too many
+serious topics to discuss to waste time upon
+anything relating to millinery.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of millinery,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “did you ever see anything as
+sweet as the new hats! I went with Elizabeth
+to select the ones for her trousseau the
+other day, and it did seem hard to me that
+a girl only has a chance <i>once</i> in her life
+to buy as many hats as she really wants,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not to mention the fact that it is just
+at the time when she is so much interested
+in her future husband that she can’t give
+her whole mind to the subject,” broke in
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “Now, if she
+could only choose her trousseau a year after
+her marriage, instead of before.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; or even six months,” said the
+president. “Well, my new hat must cost
+five dollars less than I had hoped. I borrowed
+that amount from Tom last month;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+and—will you believe it?—he took it out of
+my allowance for this month, in spite of
+the fact that I told him I had spent it for
+his birthday present.”</p>
+
+<p>“But why didn’t you take it out of your
+housekeeping allowance? You usually do,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Because I had already taken enough for
+a half-dozen pairs of gloves out of that. It
+happened that he had not given a single
+stag dinner during the month, so I could
+not filch too much without discovery.
+When he gives a dinner, I can always pay
+myself well for the trouble of it. If he
+complains of the bills, I just say, ‘Yes,
+dear, I see that we cannot afford any more
+stag dinners,’ and that settles it at once,”
+she added.</p>
+
+<p>“I should think it would,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, thoughtfully. “Did you tell Tom
+how mean you thought it of him to expect
+you to pay back money that you had borrowed?”</p>
+
+<p>“I did. I said, ‘I wouldn’t be as selfish
+as you are for anything!’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And did that make him feel badly? I
+should think so.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not a bit. You don’t know Tom; he
+just laughed as if it was funny. Luckily,
+I had given him a silk umbrella for his
+birthday, and as he has two already, and
+this one is—er rather small, I shall get a
+good deal of use out of it myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you hadn’t one at all, had you?”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+remember the day you lost yours.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Wasn’t it nice of me to buy one
+for him when I really needed it for myself?
+But one can’t expect a man to appreciate
+generosity.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “what do you think I heard
+to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know what <i>you</i> heard,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose, “but I heard
+that Clarence Lighthed has just inherited a
+fortune from an uncle whom he had never
+seen! You know he is my cousin, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Have you just heard that,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, “He told <i>me</i> about it a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+week ago—the day you said he was
+stupid, Emily. I knew at the time that
+you would feel badly when you discovered
+that it was only—er—grief for the death of
+his uncle, which made him so quiet and
+thoughtful. Poor fellow, it must have been
+<i>such</i> a shock to him!”</p>
+
+<p>“How kind of you to comfort him in his
+sorrow,” said the brown-eyed blonde, in
+sarcastic tones.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear—especially as he could have
+his choice of comforters. I think you said
+that you, too, have a piece of news,
+Emily.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er—yes, I heard that Effie Bittersweet
+is on the verge of nervous prostration.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl said never a word;
+she looked out of the window opposite her,
+and there was a soft, sweet smile on her
+face. Perhaps she failed to see the glances
+that were exchanged by the others.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls, have you heard the awful
+thing that happened to me yesterday?”
+asked the girl with the eyeglasses. “No?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+Then, I had better tell you all about it myself.
+I had an engagement with Harry;
+we were to call on his aunt who lives in
+Rogers Park—nothing very exciting, you
+know. Well, Mr. Doolittle came in early
+to ask me if I wouldn’t go to the matinée
+with him. Now, I knew Harry would take
+me to see his aunt any day, and Mr. Doolittle
+might never ask me to go to the
+matinée again, so I accepted his invitation
+at once.”</p>
+
+<p>“You would have been very stupid if
+you hadn’t,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“So I thought. Then, I told him that
+I must stop in at the drug store and send
+off a telephone message. You see, I
+didn’t want to give Harry all the trouble
+of coming up in vain.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are always so thoughtful,” said the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I try to be. I called Harry up, but he
+was not in, and I told the office-boy to tell
+him that I was ill, and could not go with
+him to Rogers Park, but hoped to be out
+in a day or two. The boy was as stupid as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+he could be; I had to repeat the message
+twice, and even spell my name. Oh, it was
+awful!”</p>
+
+<p>“What? his stupidity?” asked the girl
+with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No; my own. As I was going out, the
+clerk stopped me, and said, ‘You needn’t
+have taken all that trouble, Miss Marion;
+you were telephoning to Mr. Vansmith,
+weren’t you? Well, that was he that just
+went out; he was standing about three feet
+away from you all the time you were trying
+to make the person at the other end of the
+line understand!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I hope your father is satisfied
+<i>now</i>,” said the president. “You have been
+trying to get him to put in a telephone all
+winter.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph; you don’t know my father
+very well, dear. When I told him about
+it, he only said that he was more fully satisfied
+than ever that women were not to be
+trusted with telephones!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then there was that horrid drug clerk,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+“why didn’t he stop you when Harry came
+in, instead of letting you—”</p>
+
+<p>“The fact is, that I knew he was trying
+to attract my attention all the time, but I
+thought that it was only somebody else who
+wanted to use the telephone in a hurry, and
+I took my own good time.”</p>
+
+<p>“He might have known you would have
+done that,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Girls, I often wonder why drug
+clerks are such gloomy, misanthropic creatures?”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear knows,” said the president; “I’ve
+often noticed it, though. And how cross a
+clerk in a shoe store always is! Strange,
+too, when they have such light, easy work.
+I tried on seventeen pairs of boots only
+yesterday, and I never was so tired in all
+my life; yet I was as amiable as possible,
+and the clerk, who had nothing to do but
+wait on me, was so rude that I thought seriously
+of having the proprietor in to hear
+of it. However, I compromised by going
+out without buying anything.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was very good of you, I’m sure,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+said the blue-eyed girl. “You know Marie
+sends to Paris for all her shoes. I never
+saw such beauties in all my life as she
+wears.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m. I know she <i>says</i> so,” returned
+the girl with the Roman nose, “but—look
+here, if I tell you something, will you promise
+never to tell it as long as you live?
+Well, then, I spent the day with Marie last
+week. She had a lovely new pair of shoes,
+and I tried my best, without asking
+directly, you know, to find the name of
+the Parisian boot-maker, and how much
+she paid for them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course you didn’t find out,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Marie
+can be as impervious to a hint as a man.”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Well, she got ready to go out
+with me, and just as we were ready to start
+she was called out of the room. Her boots
+were all in the closet, and I—well, somehow
+I just happened to be near the door, it
+was ajar, and I stooped down to look at the
+maker’s name on them, when—oh, girls,
+the door behind me suddenly flew open!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, it was Marie herself!
+What did—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, it was the maid. She said: ‘Will
+you please tell Miss Marie, when she comes
+in, that Cashly has sent up for the pair of
+boots she didn’t take. The boy is waiting
+in the hall.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I never,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+“But I’ve always said that if I sent to Paris
+for my boots I’d have better looking ones
+than <i>she</i> gets!”</p>
+
+<p>“But then Marie gets a great deal for her
+money, dear, even if the boots themselves
+are not of a superior quality,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Very true. By the way, who went to
+Marie’s tea yesterday?” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “I did not. Since
+the founding of this club I have cared less
+and less for gossip and society, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Then you didn’t mind not receiving an
+invitation to Marie’s after all!” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I must tell her that.
+She said yesterday that she didn’t expect
+you to speak to her for a month.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“By the way,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, hastily, “Dick made rather a
+good suggestion yesterday. He said why not
+have a phonograph, or even a stenographer,
+in the room while we are discussing a topic;
+then we could have copies made, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“That reminds me,” said the president,
+and she rapped loudly for order. “Girls,
+do be quiet. We have a very important
+question to decide to-day. A number of
+men have expressed a desire to become
+members of this club, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I vote against it,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “We can all express our
+real opinions now, knowing they will go no
+further, whereas—”</p>
+
+<p>“No club man can ever keep a secret,”
+broke in the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “As for us, we would die rather than
+divulge—”</p>
+
+<p>“They are so curious, too,” broke in the
+girl with the classic profile. “We have all
+talked so much about our meetings that
+they want to know how they are conducted,
+that is all.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, that is just it,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “and once in they would spoil
+all the originality of it by having rules and
+all that. Then they’d go away and say
+that we couldn’t get along without them.”</p>
+
+<p>“The idea!” said the president, “when
+that’s the very reason I set our time of
+meeting in the afternoon!”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“of course we don’t want to offend
+them. Why not have a ‘man’s day’ once
+in a while?”</p>
+
+<p>“So we might,” said the president; “but
+we had better wait until we get all our new
+things. Well, I suppose, since we are all
+agreed, that we had better not waste time
+in voting on it. I’m awfully glad to see
+you here, Elise; I was afraid you would
+not be able to come.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I was determined not to miss it,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “I left
+word for them to tell the doctor I was
+asleep if he called in my absence. I have
+been troubled with insomnia, you know,
+and he would tell them not to disturb me.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+Of course, he gave me strict orders not to
+go out, but he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Will never know that,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Oh, such a time as I had
+last fall when I was ill! You see, papa
+was going to make me go to Philadelphia
+to stay with old Aunt Borely. I—I was
+not very well, anyhow, so I took to my
+bed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and you had that nice young doctor,
+too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh, why am I so brutally healthy!”</p>
+
+<p>“I did, and he cured me of my particular
+ailment,” went on the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I had a most becoming light in the room
+the first time he called, and what do you
+think he did? Pulled every window-shade
+up to the top, until I looked a perfect fright—and
+he young enough to know better!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw!” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “All doctors are horrid. Why, I
+once had such a handsome one that he sent
+my pulse away up every time he felt it. I
+did look so horrid that one day I—I put on
+a little rouge just before he came. In consequence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+he said I had a high fever, and
+put me on a milk-and-water diet for three
+days, besides giving me—”</p>
+
+<p>“Like the mean thing I had last year,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“I had a cough, and wanted a trip to
+Florida; instead, I got a pair of overshoes,
+a lot of flannels, and a mackintosh.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Well, I don’t believe my
+doctor is a good one; he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Is too ugly to be a really good one,
+anyhow,” broke in the blue-eyed girl.
+“Fancy being delirious, and seeing that
+creature enter the room!”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “I wonder why ugly
+men are always having their photographs
+taken and expecting one to keep them
+hanging up where one can see them constantly!”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“they hope it may be a case of</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">“But seen too oft, familiar with its face,</div>
+<div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">We first endure, then pity, then”——</span><br /></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="unindent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>No, I don’t mean that,” she broke off,
+blushing.</p>
+
+<p>“I should hope not,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, in shocked tones. “I should be sorry
+to think that any member of this club—”</p>
+
+<p>“The very queen of clubs,” broke in the
+president; “that is what Tom calls it—when
+he is in a particularly good humor, I
+mean. I think we had better adjourn
+now,” she added; “Elise really ought not
+to be out late, and I am wild to tell Tom
+that men will not be admitted to membership.
+Doesn’t the doctor do that pain in
+your chest any good, Elise?”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t suppose that I told him anything
+about that, do you?” cried the girl
+with the Roman nose. “I hope I am not
+so silly as that—with Elizabeth’s wedding
+coming off in a week, and my lovely low-cut
+gown all ready to wear to it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Just wait one moment,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “I haven’t
+got to-day’s topic down in my note-book.
+What did you say it was, Evelyn?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness!” cried the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+turning pale, “here we have had a
+meeting, and I have forgotten to suggest
+any topic—and not one of you thought to
+remind me of it! Oh, I am afraid that all
+my efforts to advance you intellectually are
+wasted, after all!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses, “this has been an executive
+meeting, anyhow.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, so it has,” said the president,
+kissing her; “what a comfort you are,
+Marion dear. Tom’s handsome cousin is
+coming home from Montana next week
+with a lot of money, and you shall be the
+very first girl to have an introduction to him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Have you seen Jack Bittersweet lately?”
+asked the girl with the eyeglasses, as she
+linked her arm in that of the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, after the meeting had
+dissolved.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, he came to see me yesterday. I
+was in agony all the time he was there, lest
+Dorothy come in. I knew she would never
+believe that it was the first time he had
+done it since they quarreled!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Of course she wouldn’t. Did he ask
+your advice?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. So does she—but neither of them
+take it.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t expect that, I hope. Well,
+did you find out if he still cares for her?”</p>
+
+<p>“He does. I sat on the sofa, in my
+prettiest house-gown, and he took a chair
+six feet away. He didn’t even tell me
+that fewer men would go to the dogs if
+there were more women like me in the
+world!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I only hope that they will soon
+come to their senses, that’s all. Dorothy
+looks like a ghost, and as for Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“If they don’t,” cried the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, savagely, “I shall just
+have to spend a month or two in a sanatarium.
+And I’m not sure that that will
+save my life,” she added.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter IX<br />
+
+<small>On the Use and Abuse of Political
+Power</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“The absurdity of some people!” said
+the president, pausing as she was about to
+call the meeting to order. “What excuse
+do you suppose Elizabeth gave for not asking
+me to look at her pretty things? She
+said she fancied I had grown too intellectual
+to care for gowns and hats!”</p>
+
+<p>“How ridiculous! She had probably
+heard that you do not intend to send her a
+wedding present,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“I haven’t told a soul but the members
+of this club that I shouldn’t give her
+one,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Then she couldn’t possibly know it,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, hastily.</p>
+
+<p>“What enrages <i>me</i>, is the insinuation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+that I have ceased to care for pretty things,
+just because I study politics, and—er—other
+things. I don’t see why intellectuality
+has anything to do with doing up
+one’s hair with three hairpins, or—”</p>
+
+<p>“Wearing gowns which are frayed around
+the bottom,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “neither do I. And, yet they
+seem to be somehow connected in people’s
+minds.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the president. “Girls,
+the editor of a literary journal has asked for
+some of the papers which have been read
+before this club. He says—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, what answer shall you make?”
+cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“I told him that I could not think of such
+a thing. I always disliked notoriety. It
+was very kind of him, though, and he even
+offered to let the authors of the papers have
+copies of their effusions at reduced rates,
+provided they took over a hundred.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which, of course, they would,” said
+the blue-eyed girl. “Well, you were quite
+right to refuse, Evelyn. I, for one, have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+such a horror of publicity, and, besides, it
+would be quite expensive sending copies to
+all one’s acquaintances.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the president; “we are all
+in accord, as usual. Let us discuss, ‘The
+Use and Abuse of Political Power,’ to-day.
+It is a subject which is of the greatest importance
+to all of us, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“How do you spell ‘political?’ With
+one <i>t</i> or two?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses,
+as she opened her note-book.</p>
+
+<p>“With one—no, two. Pshaw, I can’t
+remember. Just write it indistinctly.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy,” whispered the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “I saw Dick this
+morning, and he says Jack told him yesterday
+that he didn’t really know what your
+quarrel was about, but he meant to go and
+see you to-day, and ask you to forgive
+him!”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and
+I don’t mind confessing to you, Emily,
+that I, too, may have been just the merest
+possible bit in the wrong. I’ve felt it right
+along, but I couldn’t admit it, until he— What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+shall I wear when he comes to see
+me?”</p>
+
+<p>“You might wear the blue gown he
+always admires so much.”</p>
+
+<p>“So I might. You know I wore a blue
+gown the day he asked me to marry him,
+and he said I must keep it always. Of
+course, this isn’t the same one, but I am
+careful to have each succeeding one the
+same color, and he doesn’t know the
+difference. Perhaps I have told you this
+before.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think you have, dear—once or twice,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+demurely.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. I don’t mind letting you know,
+Emily, that I have missed him a good deal.
+Why, I had his photograph—the one I pretended
+to have lost, so I needn’t send it
+back—out when you knocked at my door
+to-day. You couldn’t have helped seeing
+me thrust it under Clover’s cushion, if you
+hadn’t thought something was wrong with
+your boot heel, and stooped down to
+see.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“You don’t say so. Well, all I’ve got
+to say is, I wish I might see Frances’ face
+at the wedding!”</p>
+
+<p>“You shall, dear. I’ll ask her to be
+bridesmaid, and you, as maid of honor, can
+have a good chance to watch her. You
+have been such a faithful friend to both
+Jack and myself that you deserve at least
+that much satisfaction.”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here, Emily and Dorothy, I am
+afraid you are not attending strictly to the
+discussion,” said the president. “The
+topic is— Frances, what on earth has made
+you so late?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was all an accident,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde; “I stopped for you, Dorothy,
+on my way to the club. The maid said
+you had gone already, and I was just coming
+away when I noticed that your little
+dog—what is his name? Rover? Ah,
+Clover! I knew it was something like
+that—was chewing something at the back
+of the hall! I went to see what it was,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness gracious! Not my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+new sixteen-button gloves,” wailed the
+blue-eyed girl. “I’ll give that dog away to-morrow!”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear, not your gloves. It was a
+photograph. Just as I was trying to get
+the pieces away from him, Ja—I mean Mr.
+Bittersweet—came up the steps with a huge
+bunch of violets. He must have seen me
+standing in the hall; you know the door
+was open.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “that checked gown of
+yours speaks for itself!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—ah, where was I? Oh—he succeeded
+in getting the fragments away and—really,
+it was too funny! It turned out to be a
+photograph of himself! I told him that
+I was almost sure that you didn’t give
+it to the dog purposely, Dorothy; but I
+am afraid I didn’t quite convince him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed; and where are the violets?”
+asked the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“you don’t seem to be wearing them!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—no. Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—threw
+them at the dog. You will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+find them right by the stairway, Dorothy,
+dear; but I’m afraid they are not in very
+good condition. What is to-day’s topic,
+Evelyn?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘The Use and Abuse of Political
+Power,’” said the president, in a faint
+voice. “Will somebody open the window,
+please; I need air!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Evelyn,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, after the president had announced
+that she felt better, “I do hope
+you are not sitting up at night studying,
+and that sort of thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—no, I believe not. The fact
+is I’ve been going to a good many dances
+of late on Tom’s account.”</p>
+
+<p>“But Tom doesn’t go, does he?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. B—but everybody knows how
+fond of dancing I am; and if I didn’t go
+they would say he kept me at home. I
+don’t want Tom to pose as a tyrant, you
+know!”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not. You—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. The only thing which makes me
+feel uncomfortable is the angelic way in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+which he bears my absence. It isn’t like
+Tom, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Clarence—my cousin you know—was
+saying only the other day, that he thought
+you an angel to allow Tom and his friends
+to smoke in the drawing-room, just because
+you happened to be out,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I wonder if that—”</p>
+
+<p>“To smoke in the drawing-room!”
+shrieked the president, turning pale. “I’ll
+go home this minute, and tell him what I
+think of such a proceeding. No, I won’t,
+either; he is at the office, and it would not
+do any good! I never suspected such a
+thing and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, then the smoke couldn’t
+have done the rugs and curtains much harm,
+after all, if you never noticed the odor.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s the principle of the thing, my
+dear. What hurts me, is the fact that my
+husband respects my wishes so little, when
+I only go to dances to keep people from
+thinking ill of him, too! Well, one thing
+sure, I’ll have all new curtains and carpets—since
+mine are ruined with smoke—if he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+keeps on talking about hard times until he
+is black in the face!”</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder why men are always talking
+about hard times,” said the girl with the
+classic profile; “women never say anything
+about them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Unless they are driven to it,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “My sister’s
+husband wanted to have his mother
+come for a nice, long visit, but she told him
+that she hardly thought they could afford it
+in such hard times. You see he had just
+made that excuse for not doing up the
+house.”</p>
+
+<p>“With the result?” queried the girl with
+the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“That he decided to have the house done
+up at once! And, after all, the old lady
+only stayed about a week. Helen says she
+can’t imagine why she went, unless, she
+was offended at her suggestion that she
+might like to take a course at the cooking-school
+while she was here.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I don’t blame Helen, at all,”
+said the blue-eyed girl. “No man has a right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+to be dyspeptic before he is married, and
+her husband was. Everybody ought to
+have a fair chance, and Helen’s cooking
+might not have given it to him for years.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, he can’t blame <i>her</i> for his
+dyspepsia—and that is something,” said
+the president. “Girls, does any one know
+why Josephine has given up her lessons at
+the cooking school?”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose she has made one really good
+loaf of bread, and doesn’t want to tempt
+fate again,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“That is not the reason,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses, “she is engaged to a
+man who knows how to cook, so there is
+no use for her to waste any more time
+over it. She is studying political economy
+now.”</p>
+
+<p>“And a very good thing, too,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, “for the
+way money is wasted on elections, is really
+shocking!”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear! hear!” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Of course I don’t want to
+have men as members of this club, but I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+can’t help wishing sometimes that a few of
+them might hear Emily and Evelyn when
+they are attacking political abuses and
+monopolies.”</p>
+
+<p>“For my part, I don’t see why they
+haven’t thrust the privilege of suffrage
+upon us long ago,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Then they would have somebody
+to blame, when civic and national
+affairs go wrong!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw,” said the president, “that isn’t
+necessary at all. They can come home and
+scold because dinner is late, or the hall gas
+is unlit, and so relieve their feelings just
+the same.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t want to vote,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “It
+is ever so much nicer to do as the men do
+with our housekeeping—just criticise that
+which we can never display our ignorance
+by attempting to do ourselves.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is only your sweet modesty, dear,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.
+“What do you think Mr. Bonds said the
+other day! Ah, I was so indignant! He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+said it was a mistake to say that women
+could not throw stones.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see why you were indignant at
+that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “It
+seems to me—”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t that. It was what came
+afterward. He said he knew it was a libel
+for they could—at each other! And every
+man in the room laughed as if he had said
+something clever!”</p>
+
+<p>“I declare,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“it is enough to make a man-hater of me.
+If only people would not say that it was because
+of some particular man who failed to
+admire me—”</p>
+
+<p>“There is no danger of it being laid to
+the door of any <i>one</i> man in your case,
+dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Is that
+your new gown that you are wearing to-day,
+Frances, dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes. Quite a novelty, isn’t it.
+How do you like it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Very much indeed, dear. I stopped
+and looked at it hanging in the cleaner’s
+window the other day, and thought how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+well it looked. You remember, don’t
+you, Dorothy, my calling your attention to
+it?” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Quite well. I thought at the time that
+it was well she had not attempted to clean
+it herself. By the way, Helen’s little boy
+said such a clever thing the other day. We
+were speaking of favorite perfumes, and
+how nice it was to always use the same one,
+and he said: ‘I know what is Miss Frances’
+favorite perfume. Her gloves always smell
+of it.’ ‘And what is it?’ Helen asked.
+‘Gasoline,’ said the dear little fellow. Did
+you ever hear anything so clever in your
+life?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily,
+“speaking of gloves: I had a letter from
+Pauline the other day, and such a heart-rending
+thing had occurred to her. A nice
+man was buttoning her gloves one day, and
+he said she had the hand of a fairy—Pauline
+seemed to think that an original remark.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it was the first time she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+ever had it said to her,” replied the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Um—perhaps it was. She said carelessly,
+‘Do you think so? Why, I consider
+it quite large. I wear a number six.’ She
+was sorry for that afterward.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he looked in the other glove,
+and—saw that she had made a mistake,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. But, shortly after that, they
+made a bet of a dozen pairs of gloves, and
+Pauline won. Oddly enough, she didn’t
+know it until the gloves arrived. They
+were number six, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, she could exchange them for a
+larger size; he would never know the difference,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Not in this case, dear. He had had
+her monogram embroidered on the top of
+each pair. And now he is offended that
+she does not wear them!”</p>
+
+<p>“How exactly like a man,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “Now, I
+have too high a regard for truth to—”</p>
+
+<p>“Waste it on such a little thing as that?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+I know,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Well, I hope Pauline’s mishap will be a
+warning to you.”</p>
+
+<p>“She might say that she could not accept
+such a gift from a masculine friend,”
+thoughtfully suggested the girl with the
+classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“But she had thanked him very prettily,
+and said they were just her size, and how
+did he know it? before she discovered that
+she could not exchange them! Oh, I just
+don’t see any way out of it. I told Tom
+about it, and he said, ‘Pshaw, let her tell
+him the truth, and be done with it.’ And
+yet Tom is very clever—for a man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed he is,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+warmly, “he is one of the few people who
+always understands a joke when I tell it.
+Just because I leave out a little bit of it,
+some people—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the
+classic profile, “I’ve been waiting for a
+good chance to tell you that Eunice is
+married!”</p>
+
+<p>“Is it possible?” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+eyeglasses. “I remember that she always
+said people ought to know each other very
+well before they <i>were</i> married. That was
+why she went for a long visit to that Kansas
+girl whose brother was so much in love
+with her. She married <i>him</i>, I suppose.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er—no. You see, he asked her,
+and she said she could not give him an answer
+until she concluded her visit. They
+would know each other much better then.”</p>
+
+<p>“And she refused him, after all?” said
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no. For some reason he failed
+to renew his offer, after her visit was over.
+She had known the man she married exactly
+three weeks when they became engaged.”</p>
+
+<p>“And the engagement lasted?”</p>
+
+<p>“Just a month, dear. And she was so
+busy all the time with the trousseau that
+she hardly had time for a word with him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it was just as well,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Has the man she
+married any money?”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose so. He was thirty-four, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+a bachelor. A very poor man would have
+married long before he was as old as that.
+By the way, speaking of the abuse of political
+power, Mr. Dickenharry tells Nell that
+if he is really elected to the office he hopes
+for, she will have to ask all sorts of people
+to her receptions, in order that—”</p>
+
+<p>“And what did Nell reply to that?”
+asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, she just smiled and let it go. It
+will be much easier to manage all that after
+they are married. She says he is so busy
+now that she doesn’t like to thwart him
+unnecessarily. Nell is always so thoughtful
+of the feelings of others.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed she is,” said the president.
+“Anyhow if she is obliged to ask all those
+awful people to her receptions, she can snub
+them thoroughly if they accept. Oh, she
+is just the ideal wife for a politician; how
+she will help him!”</p>
+
+<p>“That is just what she says herself,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and
+she also says that she wants to join this
+club as soon as her trousseau is off her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+mind. She thinks our debates on political
+subjects will be of great benefit to her. In
+the meantime, she wants me to make
+notes of the discussions, and let her have
+them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and let Mr. Dickenharry make use
+of all our original ideas in his speeches!”
+cried the president, hotly. “I am surprised
+at you, Emily, for—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I didn’t say I meant to do it, dear;
+I only said she wanted me to. It is so
+much easier to promise a thing, and then
+forget it, you know. Girls, I went to see
+dear old Mrs. Pepperly yesterday, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“What, that cross, disagreeable woman!”
+cried the brown-eyed blonde. “What on
+earth made you do such a thing?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I always liked her, dear. When I
+got there, I was <i>so</i> surprised. Her son is
+home from Mexico on a visit, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, don’t you remember, Emily, I
+told you that on Sunday?” said the president.
+“I mentioned that he had made a
+lot of money there, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“How strange of me to forget it; I believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+I do remember it now. We used to
+be quite friends before he went away, too;
+which makes it all the stranger. Do you
+know, I’m afraid I shall have to accept one
+of those lovely Mexican opals he brought
+with him, or hurt his feelings! I’d hate
+to do that, too, when I haven’t seen him
+for so long.”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, what is Mrs. Pepperly’s
+number?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I—I have been meaning to call on her for
+ever so long. What a clever, original
+woman she is!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, do go. She said she expected you
+would come to see her now. I’m afraid
+you will not have an opportunity to see the
+opals though. Her son has given all the rest
+of them to her, and they are at the jeweler’s
+being set. And, by the way, he insisted
+so that I had to let him have mine set
+for me. I don’t know what Dick will say,
+but really I could not hurt the feelings of
+such an old friend by refusing—and of
+course he knows nothing of Dick!”</p>
+
+<p>“For my part, I consider opals unlucky,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+said the brown-eyed blonde. “I wouldn’t
+wear one for anything!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve heard others say the same thing,
+dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin; “but luckily they were people who
+were not likely to have the chance! So
+far as I am concerned, the good luck of
+receiving such a handsome present will
+quite overbalance anything unpleasant
+which might follow!”</p>
+
+<p>“Nobody ever had such ill luck as I
+have, and I never owned an opal in my
+life,” wailed the girl with the classic profile.
+“You know how unpleasant my Aunt
+Clara is, don’t you? Well, the poor old
+soul seemed so lonely in that great big
+house that I asked her to make me a nice
+long visit, knowing that she intended to go
+abroad soon, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“She might take you along. Good!”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “Did
+she accept?”</p>
+
+<p>“She did. Said she would stay three
+whole months. At the end of that time,
+she expects to marry a delicate clergyman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+with three grown daughters, and take the
+whole party to Europe.”</p>
+
+<p>“And that is all the compensation you
+receive for thinking of others!” cried the
+girl with the Roman nose. “Shall you let
+her come?”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall not. I shall tell her that unless
+she hears from me within two weeks, she
+may know that I am down with a threatened
+attack of scarlet fever. She has a horror
+of illness, and wild horses couldn’t drag
+her here after that. But I shall have an
+exciting time with my sire, if he ever finds
+it out!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, your father may never find it
+out,” said the girl with the eyeglasses;
+“and if he did, you could simply say that
+you really thought you were getting scarlet
+fever, and only concealed the fact from him
+to save him anxiety.”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me, but you forget that I am a
+younger daughter. Papa has already had
+so much experience with my sisters that I
+have to be very careful in my explanations.
+This thing of being the third daughter is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+as bad as marrying a widower—worse, for
+that is voluntary.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not always—on the part of the widower,”
+said the blue-eyed girl. “Dear,
+dear, how queer some things are! I know
+a pair of twins, and one of them is called an
+old maid, the other a young widow. If
+anybody can explain—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, I know a brother and sister who
+have hair of the same identical shade. He
+is called red-headed while she is a Titian
+blonde,” said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“And I went to school with a girl who
+was always called snub-nosed by everybody
+but the man she married,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “he said her
+nose was ‘tip-tilted, like the petal of a
+flower.’ Can you explain that?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said the president, shortly, “she
+has money. Oh, girls, I went to the photographer’s
+last week, and I haven’t had
+the courage even to snub my sister-in-law
+since I got the proofs. Indeed, sometimes
+I almost feel grateful to Tom for marrying
+me—though of course I don’t let him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+know that. You have no idea how I felt
+when—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes, I have,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, with a shudder. “I once knew an
+awfully nice man, who turned out to be an
+amateur photographer. He took two hundred
+and seventy-five pictures of me one
+summer, and I used to know just who my
+enemies were. They would pretend that
+they recognized me in them all!”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s nothing,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “I once appeared as
+Cinderella at a charity entertainment, and
+an amateur photographer took a picture of
+me in costume. My foot was thrust forward,
+and oh, girls, it looked the size of a
+pumpkin. And the photographer actually
+took credit to himself because the face was
+an excellent likeness!”</p>
+
+<p>“I was once photographed by an amateur,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde; “he
+said my picture was his masterpiece. I
+always keep it on my dressing table during
+Lent,” she added.</p>
+
+<p>“I once knew an amateur photographer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+quite well,” said the girl with classic profile,
+“but for each photograph he took of
+me I made one of him!”</p>
+
+<p>“With the result—” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“That he gladly bartered his collection
+for mine. Somehow, we haven’t been
+very good friends since. I often think
+things might have turned out very differently
+if he hadn’t bought that camera;”
+and she sighed, softly.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, girls,” said the president, “I am
+afraid that we must adjourn, though I had
+hoped we might find time for a social session
+after the day’s work was concluded.
+However, I promised both Tom and the
+dressmaker that I’d meet them at five
+o’clock. She won’t wait, and he will; so
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“But why not make him go to the dressmaker’s
+with you,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Because I want to tell him just what I
+think of his behavior—smoking in the drawing-room,
+just because I happened to be
+out. If he once heard Madame contradict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+me in the way she does, I could never hope
+to produce any impression on him again.”</p>
+
+<p>Emily and Dorothy walked home in
+silence, and the former noticed, with alarm,
+that Dorothy did not attempt to protect
+her skirts from the mud. When they
+reached her door, she turned and said:</p>
+
+<p>“If I am not here when you come to-morrow,
+you may know that I have gone to
+take up social settlement work, and devote
+my time to the poor. If you never see me
+again, you may know that I forgive all my
+enemies. It may make Frances feel better,
+though I must say that she does not
+deserve it.”</p>
+
+<p>“And Jack, dear; what shall I say to
+him?”</p>
+
+<p>“If it is any comfort to him, you might
+say that I do not regret my fruitless efforts
+to make peace with him. I hope you will
+think of me sometimes at work among the
+poor and the afflicted. And now, good-bye—perhaps
+forever!”</p>
+
+<p>Emily had walked perhaps a block, when
+she heard her name called once more.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, what is it,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>“If you know any one who wants a nice
+little dog, send him to me. I—”</p>
+
+<p>“What! You surely don’t mean
+Clover?”</p>
+
+<p>“I just do. After what has happened
+to-day, I never want to see the little beast
+again! And, Emily—!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“If you were in my place, would you
+wear the blue or the geranium pink gown
+at the dance to-night?”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter X<br />
+
+<small>Woman as a Parliamentarian</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Oh, dear me,” said the president, “I
+don’t see why men can never understand
+things.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Are we to understand that you have just
+discovered that fact?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the president,
+“but I’ve just had an argument with my
+husband—that’s why I am late to-day,
+girls. He will insist that this club ought to
+have a constitution and by-laws, and a lot
+of other unnecessary things, in spite of the
+fact that we get along nicely just as well
+without them.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he would like to draft them
+for us,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “That is always the way with men.
+When they see women doing anything well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+they always want to come in, and take the
+credit of it.”</p>
+
+<p>“So they do,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I suppose he would want
+us to have parliamentary rules, too—as if
+anybody would obey them! Anyhow, it is
+only a man who can do but one thing at a
+time. I suppose it is necessary in a club of
+men that only one person have the floor at
+a time, and all that sort of thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose it is,” said the president, “no
+man that ever lived could tell what anybody
+else was saying while he was talking himself.
+Well, I only wish they could see how
+orderly our meetings are, and how well we
+keep to the subject in hand, without any
+rules or regulations. By the way, let us
+discuss ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ to-day.
+What do you say?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “you said the subject was to
+be ‘Woman as a Factor in the Business
+World,’ and I was to speak on it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, you can use the same line of
+argument, anyhow; I forgot to tell you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+that I had changed my mind. Girls, do be
+quiet while she reads her paper on—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, but I am not prepared, anyhow,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “I was
+obliged to stop in the midst of it to write
+the invitations for my five o’clock tea. A
+nice job it was, too, for I just couldn’t get
+all I wanted to say on a card!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I heard a man saying only the
+other day, that you write the most charming
+notes he ever read,” said the girl with
+the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you for telling me, dear. I shall
+use the telephone exclusively after this—the
+idea of living to know that everybody
+says when you are spoken of, ‘Yes, what
+charming notes she does write.’ Think of
+knowing that you are expected to be brilliant
+when you write to say you can’t come
+to dinner because your face is swollen, or
+to ask how to take coffee stains out of your
+new evening gown.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know all about that,” groaned the
+brown-eyed blonde; “once in an evil hour
+somebody called me ‘vivacious,’ and I’ve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+cultivated three wrinkles in trying to live
+up to it. Think of having to be vivacious
+at a church sociable, or when the man to
+whom you have just been revealing your
+views on the subject of friendship turns out
+to be engaged!”</p>
+
+<p>“Awful!” shuddered the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“but pity me, all of you. People
+who like me always say that I am a delightful
+conversationalist; those who do not,
+simply remark that I talk all the time.
+Sometimes, when I am low-spirited, it seems
+to me that there is not much difference between
+the two.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but think of me!” moaned the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “Somebody
+once discovered that I had a ‘little
+head running over with curls,’ I calculate
+that I have spent a fortune in patent curlers
+and alcohol lamps since then!”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose that is why you wouldn’t go
+to the seashore with me last summer,” remarked
+the president. “Well, for my part,
+I only wish I knew who it was that first
+called me a ‘nice little woman’—it’s as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+bad as being named Smith or living in a
+row!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, I wouldn’t mind that a bit,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “there’s
+nothing like a reputation for amiability—you
+can be as ill-natured as you please,
+once it is gained.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, you seem to forget that I have
+a husband to remind me of things,” said
+the president. “Well, there is one person
+I don’t envy, and that is Barbara.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, I don’t think she is so beautiful,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose;
+“for my part, I think her nose might be
+called a snub.”</p>
+
+<p>“Neither do I,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “the lower part of her
+face is actually coarse.”</p>
+
+<p>“Say what you please,” said the president,
+“she has the reputation of being a
+beauty, and if she doesn’t look as well as
+usual she just has to stay at home. She
+has a cold now, and her complexion is
+awful.”</p>
+
+<p>“Is it?” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+nose, “I must certainly stop in to see her
+to-day. I never saw her when she had a
+really bad cold.”</p>
+
+<p>“And so shall I,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “she really ought not to be
+neglected when she is ill.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall go, too,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “And by the way, Dick
+has been teasing for an introduction to her
+for ever so long. This will be the very
+time to take him to call on her—when she
+is certain to be at home, I mean.”</p>
+
+<p>“I understand,” said the president; “it
+is very thoughtful of you to want to cheer
+up the poor thing. Girls, shouldn’t you
+love to see her face when she finds that
+Emily has brought a strange man to call
+when her complexion is in such a condition.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I don’t suppose that she will mind
+Dick,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “nobody
+else does, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, sweetly. “Of course he
+has eyes for nobody else when I am in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+room; but I did not expect you, Frances,
+to acknowledge as much.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Dorothy,” cried the president,
+“here you are, at last! It isn’t like you
+to keep anybody waiting—that is, of course,
+except a man; they are accustomed to it,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, does Dorothy ever keep a man
+waiting?” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+elevating her eyebrows. “I had understood
+that she usually met them in the
+front hall when—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear, but then I am always dressed
+to see masculine callers. I have so many,
+you know. Why, Evelyn, I would not
+have been late for the world, but my new
+gown—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t blame you for it,
+dear. I couldn’t have helped making a
+dramatic entry in such a poem myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it wasn’t that which made me late,
+dear. I fancied there was a tiny wrinkle in
+the back of the waist. After examining it
+in every mirror in the house, I discovered
+that it was only the way I twisted my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+shoulders to look at it, which made the
+wrinkle.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I am glad that your mind is at
+rest about it, anyhow,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “one’s back is so defenseless.
+Annie once sat behind me at the theater,
+and I endured agonies lest the bow at
+the back of my collar was crooked. When
+we came away, I found that she had actually
+been so absorbed in the people on the
+stage that she didn’t know I was there. I
+had been wanting to see that play for
+months, and, to save my life, I couldn’t
+have told you a thing in it after I saw it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know just how you felt,” said the
+president, “I once went to a matinée with
+Eustace just before Tom and I were married,
+and I expected to have great fun, because
+there was so much danger of being
+found out. Toward the end of the first
+act, I heard that horrid Miss Blanque in the
+seat back of me, saying, ‘Oh, Tom, what
+would she say if she knew!’ I can tell you
+that my blood boiled when I thought of
+such duplicity, and I was tempted to turn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+and wither them on the spot with a single
+glance!”</p>
+
+<p>“And did you?” eagerly asked the girl
+with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er, no. I thought Tom might
+ask why I had come with Eustace, though
+that was very different.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very different, indeed,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “And did you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I didn’t enjoy that play a bit. I
+told Eustace I had a headache at the end
+of the second act, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“No doubt by that time it was true
+enough. Such duplicity in one whom you
+trusted was—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And he had always said he did
+not admire Miss Blanque at all. Well, I
+went home and wrote him a scorching note.
+I said that but for Eustace, I should never
+have discovered that he was flirting with
+another girl while pretending to think of
+nobody but me!”</p>
+
+<p>“That was quite right. I hope he was
+ashamed of himself!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no; he wasn’t. He had been at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+a stockholder’s meeting all that afternoon.
+My own father was there, and he called
+him as a witness! And I actually had to
+explain why I had gone to the matinée with
+Eustace!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, how awful!” cried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “But you
+said you heard Miss Blanque call him
+Tom!”</p>
+
+<p>“So I did. It was Tom Dashaway who
+was engaged to Elaine. And wasn’t it a
+joke? She never found him out at all!”</p>
+
+<p>“It is awfully hard to get ahead of a
+man,” sighed the girl with the classic profile;
+“and it is the irony of fate that when
+one <i>does</i> succeed in doing it, the victory is
+usually of such a character that, in order to
+retain it, one must say nothing at all about
+it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh, I am so enraged with Harold
+that I feel ready to die! I had an engagement
+with him on Saturday afternoon,
+and I forgot all about it and went out with
+Marie. I never thought of him at all until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+I saw him coming up the street, and then I
+dragged Marie into a shop. I was so excited
+that she thought a mad dog was coming,
+and almost created a scene!”</p>
+
+<p>“And did he recognize you?” asked the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid so. He didn’t come, as
+usual, on Sunday; and I took the dilemma
+by the horns, and wrote him a note, saying
+that I remained at home all Saturday afternoon
+expecting him; and why didn’t he
+come, as he had promised?”</p>
+
+<p>“Good idea!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “then, he would think he
+had mistaken some one else for you. You
+could pretend to be very much offended at
+that, and so snatch victory from the very
+jaws of defeat.”</p>
+
+<p>“So I thought. But his reply—oh, I
+knew I should die of rage! It said: ‘My
+dear Miss Marion: Pray pardon me for
+quite overlooking my engagement with you
+on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I know you
+were at home—for I saw you at the window
+as I passed!’ And as long as I live, I shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+never be able to tell that man what I really
+think of him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, you can tell everybody else—and
+that is almost as satisfying,” said the
+president; “more so, perhaps; for then you
+need not hear what he has to say in
+reply.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am so glad to see you looking so well
+to-day, Dorothy, dear,” whispered the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “it pleases me
+to see that you still take an interest in
+dress, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pray, why shouldn’t I take an interest
+in dress? Really, Emily Marshmallow, you
+are the queerest girl I ever did see! Here,
+you see me trying to conceal my poor
+broken heart with smiles, and then you begrudge
+me the slight pleasure I take in appearing
+decently clad. And when I mean
+to go and teach in a free kindergarten—well,
+next week, and wear a black gown
+with white collar and cuffs for the rest of
+my natural life!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t mean to begrudge
+you anything, dear. And Jack says that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+he is sure that if you would just see him,
+he could explain the whole thing—”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, you have been on his side all
+along. That is the way of the world;
+everybody sympathizes with the one who
+is in fault, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“He said that he was hurrying to catch
+up with you on the street yesterday, and
+that Frances—this is what he says, dear—not
+knowing what he was doing, called him
+to rescue her hat, which had blown away.
+By the time he had done it, you were out
+of sight. You see, Dorothy, he seems to
+fancy that you are—well, rather nice to
+Clarence, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I thought Clarence was coming.
+So I am rather nice to the one human being
+who really understands me, am I? Well,
+you may just tell Jack Bittersweet that I
+shall keep on being nice to him as long as I
+choose—and he might know me well enough
+by this time to be sure that I shall keep my
+word!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Dorothy, you surely are not
+crying, are you?” cried the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+blonde. “Do tell me what is wrong; perhaps
+I can help you.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am afraid not, dear. I was just telling
+Emily that there is so much trouble in
+the world that I sometimes feel actually
+guilty when I think of my own absolutely
+cloudless existence! By the way, have you
+heard that Clarence Lighthed has just
+bought that pretty place in Astor Street,
+which was for sale? He must think that
+my knowledge of architecture is valuable,
+for he told his agent to make an offer for it
+just because I admired it so much!”</p>
+
+<p>“Poor Effie Bittersweet,” said the president.
+“I—ah, I don’t know what has made
+me think of <i>her</i> just at this time, but Madame
+told me yesterday that she had been
+obliged to alter all her gowns for her. They
+are a full half-inch too loose, she says!”</p>
+
+<p>“Really? Is Effie ill?” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, in surprise. “How odd that you
+never thought to mention it, Frances! I
+should have gone to see her immediately,
+had I known it. Pray, tell her so when
+you see her next.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“If you are so anxious to see her, why
+not go with me, and tell her so, yourself,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde, dryly.</p>
+
+<p>“In this gown? and when all of hers are
+at the dressmaker’s! I couldn’t think of
+doing such a mean thing. I only thought
+that as you are always at her house, you
+could take a message for me; that is all.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tom says Clarence asked him the other
+day, if he didn’t consider that the best
+thing a fellow could do was to marry some
+nice girl, and settle down,” said the president,
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes? And what did Tom say?” asked
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“He must have said ‘yes,’ dear; otherwise
+he wouldn’t have dared to mention
+the occurrence to me at all.”</p>
+
+<p>“What <i>I</i> am wondering,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, innocently, “is: what on earth
+made Clarence ask him such a question?”</p>
+
+<p>“Sheer curiosity, dear,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, sweetly; “what other reason
+could he possibly have had? By the way,
+girls, have you noticed that Marie is showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+great strength of character lately? She
+has broken with Mr. Mushley, and actually
+refused to send back any of his presents.
+She says the sight of them could not fail to
+remind him of his loss, and she would rather
+have people speak unkindly of her than
+cause him unnecessary pain!”</p>
+
+<p>“How sweet of her,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I only hope he will
+appreciate her consideration. Girls, what
+do you think Elizabeth told me the other
+day? Why, that all the photographs of
+girls my brother saw when he called on
+Fred belonged to a man with whom he
+used to room, and he was only keeping them
+until he happened to run across him again.”</p>
+
+<p>“And she believed him?” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, scornfully.
+“How silly some girls are, to be sure!
+They believe anything a man tells them.
+To be sure, Dick was telling me the truth
+when he said that he only wrote all those
+sonnets to Clara as a joke; but that was
+very different.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very different,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+classic profile. “Girls, I heard to-day that
+Jack Bittersweet is thinking of throwing up
+his partnership, and emigrating to Australia.
+I beg your pardon, Dorothy, did
+you speak?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear, I was about to say that I
+think ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ is the
+most interesting topic we have ever discussed.
+By the way, I wonder if the climate
+of Australia is as unhealthy as some
+people think! I—I am so fond of Effie
+that I should hate to have anything happen
+to her brother.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think Effie could bear it, dear,” said
+the president, “even in her present state of
+health. She says Jack is so cross that a
+hyena would be amiable by comparison.”</p>
+
+<p>“Jack Bittersweet cross!” cried the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Why, he is one of
+the nicest fellows I ever knew, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“But after all, you are hardly a judge of
+masculine dispositions, dear,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “Your acquaintance
+with the sex has been so limited,
+you know. Oh, Evelyn, I’ve been intending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+to ask you if we can’t take up theosophy,
+and discuss it thoroughly at one of our
+meetings in the near future. I am so anxious
+for a thorough knowledge of it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed we can,” cried the president,
+heartily. “You don’t know how pleased I
+am to hear you say that, Emily,—well, if
+there is one thing this club can safely pride
+itself upon it is its thoroughness; and I
+am sure that is more than most organizations
+can do—!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know it,” said the blue-eyed girl;
+“why, my father belongs to a club which
+has taken six months to study the financial
+problems of Europe and the United States.
+They are not yet through discussing the
+subject—and yet they have the temerity to
+call themselves students!”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope you have pointed out to them
+the superiority of our system over—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no, dear; somehow it does not
+seem wise to discuss such a subject with
+one’s father. Dear, dear, do you suppose
+that girls were so very different in the days
+when our fathers were young?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Humph, no,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “but they were much more
+afraid of remaining single. Besides, our
+fathers were young, too, in those days, and
+ever so much easier to please. Still,” she
+added, thoughtfully, “I don’t know that
+it is altogether that. No one is so easily
+subjugated as an elderly man who has become
+a widower. It is so long since girls
+have really tried to make themselves agreeable
+to him, that all their little ways are
+new to him.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m, yes—unless he has grown daughters
+of his own,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see what difference that makes.
+They don’t try their little ways of—of being
+nice on <i>him;</i> and seeing them tried on
+some one else is very different.”</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t it?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Now, for instance, it is very interesting
+to have a man pay one compliments;
+but how it does bore one to hear
+him say the very same things about another
+girl!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Doesn’t it? and yet, such is the selfishness
+of man, that he expects one to be as
+much interested,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “you know that old Mrs.
+Myllons is always making presents to Barbara
+and me! Well, one day in the beginning
+of the season she called for me to go
+shopping with her. Of course, I went.
+Now, it was not long after Barbara had encouraged
+her to give me that awful picture
+of Burns, and I was as eager for her to
+select a present for Barbara as for me. I
+knew I could direct her choice in either
+case. To my joy, she stopped to look at
+silks, and her choice fell upon a hideous
+piece of green which would demolish Barbara’s
+complexion completely—and I really
+think that girl would sooner part with her
+life than her complexion. I managed to
+convey to Mrs. Myllons my personal preference
+for a lovely pink which cost a dollar less
+a yard, while encouraging her to buy the
+green. You see she was planning her reception,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+and Barbara and I were to assist
+her on that occasion.”</p>
+
+<p>“So she took it, did she?” said the president.
+“I only hope I may see Barbara in
+the green!”</p>
+
+<p>“You never will,” wailed the girl with
+the dimple in her chin—“it was for me!
+Mrs. Myllons sent it with a lovely note
+complimenting me on my unselfishness in
+wishing Barbara to have the handsomer
+piece. I dare not refuse to wear it at the
+reception; and my own father actually says
+it serves me right for trying to play a joke
+on Barbara!”</p>
+
+<p>“You must not expect sympathy from
+your father, dear,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “he will expect you to wear
+that gown all season, to save buying another.
+And nothing will ever happen to it,
+either,” she added. “It is only the gown
+that is dearer to you than life itself which
+has a fatal attraction for cups of coffee or
+fowls carved by inexperienced hosts!”</p>
+
+<p>“Did I ever tell you of the awful thing
+which happened to me last winter?” said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+the girl with the classic profile. “I believe
+not, though; we hadn’t started our club
+then. Well, I just had to have a new
+gown, and I was so afraid that my father
+wouldn’t give it to me that I got it without
+saying a word to him. I knew that
+even if there was a cyclone over the bill
+I’d have the gown anyhow. That being
+the case, I got a much handsomer one than
+I would have chosen under other circumstances.”</p>
+
+<p>“Quite right,” said the president; “if
+there must be an unpleasant scene, better
+have it over something which will fully
+repay one.”</p>
+
+<p>“So I thought. Well, the gown only
+came home the evening of my sister’s
+dance; and I really wanted to enjoy that,
+so I decided not to give papa the bill until
+the next day, though the dressmaker was in
+a great hurry for her money.”</p>
+
+<p>“They always are,” sighed the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. I was having a lovely time until
+supper was served, and then Mr. Rocksby
+emptied a plate of lobster salad over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+whole front of my new gown! Florence
+was near; she never got farther away from
+him than—than she could help; and—well,
+you all know how he admires amiability!
+He apologized profusely, and I, smilingly,
+said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t make the least difference.
+The gown is of no value at all, and
+I should probably never have worn it again,
+anyhow.’”</p>
+
+<p>“How lovely of you!” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “It must have made a deep impression
+upon him.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m, I don’t know about that; but it
+did upon me. I happened to turn my head
+just then, and papa was at my elbow! I’d
+rather not tell you the things he said when
+I gave him the bill for that gown the next
+morning!”</p>
+
+<p>“We can all guess,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, with a shudder. “But wasn’t Mr.
+Rocksby awfully nice to you after that?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, he wasn’t. He said that the girl
+who cared nothing for the destruction of
+such a handsome gown was too extravagant
+to make a good wife for a poor man!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+And the hardest part of it all was the fact
+that he must have lots of money, else he
+never on earth would speak of himself as
+‘a poor man!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Let us hope your father never found
+that out,” said the president, in devout
+tones.</p>
+
+<p>“But he did. He overheard Mr. Rocksby
+saying it to Florence; and that was one
+of the things he mentioned when I gave
+him the bill.”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor dear!” said the president. “I
+declare it really depresses me to hear of
+such persistent ill-luck. Well, girls, since
+we have thoroughly exhausted our subject,
+I think we may just as well adjourn.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl went home with the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, and after
+they had begun to sip their tea, she said:</p>
+
+<p>“Is it true that Jack intends to go to
+Australia unless our quarrel is made up?”</p>
+
+<p>“He—he <i>says</i> he will,” was the cautious
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I want to know what you intend
+to do in the matter?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“What I—intend to do in the matter?”
+she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Of course it is thoroughly in your
+hands. I have not made a single move
+without consulting you, and being guided
+by your advice. And if the quarrel is
+never made up, and I die of a broken heart,
+it will be entirely your fault!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XII<br />
+
+<small>The Club Investigates Theosophy</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“We will discuss to-day: ‘What Theosophy
+Really Teaches,’” said the president, as
+soon as she could make herself heard.
+“You expressed an earnest wish to study
+it,’ Emily, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Did I?” asked the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, looking surprised. “I had quite
+forgotten it. However, I have been so
+busy with my new hats and the chairmanship
+of a committee appointed to instruct
+tenement house mothers as to the best
+method of bringing up children, that I have
+had no time for anything else.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “How grateful those poor
+ignorant people must be for your instruction!”</p>
+
+<p>“M—I don’t know about that. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+times, I am very much discouraged. One
+woman said she would gladly allow her children
+to wear two fresh aprons a day, if I
+would pay for the washing of them. Another
+said that she had already raised six
+children without my assistance, and she believed
+she could worry on without it a bit
+longer. Still another was so stupid that
+she couldn’t be made to understand how
+I, who had never had any children, was
+able to offer her such valuable suggestions.”</p>
+
+<p>“As if it depended on experience,” said
+the president. “The theory is ever so much
+more important.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was what I said to the woman
+who— You knew that I had resigned
+from that same committee, didn’t you?”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no; this is the first I have heard
+of it. And you were so enthusiastic, too!
+What on earth has made you change your
+mind?”</p>
+
+<p>“A woman. She—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I thought, perhaps, it was a
+man,” said the brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“No. I am not as easily influenced as
+you are, dear. This woman lived up six
+flights of the dirtiest stairs I ever saw. I
+wondered at the time why she didn’t ask
+the landlord to have an elevator put in;
+probably she hadn’t thought of it. She
+lived in two rooms, and you never saw such
+awful poverty in your life. I thought, as
+she was so awfully poor, she couldn’t have
+much feeling, so I told her plainly that she
+could never expect her children to love and
+honor her if she did not at once give them
+each a hot bath, and put up fresh curtains
+and a pot or two of flowers in the windows.
+Everybody knows how cheap curtains are
+nowadays—not the real lace ones, of course,
+but—”</p>
+
+<p>“Tamboured muslin and all that,” said
+the president. “Was she grateful for your
+interest in her?”</p>
+
+<p>“I fear not. She looked at me, earnestly,
+and said: ‘You’ve been to one of
+them, haven’t you? I’ve always wanted
+to see somebody that had!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Was the woman mad?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I was afraid so, and I began to back
+out of the door, when she called, ‘Mary
+Ellen! oh, Mary Ellen! come right in here
+this minute! Here is a lady who has been
+to one of them there beauty doctors we was
+talking about yesterday! She must be awful
+old, for she’s brought up a lot of children;
+and come here to teach me how to raise
+mine; and if that beauty doctor ain’t fixed
+her up so she looks real young!’”</p>
+
+<p>“And did Mary Ellen come?” asked the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know. I didn’t wait; but I
+am almost sure I heard several people
+laughing as I came down-stairs. After this,
+I shall devote my energies to foreign missions
+or something like that. If the heathens
+are not grateful for my efforts in their
+behalf, they at least express themselves in
+a tongue I don’t understand; and they are
+too far away for me to hear them, even if I
+<i>could</i> understand!”</p>
+
+<p>“Their ingratitude is awful,” wailed the
+president. “Well, I’m glad you have told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+me all this. Otherwise, I never could have
+had courage to tell you my last experience
+with visiting the dwellers in the slums as a
+member of the ‘Society for Procuring Better
+Ventilation in Other People’s Bedrooms!’
+I called on one woman, who really
+seemed impressed by my arguments; she
+was quite polite, and never took her eyes
+off my bonnet all the time I was talking to
+her. I was so pleased with her that I gave
+her my address, and told her I would let
+her have a lot of pamphlets on the subject,
+if she would send for them. I knew I
+could not get one of my maids to carry
+them into that district, and besides her
+husband could easily come for them. He
+was a street paver, and no doubt would be
+glad to get the exercise.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+“Did he come?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. But she herself walked in on my
+reception day a few weeks later. She wore
+a bonnet which was a perfect caricature of
+mine. She said she hoped I would forgive
+her for delaying the returning of my call so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+long; and didn’t I think my reception-room
+was too warm to be quite healthy?”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you ever hear of such impertinence!
+and in your own house, too!”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What did
+the other members of the society say?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know. I resigned, by telephone,
+as soon as Tom and the doctor succeeded
+in bringing me out of my fainting
+fit.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, sympathetically. “And
+yet, people complain that we take so little
+interest in the poor! Only a real philanthropist
+can appreciate the rebuffs we receive.
+The only thing which helps us to
+bear them, is the knowledge that we are
+doing such incalculable good.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is very sweet and good of you to feel
+so,” sighed the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I don’t know that I am quite so magnanimous,
+myself. Oh, Catharine, dear; you
+were speaking of Mr. Rocksby the other
+day. Did you ever hear the end of his affair
+with Florence?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Why, no,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “I only knew that it <i>had</i> an end.
+How on earth did you find out about it?”</p>
+
+<p>“I heard that she and Effie had fallen
+out, and I asked Effie all about it. Of
+course she was glad enough to tell. It
+seems that there was a dance at the club in
+Arcadia, and Florence went out to stay
+with the Brownstones and attend it. Mr.
+Rocksby happened to meet her at the station,
+and went out with her, intending to
+return by the next train. It turned out
+that there was no train back until midnight,
+so the Brownstones invited him to dine and
+go to the dance with them. They even
+brought out a dress coat of Mr. Brownstone’s
+for him to wear, and Florence told
+Effie that he looked as if he weighed twenty
+pounds less when he put it on.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s really wonderful the way people
+always help Florence along,” sighed the
+girl with the classic profile. “Nobody ever
+does such things for <i>me</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>“I fancy Florence wishes they hadn’t
+for <i>her</i>, dear. Well, he was lovely to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+at the dance, and after a while he coaxed
+her out on the balcony for a quiet talk.
+Before she fairly knew what he was about,
+he had fallen heavily on his knees and said,
+‘Florence, I—’ when she heard the queerest
+sound, and he sprang to his feet, with his
+hand on his back!”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, I hope the poor old
+soul hadn’t hurt himself?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; I believe not. But he had split
+Mr. Brownstone’s dress coat from top to
+bottom. And though Florence tried her
+very best, she never could coax him to finish
+the sentence he had just begun!”</p>
+
+<p>“Poor Florence! No wonder she says now
+she thinks a man looks better in cycling
+garb than anything else. The sight of a
+dress coat must be enough to make her ill.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think so,” said the president.
+“By the way, speaking of theosophy, I
+wonder why its stout and elderly devotees
+wear such flowing white robes? The
+younger ones seem content with short
+hair and general dowdiness.”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, you will be wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+next why politicians always wear diamonds
+or why dressmakers invariably appear in
+old-fashioned gowns,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “and I must say, frankly, that
+I can’t answer either of those questions.
+By the way, Evelyn, I suppose I am to
+congratulate you. I hear that Tom has
+just inherited ten thousand dollars.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know whether you may congratulate
+me, or not,” said the president.
+“Sometimes, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! Then, there is no truth in the
+report?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, it is true enough, but I don’t
+know whether I am to be congratulated or
+not. You see, I was getting along very
+well as we were, and now I see that I need
+a lot of things I never thought of before—more
+than the extra income could possibly
+cover—and I shall be absolutely wretched
+unless I can have them.”</p>
+
+<p>“But you will have some of them, anyhow,
+won’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m not sure. Tom talks now of putting
+all the money into his business. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+that case he will be obliged to work harder,
+because he will have more at stake; he
+says, also, that I shall have to be more
+economical than ever because every cent
+will be needed to extend his operations.
+On the whole,” she added, thoughtfully,
+“I am rather sorry his aunt is
+dead. It was ever so much nicer when
+she was living, and I could spend the
+expected legacy royally, in imagination, at
+least.”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor dear; to think of having cause
+to regret the death of a wealthy relative,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, “but—er—couldn’t
+Tom put you on the pay-roll as a clerk, or
+something?”</p>
+
+<p>“I did suggest that; but he said he’d
+rather pay me a salary to stay out of
+the office. I haven’t spoken to him
+since.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you know, I always think it a mistake
+to stop speaking to any one,” said the
+blue-eyed girl; “it seems unkind, and then
+one loses the opportunity to say unpleasant
+things to them, too.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I believe you are right,” said the president.
+“No married man seems to appreciate
+speechless indignation, anyhow.”</p>
+
+<p>“I must see you alone a moment, Emily,
+dear,” whispered the blue-eyed girl. “Can’t
+you come with me down to the other end
+of the room, and let me pretend to straighten
+your hair?”</p>
+
+<p>“With pleasure, dear,” replied Emily,
+but there was no alacrity in her voice;
+“only we must not stay too long lest
+Frances suspect something.”</p>
+
+<p>“What if she does? She would only think
+we are talking about her—and I doubt if
+that would make her particularly comfortable.
+It is about Jack. Perhaps, you can
+pardon his behavior, but for me the last
+link which bound us is broken, and I feel
+now that I can start for India as a missionary
+without a pang!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, what has he done now?
+I’ve been afraid all along, Dorothy, that
+you would put off the reconciliation too
+long. While he confines his attentions to
+Frances, it is all right; but some time he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+will find out that there are a number of nice
+girls in the world, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Frances has nothing to do with it,” she
+replied, with great dignity. “It happened
+this way: I was coming home about dusk
+yesterday—you remember how it rained,
+don’t you? Well, I was so miserable that I
+didn’t even attempt to hold up my skirts—it
+was a kind of a comfort to let them get
+thoroughly draggled. A gust of wind blew
+my umbrella to one side, and I saw Jack
+and Mr. Bonds just ahead of me. By the
+way, did you ever notice that—er—there is
+a certain likeness between those two?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve always said they looked enough
+alike to be brothers. Don’t you remember,
+dear, when you were first engaged to Jack,
+you wouldn’t speak to me for two weeks
+because I mentioned the fact?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I don’t remember. Well, all of a
+sudden, I felt that I could forgive Jack all
+if I could just lay my head on his shoulder,
+and hear him say that he was sorry.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy, dear, I am so glad! He
+told me this morning that he—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“If you will kindly allow me to proceed,
+without interruption, I will explain how
+that is now impossible. I was wondering
+how Mr. Bonds could be gotten rid of, so
+that Jack could go home with me and apologize
+comfortably before dinner; when he
+suddenly left him and ran up the Vansmith’s
+steps. Jack was walking slowly,
+and I just shut my eyes, and made a dash
+to catch up with him. My own voice
+sounded like a fog whistle, as I said: ‘W—wait
+a moment; I—I wish to speak to you.’
+And, oh, Emily—”</p>
+
+<p>“You surely never mean to say that Jack
+wouldn’t stop when you called?”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t Jack. It was Mr. Bonds;
+Jack had gone into the Vansmith house!
+But, oh, Emily, if he really loved me, he
+would have known that I was right behind
+him, ready to forgive and forget. I shall
+sail for India some time next week, and if I
+never return, you—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, Dorothy, Jack is only too anxious
+to make up. He says that a lover’s quarrel
+is worse than a Welsh rarebit for keeping a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+fellow awake at night. And he told me to
+tell you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, if this is all
+the interest you take in our discussion of
+theosophy, we might as well adjourn, and
+go to a millinery shop or an afternoon tea,”
+said the president, with some asperity;
+“and, after all the trouble I’ve taken in
+reading everything the dictionary and the
+encyclopædia have to say on the subject, I
+think you might at least pay attention to
+my remarks!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Evelyn, I really beg your
+pardon. I shall borrow Elise’s note-book,
+and study it all out before I sleep. There
+is nothing so productive of a good night’s
+rest as half an hour’s solid reading after
+one is in bed. Why, the other night, I
+took a book on philosophy to bed with me,
+and before I had read six sentences I was
+asleep. I never woke till nine o’clock in
+the morning, and the gas was blazing all
+that time. I doubt if I’d have waked then
+if somebody hadn’t knocked at my door.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was the sweet consciousness of duty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+well performed,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Now, if your book had been
+a really interesting novel, you would have
+been awake half the night.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, “and been as yellow as a primrose
+in the morning. I often say that a few
+pages of really good literature just before
+retiring is the best thing in the world for
+the complexion. One girl I know says
+she always reads her Bible then; but I
+don’t approve of that—if one falls asleep
+suddenly, allowing it to drop heavily upon
+the floor, it is sure to awaken the other
+members of the family. If I do that, my
+father—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, plaintively. “Mamma says
+that if I take any more solid reading to
+bed I may confront papa with this month’s
+gas bill, when it comes in, for she absolutely
+refuses to do it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, men are all alike; though I
+didn’t use to think so,” said the president.
+“Now, I always forget all about the topic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+for discussion until half an hour before it is
+time to start for the club. A man would
+say that he hadn’t time to prepare for it,
+but a woman’s courage never deserts her.
+I am all ready at the appointed time, even
+if I have to tell the cook to have anything
+she chooses for dinner. Now, Tom thinks
+I ought to be ready by the day before, even
+if I have to give up a tea or a luncheon to
+do it.”</p>
+
+<p>“The idea!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Really, women have so many
+things to do nowadays that is a wonder
+they find time for them all; and yet,
+men seem to expect them to be just as good
+housekeepers as they were when they had
+nothing else to do. I regret to see that
+the sexes have not progressed equally.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed they have not,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Who ever heard of the
+new man? And if there <i>was</i> such a creature
+he would no doubt be so effeminate
+that nobody would care anything for
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic profile,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+“sometimes, I fear that Helen’s husband
+will develop such proclivities. Of
+course it is only a harmless eccentricity
+which makes him sew on his own buttons—I
+can overlook that. But the other day he
+was getting ready to go down town while
+she was out on her bicycle. Just because
+she was wearing one of his shirts and a collar
+and tie of his, he dressed up in that
+lovely lace collarette of hers, and was
+actually going out with it on! What would
+people have said of a man who appeared in
+such feminine attire!”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, I hope he is not losing
+his mind,” said the president. “However,
+if he is, Helen is always ready to supply
+him with a piece of hers. By the way,
+girls, what queer questions men do ask!
+Several of Tom’s friends dined with us last
+evening, and they actually wanted to know
+why a stout woman always selects a tiny
+dog for a pet, while a wisp of a woman will
+be tugging at the chain of an enormous
+mastiff. I simply told them that they
+must not be so curious, for, though I would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+not confess it to <i>them</i>, I really could not
+answer the question.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you were quite right,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, indignantly; “by and by,
+they will actually expect us to give a reason
+for everything we do! Which is palpably
+absurd, since we so often do things
+without any reason at all!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, luckily, we are not responsible
+for anybody,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh! I just wouldn’t be a man
+for anything in the world.”</p>
+
+<p>“Would anybody, if he could help it?”
+queried the brown-eyed blonde. “Of
+course, they all pretend to like it, but one
+can easily see the hollowness of the pretense.
+Why, they would not be half so
+anxious to criticise our actions if they
+didn’t feel that we have the best of things.
+Of course, I would not be a man for anything—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nor I,” said the president, “and have
+to give up my comfortable seat in a street
+car every time a woman entered.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But of course it is only right for them
+to give up their seats to us,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly, it’s right. Only I shouldn’t
+like to have to do it myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not. Or to have to pay for
+pretty things for somebody else to wear.
+Or to have to drop a nice book, and go out
+in the rain to escort home a girl who had
+been calling on some one else,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Or to have to buy candy for
+somebody else to eat,” said the girl with
+the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Or to have the nearest woman
+manage one, without one being aware of
+the fact,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I know! Or to have to fall in love with a
+girl, and marry her, just because she had
+made up her mind that one should,” said
+the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Well, really the poor things have
+a great deal to endure, though many of
+their sufferings are mercifully hidden from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+them,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “But, after all, we are very nice to
+them, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course we are,” said the president;
+“we wouldn’t get nearly so many things
+out of them, if we were not. Girls, I hear
+that Annie has finally decided to marry
+Nelson.”</p>
+
+<p>“I thought she had done that long ago,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde. “Talk of a
+woman not knowing her own mind. That
+man never—”</p>
+
+<p>“He knew his own mind well enough,
+dear. It was only about Annie’s that he
+was doubtful,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “Annie told me herself
+how it came to be settled. She said that
+she couldn’t decide whether to accept him
+or not—”</p>
+
+<p>“Which means that she had done all she
+could, and was doubtful whether he would
+do the rest,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps so. At any rate it was still
+uncertain until last Tuesday. He had been
+out of town for several days, and returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+unexpectedly. Annie had gone out to
+mail a letter, and just as she raised the lid
+of the letter-box she saw him coming up
+the street toward her. As they walked away
+together, she glanced down and saw that
+she still held her letter in her hand, but her
+pocket-book was gone!”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness, you don’t mean to say that
+she—”</p>
+
+<p>“I do. She said she knew at once that
+she must care a good deal for a man whose
+sudden appearance was enough to make her
+post her pocketbook instead of a letter—so
+she said ‘Yes.’”</p>
+
+<p>“As soon as he asked her,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Well, what he can see
+in <i>her</i>, I’m sure <i>I</i> don’t know!”</p>
+
+<p>“What <i>she</i> can see in <i>him</i> puzzles me,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully. “I
+don’t see how any girl can really love and
+honor a man who wears red neckties; do
+you?”</p>
+
+<p>“For <i>my</i> part, I can’t see what they see
+in each other,” said the president, thoughtfully.
+“Well, I really think Annie ought to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+give me a handsome present, for it was I
+who brought it all about.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, did you speak ill of her to Nelson?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; but I told Tom the other day that
+I didn’t believe that girl would ever get
+married. And when I make a remark like
+that about any girl, she may as well set
+about selecting her trousseau, for somebody
+is sure to propose to her at once.”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet, I doubt if Annie would be
+grateful to you, if you told her,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“One must not expect gratitude in this
+world, dear. The consciousness of having
+done one’s duty is reward enough for a
+right-minded person. By the way, Emily
+dear, I hear that Dick says he will positively
+wait no longer. You must give him a decisive
+answer one way or the other, or
+he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; but he hasn’t yet screwed up the
+courage to tell <i>me</i> so, dear. When he
+<i>does</i>, it will be time for me to make up my
+mind. I do wonder,” she added, thoughtfully,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+“why a girl who has one lover
+already, is sure to win the affections of another
+man?”</p>
+
+<p>“Cause and effect,” said the president,
+gloomily. “I never thought of buying that
+new hat until I heard Helen tell the milliner
+it was too expensive for her. After I
+got it home, I found it didn’t match a
+thing I possessed. I just believe Helen said
+that before me for meanness, knowing I
+would be compelled to buy it, then. And
+now the milliner absolutely refuses to take
+it off my hands. I threatened to withdraw
+my trade if she didn’t; but it had no
+effect. She knows I have more hats
+already than I need for this season, and by
+the time they are all worn out—and paid
+for—I shall have forgotten all about it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But why not pay your bill at once, and
+open another with somebody else? That—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t care to let Tom see the old bill
+just now, dear. It wouldn’t matter ordinarily,
+but since he inherited that money
+from his aunt he is feeling unusually poor,
+and it might cause a family unpleasantness.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“How thoughtful you always are, Evelyn!
+Really, the study of theosophy
+seems to have developed your character
+wonderfully. I do hope you will explain
+it all thoroughly to me,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose; “I am really so stupid
+that even after to-day’s discussion, I feel
+that I do not fully understand it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps at some future time,” said the
+president, hastily. “I am sorry to say
+that we really must adjourn now. My
+mother-in-law is coming to dine with us,
+and I don’t want her poking about the
+house in my absence.”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XII<br />
+
+<small>A Discussion and a Surprise</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“‘Civic Organizations Among the Ancient
+Greeks,’ will be our topic for to-day,”
+said the president. “And, oh, girls, I am
+so angry with Tom that I would go right
+home to mamma, but for the fact that she
+always agrees with him. Papa invariably
+thinks <i>I</i> am in the right; but he would say
+unpleasant things about Tom, and I
+shouldn’t like that, either. The consequence
+is that I must just endure my
+martyrdom in silence.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, what is wrong? Is it about that
+legacy from Tom’s aunt?” queried the girl
+with the Roman nose. “Dear me, I often
+think it’s so hard that really poor men are
+usually nicer than those that have money.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see why you always think of
+money in connection with me,” said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+president. “Heaven knows, I am not mercenary,
+and I only want to live well and
+dress properly, in order that people may
+see Tom is not stingy. No, this is quite
+another matter. It all came from the topic
+I selected for to-day. I was talking, rather
+learnedly, about ‘Civic Organizations
+Among the Ancient Greeks,’ when Tom
+asked me suddenly what ward I live in! Of
+course, I didn’t know—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, neither do I,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “but it must be the same one,
+for we both live on the north side!”</p>
+
+<p>“I really don’t know, either,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “I don’t
+see what difference it makes though, for I
+could ask the clerk at the corner drug store
+if I needed particularly to know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course you could,” said the president,
+“and so could I. But, Tom was
+awfully unpleasant—he couldn’t have been
+more so if we had been married twenty
+years instead of two. He said he didn’t
+see any use in my poking about among
+the civic organizations of ancient Greece,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+when I did not know what ward I lived
+in.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! I suppose next thing he will
+be saying that he doesn’t see any use in
+the Teacup Club,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, in sarcastic tones. “A man
+will say anything when he is angry.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! I fancy he will hardly say
+anything like that, dear. He knows it has
+its use, if it is only to make me look more
+leniently on his own club. When we first
+organized it he complained a good deal
+about the demands it made on my time and
+attention, and I just said: ‘Oh, very well,
+dear, let us both give up our clubs, and
+spend all our spare time at home together.’
+After that, he held his peace on the subject.”</p>
+
+<p>“But you wouldn’t have given it up,
+would you?” asked the brown-eyed blonde,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not—but Tom didn’t know
+that. By the way, Emily, what is making
+Dorothy so late to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“I fancy she is engaged,” replied the girl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+with the dimple in her chin, demurely; “at
+least Jack Bittersweet was on his way to
+call on her a couple of hours ago, and I
+suppose—Pardon me, Frances, did you
+speak?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I was about to say, ‘how nice’—for
+Dorothy, I mean. By the way, girls, I—I
+am thinking of going to Omaha for a nice,
+long visit as soon as I can get ready.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I thought you had already refused
+Lola’s invitation,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I had. But, really I have bought
+so many pretty things of late that I can get
+ready for my visit without the slightest
+trouble, and as my last visit was cut short,
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I remember that quite well, dear.
+I remember that you came home a few days
+after Dorothy broke with poor Jack. But
+I don’t understand why you have been
+embroidering so much table linen lately.
+You surely will not need that for a visit to
+Omaha.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—no. I—I shall take it as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+present to Lola’s mother, I think. You
+have no idea of how fond she is of me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed, I have, dear,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, warmly.
+“I’ve often noticed that married women
+who have no grown sons <i>are</i> fond of you.
+It is rather a pity, as things turned out,
+that you cut your last visit short; I am
+really afraid, if you go now, that you will
+miss Dorothy’s wedding.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, dear, she will not miss it
+herself. Really, I think the poor girl
+would have lost her mind if she had lost
+Jack. These disappointments are so hard
+to bear that—”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall tell her that you said so, dear.
+I am sure she and Jack will both—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily,
+“do you suppose that Greek women used
+actually to wear those dowdy gowns on the
+street? Of course they would do very well
+for tea gowns, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t suppose anything of the kind,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “It
+was chiefly the men who made the antique<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+statues, wasn’t it? Very well, then, the
+poor creatures had no idea of style, and
+just reproduced the gowns they happened
+to admire themselves.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
+profile; “men always detest the ruling fashion
+of the hour. And yet, they seem to
+think we dress to please them,” she added,
+derisively.</p>
+
+<p>“I know it. And the women of ancient
+Greece were just like anybody else, I suppose,”
+replied the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“However, if they really wore white as frequently
+as they seem to, they must have
+had more money than I have to pay the
+laundress.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, or the principal street of Athens—I
+forget the name of it, must have been a
+good deal cleaner than State street,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+don’t suppose, however, that the carving
+of statues could have made much dirt, and
+really the ancient Greeks seem to have done
+little else.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate their system of civic organization<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+was—dear me, what was it? I had
+it all written down on the back of an invitation
+to dinner, and I must have lost it as
+I came along,” wailed the president. “Oh,
+dear, what shall I do?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, you can tell us what you
+remember,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, soothingly. “None of us know
+enough about it to detect the fact if you
+<i>are</i> wrong.”</p>
+
+<p>“It isn’t that; I’ve got it all at home in
+the old school book I copied it from. But,
+as I say, it was on the back of an invitation
+to dinner, and I can’t remember whether
+it was for next Tuesday or Thursday!”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, that is really serious,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“but perhaps Tom will remember.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tom remember the date of an invitation
+to dinner! How little you know about
+men. Why, he would tell me the wrong
+day, if he did remember, just to escape
+putting on his dress coat and going with
+me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! from what Helen says, you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+may be thankful that he goes at all. Her
+husband does not. She says—”</p>
+
+<p>“Helen didn’t manage him properly at
+first, that’s all. When Tom first began to
+declare he wouldn’t go to dinners, I would
+just say, ‘Very well, dear, we’ll both remain
+at home, and tell our would-be hostess
+the true reason why we didn’t come. And
+now, I often reap the benefit of that Spartan
+policy. Of course, he is sometimes detained
+at the office by important business,
+or even called off by a telegram just as we
+are about to start. However, I always remember
+that he is only human after all,
+and seldom revenge myself in any other
+way than by telling him that Mr. Troolygood
+sat next me at table. Life will be a
+much more complicated affair for me if that
+dear fellow ever takes it into his head to
+marry.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think you are perfectly safe for some
+time to come, dear,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “his married sister, with
+whom he lives, is anxious for him to marry.
+She has the habit of inviting any girl he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+seems to admire, so constantly to the house
+that she soon loses all her charm for him.”</p>
+
+<p>“No man likes courtship made easy,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “Mr.
+Troolygood will surely die a bachelor unless
+he succeeds some day in unearthing a
+girl whom his sister dislikes. That is
+hardly probable, either, since he invariably
+admires a girl with money—a habit, by the
+way, which I have also noticed in other
+young clergymen.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is not confined to young clergymen,
+dear,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Talk about women being mercenary,
+I have often noticed that men think
+much more of money than we do. We
+know that they must provide for us somehow,
+and the doing of it is their affair.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “what excellent mental training
+we do receive at this club! Dorothy
+was wondering the other day how we ever
+got along without it; and, indeed, so was I.
+A reputation for being intellectual is the
+nicest thing in the world; once you have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+it, you can be as silly as you choose, and
+people will feel actually grateful to you for
+unbending. It has its drawbacks, though.
+I find one must be more careful than ever
+to have cuffs and gloves immaculate.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Girls, a college professor asked
+me the other day why we always wear veils
+on the street!”</p>
+
+<p>“And what did you reply?” queried the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“To keep our faces clean! What did
+you suppose?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I thought you told him the
+truth. However, the more intellectual a
+man is the less he understands women.
+One of his students would—”</p>
+
+<p>“Know better than to expect the truth
+in reply to such a question? Of course he
+would,” said the president; “but oh, girls,
+if an octogenarian knew as much about us as
+a sophomore <i>thinks</i> he does, what a queer
+world this would be!”</p>
+
+<p>“Unpleasant rather than queer,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “Of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+course we understand men thoroughly; but
+that is a very different matter.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, very different,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “But aren’t they queer?
+Why, I once knew a man who called a girl
+a ‘most adorable little flirt,’ and then felt
+very much aggrieved when she kept on
+flirting after they became engaged!”</p>
+
+<p>“Lots of girls never have an opportunity
+to flirt until they <i>are</i> engaged,” remarked
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “To
+some men, an engagement ring on a girl’s
+hand has the same effect that a ‘Keep off
+the grass’ sign has on children.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “Oh, Marion, shall you also visit
+Lola this year?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not this century,” replied the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Didn’t you hear what
+happened the last time she was here?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no; except that she was to dine
+with you. What happened? Did she discuss
+art in a monologue from soup to coffee?
+or, did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, she did that; but it wouldn’t have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+really mattered, except for—you see it was
+this way: when she was here last summer,
+she gave me one of her, well, <i>she</i> calls them
+paintings. I accepted it with profuse thanks;
+and hung it in the darkest corner of the attic
+as soon as her train was well out of Chicago.
+When I heard that she was coming
+back, I fished the picture out of its corner,
+and gave it a prominent place in the parlor,
+telling her it had been there all the time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I’m sure she ought to be satisfied
+with that,” said the president; “not
+many people care enough for Lola to hang
+her pictures even temporarily on the parlor
+walls. The one she gave me is in the
+cook’s bedroom—the poor woman has been
+complaining of insomnia lately.”</p>
+
+<p>“No wonder. Unluckily I forgot to
+coach my family, and when we came in
+from the dinner table, my brother Frank
+joined us. You know Lola <i>is</i> pretty when
+she remembers to comb her hair and remove
+her painting apron.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy on us! did he criticise her painting
+while she was present?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“No. He only said, ‘Hello, where did
+you get this new picture? I never saw it
+before. Looks like the one that has been
+vegetating in the attic!’”</p>
+
+<p>“You needn’t tell us the rest, dear; we
+all know Lola. It was too bad, when you
+had only done it to spare her feelings, too!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear! dear!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “I wonder why the most
+hopeless artists are ever the most generous
+with their productions? They seem to
+wish to give them away, whereas—”</p>
+
+<p>“Self-preservation, dear. When one has
+done something dreadful, one dislikes to be
+constantly reminded of the fact!” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “You know
+my eldest sister, don’t you? Well, her
+husband has an awful temper, but he seldom
+gives Sophie any trouble. Whenever
+he begins to be unpleasant, she says: ‘Isn’t
+it fortunate, dear; if you should die, or we
+should ever separate, I could have a good
+income, anyhow—I could just publish in
+book form the poems you wrote to me before
+we were married!’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And what then?” asked the president,
+breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he kicks the dog or snubs his typewriter;
+but he never says another word to
+Sophie.”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet, Sophie used to be considered
+dull at school,” said the president, thoughtfully.
+“Well, that’s only another proof that
+even genius needs a special opportunity.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of opportunities,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses, “have you heard
+of Marie’s last mishap? No? I thought
+not. You know that delightful young physician
+who cares nothing for society, and
+declines all non-professional invitations, and
+never calls on a woman under seventy.
+Well, Marie has developed neuralgia, grip,
+and nervous prostration in swift succession,
+and he has been called in to attend her.
+You see, it is this way: it gives her an opportunity
+to see him in bewitching tea-gowns,
+and she studies new poses on the
+sofa when she is not taking powders.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! And when are they to be married?”
+asked the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Never, dear. He says he had long loved
+her silently, and was trying to summon up
+enough courage to tell her so. Now, however,
+he sees that she is too delicate to
+make a good wife for a hardworking professional
+man!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! No wonder Marie’s little
+brother told mine he wants to go away to
+boarding-school,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Well, I always did hate
+deceit. I never—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way,” said the president, “I
+thought you had such a bad headache that
+you could not go out to-day.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was when mamma wanted me to
+accompany her to a meeting at the orphan
+asylum, dear. I felt ever so much better
+after she was gone.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am so glad you care so much for the
+club,” said the president. “I gave up a
+luncheon at my mother-in-law’s, in order
+to come, myself. I wanted awfully to go—all
+the other guests were lovely old ladies—perfect
+walking encyclopædias on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+subject of servants, and the proper time to
+hunt moths or cut first teeth.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I forgot to tell you, dear,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “Tom’s
+mother sent you a message by me that she
+had put the luncheon off until Friday because
+you were so disappointed at your inability
+to be present.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, if she expects me to waste a
+whole morning on those old frumps, she is
+very much mistaken, that is all. And you
+are no true friend of mine, or you would
+have told her I had an engagement for that
+day, too!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! You seem to forget that I
+am afraid of her, too. She was my old
+Sunday-school teacher, and she would as
+lief be disagreeable to me as to you. Besides,
+it is not as if Tom had no unmarried brothers.
+One has to consider her feelings, you
+know, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear. You always were
+charitable, Emily—I can just as well go to
+bed with a cold on Friday. Well, I fear we
+must adjourn now. What a profitable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
+meeting we have had! I only wish Dorothy
+could have heard some of the arguments
+that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, indeed, Dorothy needs all of the
+good sense she can possibly obtain in
+any form,” murmured the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Not now that she is about to be married,
+dear,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “However, I am sure that nothing
+save death or a boil on her chin will
+ever keep her away from another meeting.
+She says she considers the founding of this
+club her life work.”</p>
+
+<p>“And a noble one, too,” said the president,
+warmly. “Well, if ever a girl entered
+upon matrimony with bright prospects, <i>she</i>
+is that one. I verily believe she could
+make Jack Bittersweet do anything she
+wanted, whether he liked or not!”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, she has begun well,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>When the girl with the dimple in her chin
+reached the blue-eyed girl’s home, she ran
+up the stairs to her friend’s room, two steps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+at a time, and burst open the door. That
+young person was discovered, radiant with
+smiles in spite of the traces of recent tears;
+she was seated at her desk, and the waste
+basket was overflowing with crumpled
+sheets of her best note paper.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, you dear, Dorothy,” said the visitor,
+“tell me all about it, do! I was dying
+to come earlier, but I wanted to see what
+Frances would do when she heard that Jack
+was coming here, so I had to stay all
+through the meeting. Evelyn says that
+no girl ever had brighter prospects in marrying
+than you, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! then, they all know I am to be
+married, do they? Did Jack tell? I
+thought he would hold his peace, because—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, not exactly; but he told me that
+he was on his way here to ask you to forgive
+him for everything he ever did! And
+he said he just wouldn’t come away until
+you set your wedding-day, and so—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! he told you that, did he? Well,
+it is set, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Dear old Jack, he must be the happiest
+fellow in the world, for he—”</p>
+
+<p>“M—I can’t say that he looked it when
+he went away; however, some people have
+such a way of concealing their emotions. I
+never had myself; I am as open as the day—anybody
+could know just what I intended
+to do all the time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course; I told Jack how it would be
+from the start. But I don’t see why he
+looked so melancholy when he came away.
+Didn’t you set the wedding day early
+enough to please him?”</p>
+
+<p>“He said he didn’t want to know the
+day, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t want to know the day of his
+own wedding! Why, the poor boy must
+be crazy; he—”</p>
+
+<p>“The date of his <i>own</i> wedding! Emily
+Marshmallow, are you out of your mind?
+I said the date of <i>my</i> wedding, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would you mind feeling my pulse,
+dear, or examining my eye to see if there is
+a look of insanity in it! For really, I don’t
+see how you and Jack can be married to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+each other on different days, unless you are
+thinking of matrimony on the instalment
+plan; and that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Married to each other? Jack Bittersweet
+and I? Why, Emily Marshmallow,
+you haven’t listened to a word I have been
+saying, when I have been telling you for
+the last half hour I am to marry Clarence
+Lighthed, the only man I ever loved, next
+month, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy, don’t! If Jack did not
+ask you to marry him to-day, it was only
+that he hadn’t the courage, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“He did, dear—twice. But you see, I
+had accepted Clarence an hour before he
+came. Well, it is a great comfort to know
+that I never encouraged poor Jack! You
+will bear me out in that, I know. And oh,
+Emily, Clarence is the dearest person in
+the world! You can’t imagine how happy
+first love makes one! I—I wouldn’t say a
+word to Frances now if I saw her with
+one eyebrow a full half inch higher than
+the other. But, what is the matter?
+You—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I—I feel a little faint, dear; that is all.
+Did you—er, try to soften the blow to
+Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“I did. I advised him to marry Frances;
+said that I knew she would make him happier
+than I could ever have done, and their
+marriage was the one thing needed to complete
+my own happiness.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, he wouldn’t marry her now if—not
+if she was a wealthy young widow.
+Did—did Jack say anything about me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—yes; he seemed sort of
+offended with you for something. I don’t
+know what it was. The only reference I
+made to you in our whole conversation, was
+to tell him that you had seen all along that
+I intended to marry Clarence. Of course
+if you had not been able to make him understand
+that fact, it was his own stupidity,
+and not your fault. Oh, I tell you, I
+always defend my friends—even before they
+are attacked! But what is the matter?
+You look sort of queer?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I was only wondering what they
+would say at the club! They—they seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+to have an idea that you would marry Jack,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Marry Jack Bittersweet! What on
+earth could have put such an idea into their
+heads? I only hope, Emily, that you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no, dear; nothing of the kind.
+I—I merely told them that he was on his
+way to ask you to marry him, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very thoughtful it was of you, dear. I
+only wish I could ask you to be bridesmaid
+for your pains; but Clarence has somehow
+gotten an idea that you are not a friend of
+his. There was no one else to oppose the
+match, and I—I doubt if he’d have asked
+me quite as soon if you hadn’t; so I shall
+try to forgive you, in time, for the things
+you have said about him.”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin
+gasped, but her only reply, was: “I really
+don’t know what the other members of the
+club will say. They—”</p>
+
+<p>“The club. I am so glad you mentioned
+it. There was a meeting to-day, was there
+not? I was just writing Evelyn a letter
+when you came in, saying—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“That you want us to meet twice a week
+after this! How nice; that is just—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear; it was a letter of resignation
+I was writing. Dear Clarence has such a
+horror of intellectual women, that I—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, Dorothy, you know when you
+founded the club, you said the membership
+would be for life, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Emily Marshmallow, I never said anything
+of the kind! And, if I <i>did</i>, only a
+person of your colossal selfishness would
+expect me to waste my time on a mere
+club when I want to devote eighteen
+hours a day to the selection of my trousseau,
+and the other six to Clarence! And,
+if you want to know my real opinion of the
+club, I consider it the greatest bore among
+my social duties!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a><br /><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="copyright"><br /><br />
+<b>PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY<br />
+&amp; SONS CO. AT THE LAKESIDE<br />
+PRESS, FOR WAY &amp; WILLIAMS,<br />
+CHICAGO, U.S.A. MDCCCXCVII<br /></b>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<div class="tnote"><div class="center">
+<b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></div>
+
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired. This text uses both single
+quotation marks and double quotation marks within dialogue. This was
+retained as printed.</p>
+
+<p>Page 82, “nowaday” changed to “nowadays” (nowadays don’t intend)</p>
+
+<p>Page 216, “absense” changed to “absence” (bears my absence)</p>
+
+<p>Page 245, removed repeated word “heard” (you heard Miss Blanque)</p>
+
+<p>Page 296, “he” changed to “her” (criticise her painting)</p></div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50751 ***</div>
+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: The Teacup Club
+
+Author: Eliza Armstrong
+
+Release Date: December 23, 2015 [EBook #50751]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEACUP CLUB ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Emmy, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_The_ Teacup Club
+
+    BY
+    ELIZA ARMSTRONG
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    _CHICAGO_
+    WAY AND WILLIAMS
+    1897
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT
+    WAY AND WILLIAMS
+    1897
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+A portion of the matter in this little book originally appeared in _The
+New York Journal_, and is used by the courtesy of W. R. Hearst, Esq.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                PAGE
+       I THE TEACUP CLUB IS FORMED                            9
+      II THE CLUB DISCUSSES WOMAN IN POLITICS                39
+     III MAN’S REAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN    65
+      IV CONCERNING THE HEROINE OF TO-DAY                    89
+       V THE CLUB SETTLES SOME CURRENCY PROBLEMS            112
+      VI THE PIONEER NEW WOMAN                              136
+     VII WOMAN IN LEGISLATION                               159
+    VIII AN EXECUTIVE MEETING                               185
+      IX ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF POLITICAL POWER            210
+       X WOMAN AS A PARLIAMENTARIAN                         236
+      XI THE CLUB INVESTIGATES THEOSOPHY                    261
+     XII A DISCUSSION AND A SURPRISE                        285
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+The Teacup Club is Formed
+
+
+“You can never be sure of pleasing a man,” sighed the blue-eyed girl,
+who was calling on her dearest friend; “that is, if you try to please
+him,” she added reflectively.
+
+“I suppose not,” replied the girl with the dimple in her chin, “unless
+you succeed in concealing from him the fact that you are trying to
+please him.”
+
+“H’m; yes, I suppose there is something in that. However, we ought not
+to be hard on the poor things. The whole truth with the sterner sex is
+that they are never really practical. They—”
+
+“How clever you are!” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+admiringly. “Sometimes it does seem a pity that you are to marry Jack,
+instead of studying law, or—theosophy or something like that. Really,
+a very little study would fit you for the bar, but of course Jack—”
+
+“I don’t intend to marry Jack,” said the blue-eyed girl, calmly.
+
+“O, my goodness, does he know that?”
+
+“I don’t know whether he knows that or not; but he does know that I’ve
+broken my engagement with him. I sent back his ring, and—”
+
+“Dear, dear; that ring must have already cost its real value in
+messenger fees alone. Let me see, how many times have you sent—”
+
+“And you may know that I am in earnest when I tell you that I am to
+pour tea for Nell to-morrow, and everybody will comment on its absence.”
+
+“Do you want me to come over and stay with you to-night, dear?” queried
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“No, thank you, dear. I can just as well talk it over with you now. Of
+course it was Jack’s fault.”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin was silent.
+
+“Well, Emily Marshmallow, I did think that you, of all people, would
+sympathize with me, and—”
+
+“Look here, Dorothy; of course I sympathize with you, but you remember
+when you quarreled with Jack the last time I—”
+
+“I remember the last time that Jack quarreled with me,” replied the
+blue-eyed girl, with dignity.
+
+“Well, I sympathized violently with you, and the consequence was that
+you wouldn’t speak to me for a month after you made up with him!”
+
+“O, of course, if you really do sympathize with me, I—”
+
+“You might know that. But tell me all about it. Is it that you want a
+new ring which is too expensive for anything save a peace offering? Or
+is Edwin coming home on a visit? Or has—”
+
+“Nothing so frivolous, my dear; this is a serious matter. Jack—that is,
+Mr. Bittersweet, joined a new club without even letting me know that
+he meant to do it. I shouldn’t have minded if he had only told of it
+beforehand—”
+
+“Of course not, dear; for then you could have made him give it up!”
+
+“Exactly. Well, when I did find it out, I told him that I plainly saw
+he did not really love me, and that it was lucky I had discovered the
+fact before it was too late!”
+
+“How very original you are!” murmured the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “Go on, dear.”
+
+“Yes, it is all over and I never was so hap—happy in my life! Where is
+my hand—handkerchief? I—I got s—something in my eye on the way here,
+and—”
+
+“Here it is, dear, and let me draw down the window shade, so the light
+will not hurt your poor eye.”
+
+“You needn’t, dear. I saw them coming up the street a minute or two ago
+and all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet thinks he can make
+me jealous by parading up and down with a made-up thing like Frances,
+he is very much mistaken!”
+
+“I suppose you have coaxed Edwin’s sister to write and tell him that
+you have broken with Jack?” queried the girl with the dimple in her
+chin.
+
+“No, I haven’t. I did that last time and he was so unpleasant after we
+made up!”
+
+“Who was unpleasant? Jack?”
+
+“Of course not, goosie. A man is always nicer than usual just after
+making up. No, it was Edwin; he—men are so awfully selfish, you know!
+Just because I was nice to him while I was angry with Jack, he imagined
+I had treated him badly—did you ever hear of such a thing? How did
+he ever expect me to bring Jack to his senses in time for the opera
+season, without a little jealousy as an incentive?”
+
+“Well, you know, men are so awfully vain that he probably thought—”
+
+“That I really liked him? Perhaps he did. I never thought of that.
+Still, badly as he has behaved, I can’t help a kindly feeling for him.
+You see, I had such a lovely new gown for the opera and everybody knew
+that I expected to go often, so—”
+
+“You might even have had to give in and acknowledge that you were
+wrong, but for Edwin!”
+
+“No, dear,” replied the blue-eyed girl, with great dignity. “Never
+that. I really expected to marry Jack, you know, and it would never
+have done to establish such a precedent. How could I ever expect a
+happy married life, if I began it by acknowledging that I could ever be
+in the wrong?”
+
+“Very true, dear. By the way, do you think a peep at my lovely new
+waist would do you any good?”
+
+“You seem to have misunderstood me entirely,” retorted the blue-eyed
+girl, severely, “I am feeling quite happy. Indeed, I don’t know that I
+ever felt happier in my life, unless it was the day upon which I was
+mistaken for my younger sister!”
+
+“But what are you going to do in regard to Jack?”
+
+“Why, Emily Marshmallow, how stupid you are to-day! You seem to
+imagine that I want to be flattered, like a man, by being asked to
+explain things. I told you, didn’t I? that Jack and I quarreled about
+his membership in a new club. Very well, I too, have decided to join a
+club!”
+
+“Humph, that isn’t a bad idea. But what kind of a club? An Ibsen or a
+Browning one, I suppose. I notice that men dislike particularly to have
+us members of really intellectual clubs.”
+
+“Well, I did think of either an Ibsen or a Symphony club, but neither
+of them just seemed to suit me, so—well, the fact is that I’ve decided
+to found a club of my own.”
+
+“But even then you can’t always have it to suit you, because the other
+members—”
+
+“Oh, yes, I shall dear. You see, I’ll make all the—the by-laws and
+resolutions just as I want them, before I invite any one to join the
+club. I think I shall ask Evelyn to be the president, because she is
+married and accustomed already to making somebody do as she wishes.”
+
+“Dear, dear, I’m only afraid that you are too clever to—”
+
+“Succeed? Not quite so bad as that, I hope. Now, you see, the chief
+objection to Jack’s new club was that he wouldn’t tell me anything
+about it. Said he didn’t know just what its purpose was. As if a man
+would join a club without knowing—”
+
+“I begin to see now. You mean to keep the purpose of your own club a
+secret, too?”
+
+“That’s just it, and when Jack hears how nice it is, he’ll find out
+that we are a great deal cleverer than he thinks. I shall make the
+membership for life too, so—”
+
+“But you haven’t even told me the purpose of the club yet.”
+
+“The Advancement of Woman, dear. Jack hates advanced women and when I
+make up with him—”
+
+“But you said a moment ago that you would never—”
+
+“Good gracious, Emily,” cried the blue-eyed girl, hastily, “do stop
+talking a moment and let me get in a word edgewise: I’ve been trying
+for half an hour to get a chance to ask you where the new waist you
+offered to show me, is, and I can’t—”
+
+“Here it is in my wardrobe and isn’t it a dream? You may try it on, if
+you like.”
+
+“Thank you, dear; but no. I care so little for such frivolities, now
+that I have come to enjoy the real intellectual life. Did you ever see
+such darling sleeves? It does seem that a girl who could not be happy
+in them must—”
+
+“Have at least a boil on her chin! Yes, doesn’t it? But really,
+Dorothy, you make me ashamed of caring so much for such vanities. Why,
+those very sleeves cost me two whole nights’ rest!”
+
+“Never mind about that, dear; we can’t all be intellectual. Look here,
+Emily Marshmallow, if you’ll promise never to breathe it as long as you
+live, I’ll tell you the last mean thing that Frances—”
+
+“Oh, do! She has a new gown that would arouse the envy of Dr. Mary
+Walker. All chiffon, spangles, embroidery and—”
+
+“I know. My story has reference to that very gown. You know how very
+mysterious she always is about her new things!”
+
+“M’hm. As if anybody cared to know about them! Do tell me if her waist
+is made—”
+
+“Well, I—you see, it was this way: I knew she was having her new gown
+made at Madame’s, and I accidentally discovered that she was to be
+fitted on Friday at two.”
+
+“Oh, I see. Then, you called upon Frances at one o’clock, thinking that
+she’d take you along, rather than risk offending Madame by being late?”
+
+“No; Frances isn’t afraid of Madame—she doesn’t owe her anything.
+I just happened in at Madame’s at half-past two. They told me she
+was busy, but I said I knew she wouldn’t mind if I stepped into the
+fitting-room for a minute, as I had a letter from Paris and wanted to
+tell her all about the new skirts.”
+
+“Oh, you clever thing!”
+
+“Yes. So in I bounced, and there stood Frances, all in billowy waves of
+turquoise blue and—”
+
+“But I thought her new gown was green and white, with—”
+
+“And you should have seen how sweetly she smiled. So sweetly that I
+knew she was wild with rage!”
+
+“But did you make it right with the Madame? Did—”
+
+“Pretended that I must have left the Paris letter at home, and told her
+I’d fetch it the next day. Then, after a good, long look at Frances, I
+came away and—”
+
+“And ran in to tell all the other girls how her new gown was made?”
+
+“M’hm. Annie first: you know, she hasn’t a bit of originality and
+she said, at once, that she’d have her new one just like it. Then, I
+dropped in at Evelyn’s tea and—”
+
+“Told all the others, too. M’hm.”
+
+“Yes. But what do you think that cat, Frances, had done? She’d been
+there before me and told them all that I had come into the fitting-room
+out of sheer curiosity—I curious, the idea! And the gown she was trying
+on was not her own, after all, she said, but one about which Madame
+had asked her opinion and—”
+
+“Gracious, do you suppose that was the truth?”
+
+“Alas, I know it;” groaned the blue-eyed girl, “it belonged to Jack’s
+sister, Effie! Now, Effie detests Annie and when she sees her in a gown
+which is an exact reproduction of her own, she will—”
+
+“Won’t she, though? Well, my dear, Effie was an unknown quantity
+before, but now you may depend upon one thing—she will use any
+influence she may have with Jack against you.”
+
+“True. And all because of such a silly thing, too! But, then, people
+are so frivolous. Well, you will join my new club, won’t you?”
+
+“Mercy, yes. You had better invite Frances, too; she will tell Effie
+all about it, and the first time Effie is offended with Jack, she will
+tell him, thinking to annoy you both—”
+
+“I shall, though it is hardly necessary, either, for, once started,
+everybody will talk of nothing else. But, whatever you do, don’t tell
+Dick a word about it. Evelyn’s husband is sure to tell him, anyhow, and
+then he can’t say that women never keep secrets.”
+
+“What utter nonsense. Of course women can keep secrets! Why, I once
+knew a girl intimately for two whole years and in all that time she
+never told me that her curls were false. I wouldn’t have known it to
+this day, if I hadn’t walked into her room one day when she had washed
+them and hung them up to dry. I’ve told that story to a dozen men, and
+I’ve never yet found one of them magnanimous enough to acknowledge that
+it proved my point!”
+
+“You can’t prove anything to a man, dear, unless he wants it proved.
+Well, I must go. You’ll not fail me at the first meeting of the Teacup
+club, then?”
+
+“The Teacup club,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+disappointedly, “Why I thought it was to be a really intellectual club,
+and—”
+
+“So it is. But, you know, real merit is always modest. If a lot of men
+get up such a thing, they give it a six-syllabled name; but we wish to
+evade, rather than seek, notoriety and, besides, as I said before, once
+we get it started, the whole town will talk of nothing else!”
+
+It fell upon a bright sunshiny day, and the meeting for the
+organization of the Teacup club was well attended.
+
+“And all the girls are wearing their newest gowns, too,” whispered the
+blue-eyed girl to the girl with the dimple in her chin, “that shows
+that they appreciate the importance of the undertaking.”
+
+“And what an awfully becoming hat you are wearing,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “If I owned such a milliner’s dream I should
+not mind anything that could happen to me.”
+
+“Which means that you have something unpleasant to tell me,” said the
+blue-eyed girl. “You need not be uneasy,” she added, “I’ll not move a
+muscle, for Frances is looking this way.”
+
+“Well, then, I heard her tell Nell that Jack comes to her almost every
+day for sympathy and—”
+
+“Humph. When a man says ‘sympathy’ he means flattery! Is that all?”
+
+“All? Why I thought—”
+
+“Yes, dear. You see, I thought perhaps you had stronger proof than her
+own assertion. Why, Frances, dear, how well you are looking to-day! I
+have not seen you for such an age that I thought you must be out of
+town.”
+
+“Has it seemed so long to you, dear?” returned the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Now, to me the days go so swiftly that, as I sometimes tell Ja—Mr.
+Bittersweet, I mean—I often forget whether it is Saturday or Monday!”
+
+“So you have seen the poor fellow, have you?” returned the blue-eyed
+girl, with an angelic smile; “it is so good of you to console him. But,
+indeed, you are always good about such things and so modest about it,
+too, that but for the men themselves, we should never know how hard
+you work just to induce them to come and be comforted!”
+
+“I—why,—I—” stammered the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Yes, indeed, I was defending you only the other day. I was quite angry
+with Marion for saying that your house should be called ‘An Asylum for
+the Rejected.’ I was so indignant that I just told her that, for my
+part, I thought we all ought to be grateful to you for consoling the
+poor fellows and helping to keep them out of mischief when they are
+feeling so badly. I reminded her, too, that you must do it out of pure
+philanthropy—for you never seem to get anything out of it. Really, I
+never saw you looking quite so well; you have such a fine color and—oh,
+here is Evelyn, at last, and we can call the meeting to order!”
+
+“Why, Evelyn is wearing her old gown,” cried the girl with the classic
+profile, “I call that downright mean! I had thought I could get such a
+good chance to study the draping of it while she was on the platform.”
+
+“Perhaps, that is why she didn’t wear it,” returned the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Mercy, is it me they are calling to order? Why, didn’t you
+tell me before; I—”
+
+“Dear me, girls,” the little woman on the platform was saying, “I don’t
+know that I ought to be president. It seems to me that we should have
+an election or something.”
+
+“That is not necessary,” said the blue-eyed girl, “don’t you remember?
+I asked you to be president, in the first place. But if you’d rather,
+I’ll move that you are to be the chief officer, and Emily, here, will
+second the motion, won’t you Emily?”
+
+“Why, yes of course,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“That does seem more regular,” said the little woman on the platform,
+in a relieved tone. “I wonder if I ought to make a speech of
+acceptance?”
+
+“Not unless you choose;” said the blue-eyed girl, “harmony is the
+chief study of this club, and—”
+
+“Oh, if it is to be a club for the study of harmony, I can’t join;”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses, “I don’t know a thing about music
+and—”
+
+“I’m afraid you have not been paying attention,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, severely. “The club is organized for the advancement of woman and
+I don’t know a girl anywhere who would be more benefited by it than
+yourself. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose we ought to assess dues, or
+something. I know that Ja—I mean a man I know—is always talking about
+dues at his clubs.”
+
+“Oh, but this is to be entirely different from a man’s club,” said the
+president, “and, then, what is the use of assessing dues, anyhow?”
+
+“We might give the money to charity,” suggested the girl with the
+classic profile.
+
+“Oh, well, if we did that, why not let each of us give what she wants
+to charity and be done with it?” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Yes, of course,” said the president; “dear me, I had no idea that
+it was so easy to organize a club, or I’d have done it long ago. It
+isn’t half as much trouble as giving a tea and you don’t run any risk
+of offending people by forgetting to invite them and then having to
+convince them that the card was lost in the mails.”
+
+“Talking of teas,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I—”
+
+“Pardon me,” said the president, gently, “but if this is a club for the
+advancement of woman, ought we to talk about teas?”
+
+“But you began it, yourself,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I
+only—”
+
+“I think I said merely that the club is ever so much nicer than a tea,”
+said the president.
+
+“And so it is,” said the blue-eyed girl, “though, by the way, Nell’s
+last one was lovely—there were enough men present to amuse us, whereas—”
+
+“There are usually so few that they have to be amused, lest they get
+lonesome,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh, girls, have you heard
+that Clarissa—”
+
+“Oughtn’t we to be attending to business,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “instead of talking about Clarissa? I saw her myself only an hour
+ago and if there was anything exciting to tell, she would have—”
+
+“But this _has_ a connection with the club,” insisted the brown-eyed
+blonde. “She wants to become a member!”
+
+“She just can’t be anything of the kind,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“the idea! A girl whose reputation for intellectuality rests upon the
+careless combing of her hair and a habit of wearing hats six months
+behind the mode.”
+
+“But how can we get out of it, if she says she wants to join?” said the
+president, with an anxious air.
+
+“Tell her that one of the rules of the club is that no person over the
+age of twenty-two years can become a member,” suggested the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “she celebrated her twenty-third birthday
+about a week ago, you remember.”
+
+“But it isn’t one of the rules,” objected the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Then, we can make it a rule, right now,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+calmly. “I know just how it would be if we let Clarissa into the
+club—she’d insist upon having everything her own way right along. I
+hate such selfishness myself, and—”
+
+“So do I,” said the president; “by the way, oughtn’t we to make a note
+of that rule, at once?”
+
+“What would be the use of that?” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “we have all heard it. Oh, girls, I already see the benefit
+we are to derive from the influence of this club! Not a single soul
+has said a word in regard to Clarissa’s pretentions to being only
+twenty-three!”
+
+“Why, that’s true,” cried the president, “and very considerate of us it
+was, too, when we all know how ridiculous it is!”
+
+“Oh, girls, I must tell you something,” cried the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I went with Clarissa to a reception given by her literary
+club the other evening and it was simply awful!”
+
+“Not a decent toilet in the room, of course,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.
+
+“Oh, I didn’t expect that—I knew it was a culture club. It seems that
+there had been an awful time over the programme. Some of the members
+wanted to have an Ibsen evening, while others declared for Browning.
+Finally, they decided upon a mixed programme, selections from them
+both, you know. I did not know that when I went.”
+
+“I should think not,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “otherwise,
+you—”
+
+“Would gladly have accepted the invitation—and been suddenly taken ill
+on the appointed day, of course. Well, when the papers and selections
+were being read, I studied my programme to keep my eyes from those
+appalling coiffures, and when I saw the word ‘Music’ on it, I felt like
+a person who has found an oasis in a desert!”
+
+“And had you?” queried the president, who had left the platform and
+joined the group about the narrator.
+
+“No. They played something from Wagner!”
+
+“And you?” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Oh, I was in a comatose condition by that time. Nothing mattered.
+After the interminable programme they served refreshments.”
+
+“You felt better then?” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“No, I didn’t. They had tea and wafers! Tea and wafers after Ibsen,
+Browning and Wagner! And then Clarissa vanished and I couldn’t get
+away. The people present were all very distinguished; one of the
+members had written an epic poem which would have appeared in Harper’s
+if it had not been lost in the mails; one of them had invented a
+rational dress for men and another had once been asked to deliver a
+lecture upon ‘Thought Transference’ before a mothers’ meeting at an
+orphan asylum!”
+
+“My goodness, no wonder you wanted to go home!” cried the brown-eyed
+blonde.
+
+“I did—badly. By and by, while I was wandering about the rooms in
+search of Clarissa, I found a woman who looked as unhappy as I felt. I
+was afraid to speak to her, lest she be somebody very remarkable, but
+she asked me, timidly, if I was the lady who had actually worn a rainy
+day dress, in public. I assured her that I was not, and after that we
+got on famously.”
+
+“But who was she?” the president asked.
+
+“I don’t know her name, but after we had discussed Ibsen and Browning
+a little, I asked what she had done. She replied, modestly: ‘Oh, I am
+the person who always read the Woman’s page in the daily papers!’ After
+that, we talked just like ordinary people, and I didn’t see Clarissa
+when she came to look for me!”
+
+“My goodness, girls, we really ought not to laugh so,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose, “because this club is devoted to the advancement
+of woman, and—”
+
+“That is entirely different,” said the president. “Did Ibsen, Browning
+or Wagner ever do anything for the advancement of woman, I’d like to
+know?”
+
+“Of course not,” said the blue-eyed girl, promptly. “How very absurd!”
+
+“Besides, our club is laid out on entirely new lines,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Yes, isn’t it?” returned the president; “Oh, girls, I quite forgot to
+tell you that we shall have to pay rent for this room if we hold our
+meetings here, and we haven’t made any provision for paying it.”
+
+“But what is the use of making provision, when it isn’t due yet?” asked
+the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Why—er, that is very true,” said the president; “I only wish I was as
+good a business woman as you!”
+
+“Oh, I often feel that I have a great deal to learn yet,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, modestly. “By the way, Evelyn, what did your husband
+say when you told him that you had decided to join a club?”
+
+“He said—Oh, girls, I’m almost ashamed to tell you, but then Tom is
+only a man, after all. He said: ‘Then, may the Lord have mercy upon my
+wretched digestion!’”
+
+“As if women had nothing to do but cook and keep house! when lots of
+us know nothing about either of them,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, indignantly. “Girls, I wonder why it is that if a woman
+studies law or anything like that, somebody is sure to say that she is
+going outside of her sphere, while nobody thinks anything of the kind
+if a man becomes a chef or invents a food for infants?”
+
+“Oh, if you expect logic from a man!” said the president, shrugging her
+shoulders; “however, I expected it, too, before I was married. I know
+better now.”
+
+“Dear, dear, isn’t the Advancement of Woman delightful?” cried the
+girl with the eyeglasses. “After this, when we want to know anything,
+we needn’t go to the trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or the
+encyclopædia; we can just discuss it at the club, and—”
+
+“Why do you bother with those horrid books? I never do,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “They are so heavy and always dusty, too.
+Now, I just ask the nearest man what I want to know. If he happens to
+be wrong, I can always cite my authority and it gives the next man a
+double pleasure in setting me right.”
+
+“What a clever thing you are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “you
+always make me think of what somebody said about er—Juliet, I think:
+‘To know her is a liberal education.’”
+
+“Oh, that is nothing. Why, I know a Vassar girl who has studied Greek
+and all that sort of thing and she invariably misspells several simple
+words whenever she writes to a man, so he may think himself so much
+cleverer than her and—”
+
+“And I know a girl who asks every man, the first time she meets him, to
+explain the Australian ballot system. You see, it is a thing they all
+have to know, so they—”
+
+“Goodness me, I should think she would get awfully tired of the
+answer,” said the president.
+
+“She does. She told me not long ago that she really must invent a new
+stock question, for she could hardly keep from yawning now, while—”
+
+“Speaking of yawning,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde, “Teddy Crœsus
+doesn’t send Molly flowers or bonbons any more!”
+
+“I don’t see what that has to do with yawning,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.
+
+“More than you may think, dear. You know Molly always asks a man if a
+premonition of danger has ever been the means of saving his life. She
+doesn’t ask it the first time they meet, but saves it for some special
+occasion. Well, one evening at a reception, Teddy seemed disposed to
+talk to Florence too much, and Molly asked him the question then,
+because she knew—”
+
+“That he would stay with her as long as she allowed him to talk about
+himself! Yes, of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“M’hm. Well, he was in the midst of a long story about how he once
+escaped from being in a railroad wreck by missing his train. Molly was
+listening with breathless interest when she saw Florence stop within
+two feet of her. She couldn’t resist one glance of triumph and that
+glance was her ruin.”
+
+“It was? Did he look up just then and remember Flo—”
+
+“No, dear. But just as Molly looked at her, she gave a mighty yawn.
+Well, you know, yawning is contagious and Molly had been at a ball the
+night before, so she yawned, too. Teddy’s eyes were on her and—”
+
+“And now Florence gets his violets and bonbons! Well, isn’t that a
+story without a moral?” cried the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“It certainly is,” groaned the president. “Well, girls, I fear we must
+adjourn, though it is hard to break up such an intellectual talk. For
+my part, I shall go back to the petty cares of life with renewed
+energy after a breath of air from a higher plane.”
+
+“I, too,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I feel now as if petty
+gossip and scandal could never interest me again.”
+
+The president and the blue-eyed girl had walked four blocks, when the
+former suddenly stopped.
+
+“There, I knew I had forgotten something,” she cried; “at first, I
+thought it was only to order dinner, but now I remember that I did not
+suggest a topic for discussion at our next meeting!”
+
+“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,” said the blue-eyed girl, “nobody
+would have had time to prepare anything for it, if you had; there is so
+much going on in our set this week, and—”
+
+“Very true,” replied the president, “and all the members are so much
+interested in intellectual topics, anyhow, that they are quite prepared
+to discuss them extemporaneously as we did to-day.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+The Club Discusses Woman in Politics
+
+
+The Teacup club was called to order fifteen minutes before the
+appointed time at its second meeting. “We are all here, you know, and
+there is no use in waiting,” observed the president, as she rapped for
+order with a jeweled hatpin.
+
+“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, who had been reading
+up in parliamentary usage.
+
+“I am so glad to see you all here,” said the president, “I was afraid
+that Effie’s luncheon might—”
+
+“Keep some of us away? Not from this club,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I believe she chose the day just on purpose to break
+up the meeting, so I declined her invitation.”
+
+“Did you?” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I didn’t. Effie is not
+popular enough to offer her guests badly cooked food, so I went and
+excused myself as soon as we rose from the table on the plea that I
+should be late for the club if I remained longer.”
+
+“I wish I might have seen Effie when you said that,” remarked the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “However, your turn came when the door closed
+after you.”
+
+“I think not, dear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, calmly, “Effie
+is not yet distinctly engaged to my cousin Clarence, so—”
+
+“She has to be on decent terms with his family! I might have thought of
+that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“If they had been married, now of course I shouldn’t have dared to do
+it, but—”
+
+“I should think not. Oh, girls, speaking of what happens after the door
+closes, makes me think of what happened to Effie herself once. It was
+just after the affair with Teddy Crœsus, you know.”
+
+“The time she thought to make people believe she was engaged to him,
+and took him to dine with her grandmother—”
+
+“And her grandmother failed to understand the situation and
+congratulated them! Indeed, I do,” cried the girl with the Roman nose,
+“although, on account of being her dearest friend, I failed to hear it
+until two days after everybody else had.”
+
+“Well, you know she went to a breakfast at Nell’s a few days after
+that,” went on the girl with the eyeglasses, “and left early. As she
+reached the corner, she remembered a message for Nell and went back to
+deliver it. She burst into the room unannounced and found all the girls
+talking at once.”
+
+“About her, of course! What did—”
+
+“Yes. Any other girl would have known that, but Effie said: ‘Oh, girls,
+do tell me all about it; what has happened?’”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“And it was so sudden that not one of them could think of a thing to
+say until she had flounced out in a rage!”
+
+“The moral is: Never go back after once saying good-by,” said the
+president.
+
+“True,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “by the way, Dorothy, why weren’t
+you at Effie’s to-day?”
+
+“I fancy my invitation was lost in the mail,” replied the blue-eyed
+girl. “I shall mention it to Effie as soon as I see her, so she will
+not feel that I’ve slighted her intentionally. Why, Frances, dear, did
+those mean things let you sit all through luncheon with the end of
+your, ah—detachable hair showing and a dab of powder on your nose? How
+mean and envious some people are!”
+
+“I—I think it is cooler over on the other side,” panted the brown-eyed
+blonde, “and besides I must see Emily a minute.”
+
+“Why, Dorothy, you must have just heard something awfully nice, you
+look so happy and smiling,” said the girl with the classic profile,
+“but really this delightful club is making us all amiable.”
+
+“Yes, isn’t it?” said the blue-eyed girl, “I couldn’t be really mean to
+anybody now, if I tried.”
+
+“Excuse me for interrupting you, girls,” said the president, “but I
+want to announce our topic for discussion, and if I don’t do it at once
+I may forget it. Suppose we choose “Woman as a Political Factor?” That
+is a broad enough field even for us, and—”
+
+“So it is,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Well, I know one
+thing—whenever a woman really knows what she wants in a political line,
+she gets it.”
+
+“She does—and has ever since Eve held that first caucus with the
+serpent in the garden,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose, who had been
+furtively consulting her book on parliamentary usage. “Oh, girls, have
+you heard that the man Nell expects to marry is a politician?”
+
+“No; but it seems a very suitable match,” said the president, “for I
+don’t know a girl anywhere who can shake hands as gracefully as she
+does.”
+
+“Dear me, Evelyn, how generous you are,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I believe you could find something nice to say about
+everybody.”
+
+“I really believe I could,” said the president, modestly, “and, after
+all, it is easy enough, for if you don’t like the subject of your
+remarks, you can always say it in such a tone that it does more harm
+than good.”
+
+“You are so just,” sighed the girl with the classic profile, “and yet,
+men always declare there is no real fellowship among women!”
+
+“They confuse their own wish with the true state of affairs,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “They know that one woman is often
+more than a match for the whole male sex and when a number of women
+band together they—”
+
+“Usually get more than they want,” said the president. “I often wonder,
+though, why it is always so much easier to convince other men that you
+are in the right than it is to persuade the men of your own family?”
+
+“Perhaps we put it in a more flattering way to strangers,” suggested
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we just can’t help it, though,
+for we can’t always be—”
+
+“Looking up?” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Of course not—if we
+were our necks would grow so stiff that—”
+
+“We could never see our own boots; besides, we would be such frights
+that no man would look at us and so—”
+
+“It would do no good in the end,” finished the blue-eyed girl. “Still,
+I sometimes fancy, after all, that it might be well to be as nice to
+papa and the boys as I am to the men I dance with!”
+
+“My goodness,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we must be
+getting into metaphysics now! I’m not quite sure as to what metaphysics
+may be, so I always conclude that everything I don’t understand must—”
+
+“Be metaphysics? Do you? For my part, I always confuse metaphysics with
+hydraulics, though there is some difference between them I know,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde. “Let us ask Evelyn to explain them right now.
+She—”
+
+“Some other time, dear;” said the president, hastily. “You know we are
+discussing Woman in Politics to-day and—”
+
+“It would be unparliamentary to discuss anything else,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose.
+
+The president looked at her gratefully.
+
+“What a logical mind you have, dear,” she said. “I only wish you could
+be with me sometimes when Tom comes home late from his club. I know
+that there are all sorts of flaws in the stories he tells me, but
+somehow I never find them until after he has given me money and I’ve
+kissed him and made up.”
+
+“What a pity,” sighed the girl with the Roman nose, “for if you found
+out the real flimsiness of his stories sooner, you could get more
+money.”
+
+“Oh, dear, so I could,” wailed the president, “it is an awful thing to
+have a husband and not a logical mind!”
+
+“So it is,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “but, Evelyn, don’t
+tell anybody your opinion of me, for if you do, it may end in my having
+a logical mind and no husband, which is worse!”
+
+“Oh, isn’t this beautiful!” cried the girl with the eyeglasses,
+suddenly. “Really, girls, I am so stupid—that is not stupid as compared
+to a man, of course, but to the rest of you—that I wonder you allow me
+to belong to the club!” and there were tears in her eyes as she spoke.
+
+The president came down from the platform and kissed her.
+
+“Stupid! the idea of a girl with such a genius for hairdressing being
+stupid,” she cried.
+
+“And that girl a chafing-dish cook whose Welsh rarebits are sometimes
+successful, too!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Oh! speaking of chafing-dish cookery,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “You know that Annie used to be engaged to Eustace, don’t
+you?”
+
+“Yes. But what has that to do with chafing-dish cookery?” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “Girls, I have the loveliest recipe for making—”
+
+“It has a great deal to do with it. When he married Claire, Annie just
+smiled and selected a chafing-dish as a wedding present. She knew that
+Eustace was a confirmed dyspeptic and that Claire’s hands are so pretty
+that she could not possibly resist an opportunity to display them, so
+she would cook all sorts of dishes and—”
+
+“By the way, I hear that they have agreed to separate,” said the
+president. “I met Claire on the way to the manicure the other day. I
+wonder where Eustace is?”
+
+“He is in a sanitarium,” replied the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“the doctor thinks he will have to be taken into court on a stretcher
+when the divorce proceedings come up!”
+
+“And yet you told me the other day that Annie had no originality; I’ve
+learned this since then,” whispered the girl with the dimple in her
+chin to the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I only meant in the matter of gowns, dear,” was the apologetic reply.
+“By the way, Frances seems not quite herself, to-day.”
+
+“I’ve noticed that. I fancied you might have said something to her
+which—”
+
+“Oh, never; why, I consider Frances one of my dearest friends—”
+
+“I know that, dear. But what is the use of a friend, if you can’t be
+disagreeable to her sometimes?”
+
+“True. I sometimes think it is one reason that married women keep their
+friends longer. They have husbands to—”
+
+“Act as lightning rods and carry off their displeasure! Yes; it must
+really be quite a convenience.”
+
+“Very likely. Don’t you feel, after all, that Jack—”
+
+“Jack? Oh, I suppose you mean Mr. Bittersweet! No, I don’t feel any
+such thing, Emily Marshmallow, and you are no friend of mine if you
+champion him after the way he has behaved to me!”
+
+“I—I was only going to mention that he had resigned from that new club.
+He told me so himself.”
+
+“Oh, he has, has he? Well, isn’t that just like a man? And after he had
+paid all his dues for a year in advance, too, and gotten nothing out of
+it!”
+
+“Perhaps he—he did it hoping to please you, dear.”
+
+“His actions are perfectly indifferent to me, I assure you. Besides, if
+I made up with him to-morrow, Frances would always think I was jealous.
+I jealous of her—the idea! And, oh, Emily, the way he—he flirts with
+that girl is enough to b—break my heart!”
+
+“If you two girls have anything interesting to say, I wish you would
+say it aloud,” broke in the president. “Of course I am not curious, but
+some of the others may—”
+
+“Nothing at all interesting,” said the blue-eyed girl, promptly; “I—I
+was just telling Emily that this club seems the one thing needed to
+fill my cup of happiness to overflowing!”
+
+“And mine!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “By the way, isn’t it
+too provoking that curls are coming in again, just as veils are going
+out!”
+
+“And just at the windiest season of the year, too,” wailed the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Really, I often think that the fashions are
+invented by men—they are so contrary!”
+
+“Pardon me,” said the president, “I did not quite catch what you were
+saying, because Emily and Marion were both talking at the same time.
+It seems to me that since I have been married, I can’t follow even two
+conversations simultaneously, as I used.”
+
+“Speaking of that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “who do you tell
+your secrets to now that you are married?”
+
+“Why, I’ve hit on a splendid plan,” cried the president, “when I feel
+that I must just tell a secret or die—and I often feel that way—I wait
+until Tom is asleep and repeat the whole story in his ear. It relieves
+my mind and does no harm.”
+
+“Don’t be too sure of that,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“My sister Helen doesn’t agree with you at all. You mentioned it to
+her the other day and she thought it clever, and resolved to emulate
+your wisdom, so she tried it on her husband, and he wasn’t asleep, only
+pretending.”
+
+“But I always test my husband with a question or two, first,” said the
+president.
+
+“So did Helen. She asked him if he could fail to see how much she
+needed a new bonnet and wanted to know how much his share of the alumni
+banquet amounted to. He only snored in reply, and of course she thought
+she was safe and repeated the secret.”
+
+“With the result?” queried the blue-eyed girl, who was listening,
+breathless.
+
+“That it was all over his club the next day,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “It would not have made any difference,” she added,
+soberly, “only the secret was a rather clever trick I had played on
+Dick a few days before—and he belongs to the same club!”
+
+“And yet they say a man can keep a secret!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.
+
+“Who says so?” queried the girl with the eyeglasses. “Other men? Oh! I
+didn’t know but that you had heard some woman say so.”
+
+“Not unless a man was listening, dear, and that man a person whom—”
+
+“She wished to flatter immensely!”
+
+“Yes. Or who happened to know some of her own secrets! Girls, I’ve been
+wondering what on earth Annie sees in that horrid Fred Van Stupid? Now,
+I can understand the interest a girl takes in a brainless man who has a
+great deal of money, because then—”
+
+“He is exposed to so many temptations and her influence is sure to do
+him good,” finished the girl with the dimple in her chin, “for my part,
+I always let Ned Goldie come to see me oftener than usual during Lent.
+I feel that I am really doing some good and—”
+
+“Violets are an absolute necessity then and they are so dear that very
+few men can afford to present them in quantities.”
+
+“Oh, of course I let him bring me flowers if he wants to—it is so much
+better for him to spend his money in that way than to lose it at poker,
+that I feel quite a missionary.”
+
+“H’m; I don’t know about that, dear, though it’s very lovely of you to
+feel so,” sighed the president, “the fact is, that you are actually
+encroaching on what is really my violet money. Ned will play poker with
+my husband at the club at other seasons of the year, when he is not
+allowed to see much of you. He always loses and I make Tom divide his
+winnings with me, so—”
+
+There was a look of high resolve upon the face of the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.
+
+“After this, I shall make him bring me twice as many, so I can divide
+with you,” she said, sweetly. “Oh, no, don’t thank me; I do so love to
+feel that I am doing some good in the world and I do so disapprove of
+games of chance!”
+
+“You haven’t made up your mind as to whether you will accept him or
+not, have you?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Not yet, dear. His chances and Dick’s are about even, at present.
+Of course he doesn’t know that, though; I couldn’t exert such a good
+influence over him, if he was sure one way or the other.”
+
+“True,” sighed the president. “Oh, girls, I don’t know why men are so
+much more willing to be influenced for good before they are married
+than after. You may be sure of one thing though, Emily; he will say
+horrid things about you, if you finally do refuse him.”
+
+“No doubt,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “but when one
+tries to do good in this world, one can not begin to count the cost.”
+
+“Oh, Emily Marshmallow, what an angel you are!” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, kissing her. “You are always so busy doing good to others, that
+you never seem to give yourself a thought!”
+
+The brown-eyed blonde had by this time quite recovered her equanimity
+and was chatting, in low tones, with the girl who wore the eyeglasses.
+
+“Poor, dear Dorothy is looking rather ill, isn’t she?” she remarked,
+after a while.
+
+“Why, I hadn’t noticed it before, but now that you speak of it, she
+does. However, she can’t expect to look young always. By the way, I
+hear that she has quarreled with Jack Bittersweet again.”
+
+“Has she seen him lately? I didn’t know that she had,” returned the
+brown-eyed blonde, smiling affectionately into the mirror.
+
+“Your hair is looking lovely to-day,” returned the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Look here, Frances, do, like a dear, tell me all about the
+quarrel. You know all about it, of course, and I’ll not tell a soul.
+You know how well I can keep a secret and, besides, you owe it to me,
+for you wouldn’t have known a thing about Fred and Clarissa but for me!”
+
+“But I hadn’t a thing to do about the quarrel, oh, really now I hadn’t.
+Of course, people think it was all on my account but—why, I was in
+Omaha when I heard of it.”
+
+“By the way you came back from Omaha earlier than you expected, didn’t
+you?”
+
+“I—no; that is only a week earlier. How well Jack looks, doesn’t he?
+And what a flow of spirits he has.”
+
+“Is it possible? Now, Effie says that he is as cross as a bear. But,
+then, Effie is his sister, so—”
+
+“What she says is of no consequence. Well, since you know so much
+already, I may as well tell you the rest. I fear that it is Dorothy’s
+insane jealousy of me which made the trouble. Of course I have not a
+spark of vanity, but I can’t help seeing—”
+
+“But I heard that the quarrel was over Jack’s membership in a new club.”
+
+“That might have been, dear, but people that are engaged don’t always
+quarrel over the real bone of contention. Of course, I only hope I
+really had nothing to do with it; I have so many such things on my
+conscience already that I don’t want any more,” and she sighed softly.
+
+“Yes, but tell me about the quarrel, do.”
+
+“Well—er—the fact is that Jack hasn’t said a word to me about it,
+which makes me quite sure that I am the cause of it, unwilling as I am
+to think it.”
+
+“Then, you really don’t know any of the facts?” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Excuse me now, dear, I see Emily beckoning me; she wants
+to ask me about a new seamstress I’ve discovered. Frances doesn’t know
+a bit more than we do,” she whispered to the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Jack hasn’t told her a thing, so he evidently still cares
+for Dorothy, and she—”
+
+“That’s just it,” wailed the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I’d
+have succeeded in making it up long ago, if they didn’t care quite so
+much!”
+
+“Oh, dear,” said the president, “I am afraid that I am awfully stupid
+to-day, but the fact is that—”
+
+“By the way, I heard that you slept at a hotel last night, Evelyn,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “how on earth did that happen?”
+
+“It was all Tom’s fault,” returned the president, in an aggrieved
+tone, “only he, being a man, will not admit the fact. You see, he
+didn’t want to go to the reception at all, so he—”
+
+“But, Nell said she met him in the street and gave him a verbal
+invitation, which he accepted with effusion.”
+
+“Pshaw, if Nell knew my husband as well as I do, she’d be aware that
+the more affably he accepts an invitation, the more determined he is to
+escape by some plausible excuse at the last moment. He says that people
+always accept your regrets as genuine under such circumstances.”
+
+“Thank you for telling me that,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “My great aunt gives whist parties sometimes and, as she has
+a lot of lovely old lace and china and nobody in particular to leave
+it to, I don’t like to hurt her feelings by refusing her invitations
+outright. On the other hand, if I accept and happen to be placed at the
+table with her, I know I shall not receive so much as a cracked saucer
+in her will!”
+
+“But you and Tom did go to the reception, I know, for I saw you
+there,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “how did you manage it?”
+
+“To make him go? Oh, that was easy enough. I merely said that he wasn’t
+very well and as I did not like to go out and leave him alone, I would
+ask mamma to come and stay with him.”
+
+“Oh, then he agreed to go, did he?”
+
+“Yes, dear—said he had meant to go all along. But after that everything
+went wrong: his razor refused to do its work and he actually pretended
+that it was all because I had sharpened a lead pencil with it the other
+day, as if that could have—”
+
+“But why did you tell him that you had sharpened your pencil with it?”
+asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Because I cut my finger on the old thing and thoughtfully warned him
+that it was too sharp. Then, I—well my own wardrobe was full and I had
+hung up a few things in his, and the skirt of my new tailor-made gown
+was hanging over his dress coat. He pretended that it was all wrinkled
+and creased by that. Then, I had borrowed his box of neckties and
+neglected to return them, and he made such a fuss over my forgetfulness
+that I determined to give him a lesson. I saw him lay his latch key on
+the chiffonier ready to put in his other pocket and I didn’t say a word
+when he turned out the gas and went off without it.”
+
+“But how did you expect to get into the house when you returned?”
+
+“Oh! I slipped back into the room in the dark after he had gone down,
+and put it in my own pocket.”
+
+“As an object lesson in remembering. Good, I’m glad you did it,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“M’hm. I told the maid not to sit up for us, and I saw for myself that
+every door and window was fastened tight—for once Tom climbed in at the
+pantry window when he had forgotten his key and didn’t want me to know
+how late he stayed at the club.”
+
+“I suppose he complained next day because the window was open, too,”
+murmured the girl with the dimple in her chin, “men are so illogical!”
+
+“Well, no, dear; but he would have done so, only the clock happened to
+strike three as he came upstairs, and I counted the strokes aloud. Well
+Tom was cross at being kept waiting, but my gown fits so well that I
+felt at peace with all mankind.”
+
+“Even your own husband!” said the brown-eyed blonde. “It must indeed
+fit well.”
+
+“Yes. And I enjoyed the evening immensely, for I knew I had such a good
+joke on Tom when we got home.”
+
+“Yes, and what happened then?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Oh, it was great fun. He searched in all his pockets twice, rang the
+bell until he was tired, though the maids asleep in the third story
+might as well have been in Greenland for all the good that did. Then,
+he tried to force each door and window before he came back to the
+carriage to tell me that we were locked out!”
+
+“And then you—”
+
+“I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me before, dear? Luckily, there is one
+of us who remembers things.’ If you could only have seen his face as he
+took the key I gave him!”
+
+“Then why on earth did you sleep at the hotel?” queried the girl with
+the Roman nose, in a bewildered tone.
+
+“I—well, the fact is that I—in the dark, I had mistaken the key to his
+desk for the latch-key! And, oh, girls, if you had seen me driving home
+from the hotel at ten o’clock in the morning, in the gown I had worn at
+the reception!”
+
+“You poor, dear thing!” cried the blue-eyed girl, “no wonder you chose
+‘Woman in Politics’ for to-day’s discussion! If men are such tyrants as
+that, our only refuge will be equality in suffrage and—”
+
+“Latchkeys,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “though to be sure,
+we’d need pockets to keep them in, if we carried them. Sometimes, I
+suspect that the dressmakers are in league with the men to keep us from
+gaining our rights,” she added.
+
+“Perhaps they are,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a startled air, “the
+men pay the bills and so the dressmakers may be in league with them!”
+
+“You forget one thing, dear,” said the president, with a superior air.
+“It is the women who make the bills. You never heard of a man who
+ordered a dress for his wife did you?”
+
+“I hope not,” replied the girl with the Roman nose, “at least, if she
+was obliged to wear it.”
+
+“Well, dears,” said the president, “we really must adjourn, it is
+awfully late, but of course such a serious discussion could not be
+hurried. I think I must go and have a cup of bouillon to refresh me
+after making such serious demands upon the gray matter of my brain.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+Man’s Real Attitude Toward the Progress of Woman
+
+
+The Teacup club came to order with more than its usual reluctance
+at its next meeting and the president looked severe. “I wish you
+girls would stop talking about Helena and her affairs,” she said. “I
+detest gossip, and, besides, I want to hear all about her, too, and
+we can talk better after the meeting is over. The topic for to-day’s
+discussion will be, ‘Man’s Real Attitude Toward the Progress of Woman.’”
+
+“I’m glad to hear it,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Men are such
+queer creatures that by the time a girl gets to understand them really
+she is too old to attract their attention. Now, if we all put our heads
+together—”
+
+“We may attain wisdom without its accompanying wrinkles,” broke in the
+girl with the dimple in her chin; “that is a good idea, for—”
+
+“It is no real gain to know how to make them bring the proper kind of
+flowers and confectionery, if you have to spend the money thus saved on
+the beauty doctor; yes, that is true,” sighed the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Widowers, or men who have been engaged several times, are often nice,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Thank you,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I like to do
+my own training, if it is troublesome. You can’t persuade a widower
+that his late wife was not a type of all womanhood, and that is horrid,
+especially if she happens to have had a taste for domestic magazines
+and molasses candy! That is why a widower is so much less attractive
+than a widow; she—”
+
+“Has learned that men, save for a few leading traits, are all
+different,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Yes, matrimony
+always widens a woman’s views of the opposite sex, while it narrows
+those of a man.”
+
+“Oh, dear,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “I do wish men would not
+do one thing and say another. Now, they are always praising domesticity
+in women, as well as shrinking modesty, and yet—”
+
+“They always overlook the domestic kind of a girl when she does venture
+among people,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “I know it, and as for
+shyness and modesty, it is only the girl who is bold enough to call
+attention to those qualities in herself who receives a social reward
+for them.”
+
+“Oh, well,” said the president, “a man with a couple of sisters learns
+a great deal about the sex.”
+
+“Humph!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I don’t know why it
+is, but the more sisters a man has, the slower he is to enter into
+matrimony.”
+
+“I’ve noticed that myself,” said the girl with the classic profile;
+“while girls who have plenty of brothers usually marry before they are
+twenty.”
+
+“Pshaw! That is because the friends of their brothers get a chance to
+see them sew on buttons and make caramels,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.
+
+“No, it isn’t,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “it is
+because such a girl has more than one person to oppose the man who
+wants to marry her. But talk about masculine inconsistency! It sets me
+wild to hear men talk about domesticity and modesty and all that, and
+then hang about Kate, a girl who doesn’t know a frying pan from a—a
+camera, and who had as lief ask for a thing she wants as to hint for
+it—so unfeminine!”
+
+“I know it,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Why, she never has
+to buy a flower, and as for candy, she has so much that she actually
+shares it with the other girls! I go to see her more frequently in
+Lent, because my conscience will not allow me to buy any then, and—”
+
+“And Kate has been engaged six times; she told me so herself,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses. “I declare, it is enough to make a girl—”
+
+“H’m!” said the president. “Don’t forget, my dears, that while she has
+been engaged six times, she has not been married once!”
+
+“Why—er—that is true,” cried the blue-eyed girl. “You dear, delightful,
+clever thing! I am so glad that I just made you be our president.”
+
+“Oh, well, of course I like it dear; still, as somebody once said, I’d
+rather be right than president.”
+
+“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Yes. But, oh, girls, Tom says that all the men in our set are talking
+about this club. He says that Jack Bittersweet asked him confidentially
+the other day if being intellectual made a woman less loveable.
+Luckily, I had just agreed to let him have a masculine dinner party and
+he assured Jack that it did not.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl arose softly from her seat and going over to where
+the brown-eyed blonde was sitting, kissed her. “You dear thing,” she
+said. “Come over any day you like and you shall see the new sleeve
+design I got from Paris yesterday.”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin exchanged glances with the girl
+with the eyeglasses.
+
+“What time in the year do you prefer for a wedding?” asked the latter,
+apropos of nothing.
+
+“Oh, speaking of weddings, that reminds me,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “I’d have prepared a paper on to-day’s topic, as you
+suggested, Evelyn, but Elizabeth asked me to help select her wedding
+dress and—well, you know, Elizabeth. It has taken her two days already
+and I don’t see any prospect yet of her making up her mind.”
+
+“And yet she required only five minutes in which to decide to accept
+Fred, when he asked her to marry him,” said the president, thoughtfully.
+
+“I know, dear, but then in this matter of selecting her dress, she had
+a choice,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“And I’m sure that Elizabeth’s father is delighted to buy her a wedding
+dress,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, Emily, pardon me—I
+quite forgot that Elizabeth is your cousin!”
+
+“Never mind, dear, though I rather like her, in spite of the
+relationship. Oh, girls, you have no idea of what an effect this club
+is having upon me. Why, I’ve turned my den into a library, cut all the
+leaves of my Carlisle and coaxed papa to buy me a handsome writing desk
+and do up the walls in forest greens because pink and blue seemed so
+frivolous. Now, I can sit in that room and write papers for the club in
+real comfort.”
+
+“You don’t know how pleased I am to hear it,” cried the president,
+warmly. “It is quite worth all the labor of selecting topics and
+leading the discussion, I assure you. Why, Marion, how late you are!
+Don’t you know that the really advanced woman is even ahead of the
+clock?”
+
+“Yes, I do,” panted the girl with the classic profile, “but, really,
+I’ve had the most awful time getting here at all! You know I’m always
+in trouble, but really this is the worst that—I’ll never go anywhere
+with Nell again, unless it’s to my own funeral, and I can’t help
+myself, then.”
+
+“What on earth has Nell done now?” queried the girl with the dimple in
+her chin, “don’t you know that you must not expect absolute sanity from
+an engaged girl? You said you were going with her to the south side to
+call upon some of the relatives of her affianced. Did she take you over
+there, and then discover that she didn’t know their exact address? Or
+did—”
+
+“The address was not forgotten. We hadn’t meant to do any shopping
+to-day, but we stopped in to buy some thread, and really the new silks
+were so cheap that—”
+
+“You arrived an hour late, and penniless! I know,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“N—ot quite. I had ten cents left when we started for home, and we had
+to take two lines of cars. Nell and I couldn’t get seats together—in
+fact, we were at opposite ends of the car. However, I paid her fare and
+signaled the fact to her, receiving a nod in reply.”
+
+“Well?” said the president, “didn’t she want to pay your fare on the
+other line?”
+
+“She—well, the fact is that she had misunderstood the signal, and paid
+our fare again with her own last dime. And there we were three miles
+from home, without a penny in our pockets—and the street car company
+had a dime it hadn’t earned. But then Nell never had a grain of sense—I
+should think by this time she knew that herself.”
+
+“If she doesn’t, I’m sure you are not to blame, dear,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “However, for my part, I shall not blame you, even
+if you are as cross as a man who is wearing a frayed collar, for the
+rest of the afternoon.”
+
+“But, don’t let us interrupt the proceedings,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “just tell me what to-day’s topic is, and I—”
+
+“Oh, it is a perfectly delightful one!” said the blue-eyed girl. “Man’s
+real attitude toward the Progress of Woman, and—”
+
+“His real attitude is that of flight,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “he—”
+
+“Don’t be flippant, dear, whatever you are,” said the president,
+gravely, “we have enough of that to endure from our masculine
+acquaintances. It seems to me that a man laughs at whatever he fails to
+understand, and then feels that he has replied to the argument.”
+
+“Perhaps that is the reason that men laugh at so many jokes in which I
+can see nothing funny,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“No doubt of it,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “but, girls, never
+attempt to imitate them. I did once, and Annie—you know how obtuse she
+is—kept asking loudly what I was laughing at, and I couldn’t tell her.
+When a man had just made the remark that he was glad to find a girl
+with a keen sense of the ridiculous, too!”
+
+“Just like Annie,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I sometimes wonder whether
+she is really obtuse or only malicious. You know how devoted Tommy
+Bonds is to music, don’t you? Well, Annie and I once accompanied him to
+a Thomas concert, and I wanted to make myself agreeable—”
+
+“I hope you didn’t do it by conversing while the orchestra was
+playing,” said the president.
+
+“Of course not, goosie. But I remembered that he always says a woman
+should be two things—sincere and fond of music. The soloist was a
+pianist, I can’t remember his name, but his hair was not at all
+remarkable. When he played an encore, Tommy leaned over to me, and
+said: ‘Isn’t it charming?’ and I replied, ‘Yes, I like it better every
+time I hear it; in fact, I often ask people to play it for me.’ I wish
+now that I hadn’t said that.”
+
+“Why so?” asked the president, “it seems to me just the right thing to
+say.”
+
+“But Annie leaned over asking, loudly, ‘What is the name of it?’ and,
+to my horror, Mr. Bonds said he didn’t know, and it was all so sudden
+that, to save my life, I couldn’t make up a name! In the silence which
+followed, some one in front of us was heard remarking that the encore
+was a composition by the pianist himself, and now played for the first
+time in public!”
+
+“And it was all Annie’s fault, too,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “By the way, did I ever tell you how it happened that Mr.
+Bonds gave up calling me a delightful conversationalist? No? Well, you
+see, he lived almost opposite to us, and he practiced on the ’cello
+until papa, who is very fond of De Quincey, said he no longer dared to
+read “Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts.” Suddenly he stopped
+practicing, and—”
+
+“Mercy on us, had anything happened to him?” gasped the president,
+turning pale.
+
+“Nothing ever happens to people who deserve it. As it happened,
+however, we were no better off, for some one, a new resident of the
+street, we supposed, began to practice on the violin seven hours a
+day!”
+
+“It may not have been a newcomer,” observed the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “It is a fact that one vigorous soprano is enough to
+demoralize a whole neighborhood, and I suppose—”
+
+“The ’cello is quite as bad? Possibly so, at any rate rents went down
+in the neighborhood and placards went up. One day I happened to meet
+Mr. Bonds, and as long as my father was not within hearing distance, I
+said: ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you have given up your delightful ’cello.’ If
+you could have seen the rapture on his face.”
+
+“I’d rather have seen his face than that of your guardian angel,”
+remarked the girl with the classic profile; “but go on; don’t stop.”
+
+“I wish I had stopped then, but I didn’t. I said, ‘By the way, who is
+it that scrapes the violin all day long? I never heard anything so
+awful in my life!’ Oh, girls, I—”
+
+“But I don’t see anything wrong in that,” said the president.
+
+“He did. You see, he had given up the ’cello and taken to the violin
+with the idea of astonishing the world with his genius!”
+
+“And you live to tell it,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“M—yes—you see, everything has its compensation. When papa heard what I
+had done, he gave me a hundred dollars and his blessing.”
+
+“What luck some people have,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “while
+others—oh, girls, I know something perfectly lovely, but I don’t know
+whether I ought to tell it to you or not. My conscience—”
+
+“Why, Frances,” said the president, “I shall be awfully hurt if you
+don’t tell us now. When a girl speaks of her conscience in that way, it
+simply means that she distrusts her audience. You might know by this
+time, that we never tell anything which transpires at a meeting of this
+club.”
+
+“Of course not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Why, Dick
+teased me vainly a whole evening to find out the line of argument
+advanced in favor of equal suffrage when we discussed ‘Woman in
+Politics’ the other day. The janitor must have told him the topic under
+discussion,” she added hastily.
+
+“Very likely,” said the president. “What was that you wished to tell
+us, Frances, dear?”
+
+“It was something that happened to Nell,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Her fiancé had told her a great deal of his friend, Mr. Thynker, of
+Boston, who is to be his best man, and whom she had never seen. He
+appeared suddenly at Mr. Dickenharry’s office the other day, just as
+the latter was starting for Milwaukee, and there was barely time for
+him to make arrangements with Mr. Thynker to call on Nell the following
+afternoon. As it happened, he knew the Vansmiths, and was asked to the
+luncheon they gave that day, and seated immediately opposite to Nell.
+Of course he didn’t catch her name when they were introduced, and there
+was no chance for explanations. Oh, girls, I wonder if I really ought
+to finish this?”
+
+“If you don’t, I shall ask Nell why you didn’t,” said the president.
+
+“Well, during a lull in the conversation, he leaned forward and, in
+loud, clear tones, asked Nell what kind of a girl his friend Tom
+Dickenharry had got himself engaged to _this_ time!”
+
+“M’hm,” said the president, after the laughter had subsided a little,
+“that settles one matter in advance, anyhow. It is easy to know upon
+whose side the victory will rest when they have their first quarrel
+after marriage.”
+
+“There is one question I would like to ask the members of this club,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses, “and it is one which nearly
+disrupted our little Shakespeare club: If you really want to please a
+man—any man—what is the best way to go about it?”
+
+“That is really such a simple question that there is only one answer
+possible,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“And that is—”
+
+“Be born rich.”
+
+“But, suppose you have neglected that qualification,” persisted the
+girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Learn to cook; but never let him taste the result of your cookery,”
+said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Yes—or wear his college colors,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“Let him do all the talking,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Praise the shape of his head—no matter what it may be,” said the
+president. “I wouldn’t tell anybody that,” she added, reflectively,
+“only that two fortune tellers and a palmist have assured me that my
+husband will outlive me.”
+
+“Mr. Bonds has a very well-shaped head,” observed the girl with the
+eyeglasses, “a little long perhaps, but—”
+
+“The rotundity of his pocketbook over-balances that,” broke in the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Clarissa says he is generous, too—a rare quality in a really wealthy
+man,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“M—I don’t know about his generosity,” said the president. “A marriage
+license is about as inexpensive a thing as a man can buy, and yet he
+has displayed no desire to invest in one.”
+
+“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “lots of girls nowadays don’t intend to marry, anyhow, so—”
+
+“I wonder why they never think to mention the fact publicly until after
+they are thirty,” mused the girl with the dimple in her chin; “oh,
+girls, shouldn’t you like really to do something wonderful?”
+
+“I once wore a pair of common-sense shoes a whole month,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, modestly.
+
+“H’m; who was the Englishman?” asked the brown-eyed blonde, “the one
+with whom you used to walk at that time, I mean,” she added, pleasantly.
+
+“It was the spring that Mr. Penny-Lesse was here, but I don’t see what
+that had to do with it,” said the blue-eyed girl, with great dignity.
+
+“Nothing at all of course,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “I only—”
+
+“You did not meet him, I believe; he was very particular about the
+people to whom he was introduced,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, sweetly. “I did rather an unusual thing myself once—I had five
+dollars in my pocketbook when my allowance came due!”
+
+“Yes, but you had left the pocketbook at my house ten days before, and
+thought it was lost,” said the girl with the classic profile, “don’t
+you remember, I only brought it over after the shops were closed the
+evening before?”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the president, “I’ve recently met a woman who has
+traveled all through Asia, and—”
+
+“I suppose she did it in bloomers and one of those horrid, unbecoming,
+stiff caps, too,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Well, all I’ve got
+to say is that a woman who has the courage to make such a guy of
+herself, is brave enough to face all the tigers and mountain lions,
+and—er—boa constrictors in Asia.”
+
+“I don’t believe there are any boa constrictors and mountain lions in
+Asia,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “As for tigers—”
+
+“Mercy, how literal you are!” pettishly replied the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Well, buffalos then; how will that suit you? I’m equally afraid of all
+of them, myself.”
+
+“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, “Marion and I
+have just had such fun. We have been telling each other the most awful
+things that ever happened to us in our lives.”
+
+“Perhaps that is what made you late, too,” remarked the president, in a
+severe tone.
+
+“N-not exactly. You see, I knew there was something wrong about my
+watch, and I could not remember whether it was thirteen minutes fast or
+thirteen minutes slow, so—”
+
+“But do tell us what was the most awful thing that ever happened to
+you, Evelyn,” cried the girl with the classic profile. “The very worst
+thing that ever befell me was connected with a timepiece. It was last
+summer, and a man who—who had been very nice to me was going away early
+the next morning. Men were scarce at the seashore, as you know, and
+when a lot of the girls saw us sitting on the porch they came over and
+spent the evening with us. We just could not get a chance for a word
+alone.”
+
+“I know—I know,” groaned the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Yes. Well, his train was to go at 5:16 A.M., and he asked me in the
+most meaning tone if I cared sufficiently to hear something he had to
+say to get up early enough to see him off. I—I said I did.”
+
+“Well?” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I set my watch by the hall clock in order to be sure of getting up
+in time; then I lay awake nearly all night so I would not oversleep
+myself. When I reached the station it was five minutes past six.”
+
+“Watch stopped?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“No; Harry had run down to spend that evening with Kate, and she had
+set the clock back. The man was married in October to one of the girls
+who had risen in time to see him off.”
+
+“Of course,” said the president. “Speaking of awful things—you all know
+how afraid I am of fire.”
+
+“We do,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I believe you could smell
+a burning match a block away.”
+
+“Well, the other day our fire insurance ran out, and Tom handed me the
+money and asked me to go down and renew it, as he was very busy. I
+forgot all about it until night; then I lay awake sniffing smoke until
+Tom thought I had influenza again. Next morning I got ready to go and
+attend to it at once. I wanted to look nice, too, because one of the
+men in that office once told Tom that he had an awfully pretty wife.”
+
+“How much money did he borrow from Tom that time?” asked the girl with
+the dimple in her chin.
+
+“I was curling my hair,” went on the president, unheeding, “when I
+smelled fire. I ran wildly all through the house, with a curl still
+wrapped about the iron, trying to locate it!”
+
+“And did you find any?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Yes; my own hair was burning,” said the president, with a groan.
+
+“How awful!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “That reminds me of
+what once happened to me. It was when I was wearing a single curl in
+the middle of my forehead. One day Frank was there, and he—he would
+twist it over his finger and quote poetry about it until he took all
+the curl out of it. Of course I discovered that I had no handkerchief
+and went up to get one.”
+
+“I don’t see anything so awful in that,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“No, dear; but while I was curling it I dropped the hot iron down my
+back, and dared not even scream lest he find out what I was doing.”
+
+“The worst thing that ever happened to me,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “was in connection with Lewis. As soon as it was
+settled, I went to tell Emmeline, so she would give up trying to get
+him. I said I was his first love, and she couldn’t imagine how jealous
+he was. ‘Oh, yes, dear, I can,’ said she; ‘he was always so when he was
+engaged to me!’”
+
+“I wondered why you broke with him,” said the president. “Well, we must
+adjourn now, and I must say that I have never heard a subject more
+logically discussed than the one to-day!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+Concerning the Heroine of To-day
+
+
+“Are you ready to go to the meeting of the club?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl, as she bounced into the room. “Why, Dorothy, dear, what is the
+matter? has your father gotten himself a new bicycle instead of one for
+you, or—”
+
+The blue-eyed girl sat up on the couch. “I don’t care if I never ride a
+bicycle again as long as I live,” she replied, deliberately.
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin turned pale. “I knew it was
+something awful when I saw you crying with the blinds all rolled up;
+but I hardly thought it was so bad as that. You—you haven’t any fever
+or queer feelings in your head, have you?”
+
+“If I had, it would not make any difference,” she sobbed. “I—oh, I’ll
+get even with Effie Bittersweet if it ruins my complexion and takes me
+all the rest of my natural life to do it!”
+
+“Oho, it’s Effie, is it? Well, you’ll have plenty of chances to get
+even with her, once you are her sister-in-law!”
+
+“I wouldn’t marry Jack now, to—to spite Effie, and I—I doubt if I shall
+have the chance, anyhow. And as for Frances, I—”
+
+“Never mind, dear; I know she has behaved abominably, but she is
+punished already. Her aunt has brought her a new hat from Paris, and it
+is geranium pink—fancy Frances in geranium, can you? She promised it to
+Frances when she went abroad last fall, and Frances has been talking
+about it ever since. She will have to wear it, too, because her aunt is
+to make them a long visit, and she is too wealthy to have her feelings
+hurt.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl shook her head, sadly. “It is very kind of you to
+try to cheer me,” she said, “but I am beyond rejoicing. I only hope it
+is a very deep geranium pink, that’s all. Oh, Emily, what a desert
+waste this life is! No, don’t put another cushion back of me—I want
+to be just as uncomfortable as possible. You know Effie was here this
+morning, don’t you?”
+
+“I suppose so—I noticed that you have two portraits of Edwin on the
+table.”
+
+“Yes. Well, she asked me to go shopping with her, and I must say I was
+pleased, because she hasn’t been here since—since—”
+
+“Not since you quar—pardon me, I mean since her brother quarreled with
+you.”
+
+“She said she’d ask me to lunch with her down-town, but she had spent
+almost all her allowance.”
+
+“The idea of hinting to you in that bare-faced way! Now, if you had
+been a man it—”
+
+“Would have been all right, of course. However, I know how confidential
+Effie always grows over a cup of tea, so I promptly invited her to
+lunch with me. After she had accepted, I found that I had only fifty
+cents to my name. Papa had gone down-town and, mamma had just borrowed
+a quarter from me!”
+
+“My goodness, did you tell Effie that your head ached so badly that you
+couldn’t go?”
+
+“And have her say that I was fretting myself ill over Jack? No, thank
+you. I excused myself a moment and went downstairs, for I had just
+remembered a habit Papa has of leaving money lying about on his desk.
+To my joy, I found a five-dollar bill in one of the drawers, and I took
+that, because I—”
+
+“But weren’t you afraid to take it?”
+
+“M—yes, but then one’s own people have to make up with one sometime or
+other. Well, we had a lovely time shopping, and I took Effie off to
+luncheon before she had had time to get cross matching samples. It was
+a lovely luncheon, and before we had finished Effie said she hoped I
+would visit her at Delavan in August!”
+
+“H’m; I suppose she didn’t mention the fact that Jack expects to be in
+Canada from the last week in July to the first one in September, did
+she?”
+
+“No; she didn’t. Oh, what a cat she is—and I asked her to take another
+ice on the strength of it! Well I paid the bill, tipped the waiter,
+and was just going out when the cashier came running after me, and oh,
+Emily, what do you think?”
+
+“You had left your umbrella, of course.”
+
+“No, I hadn’t. I—I, that five-dollar bill was a counterfeit which papa
+was keeping as an object lesson to mamma, who had gotten it in change!”
+
+“You might have known that no man with a wife and grown daughter would
+leave five good dollars in an unlocked drawer, dear. Did Effie—”
+
+“Loan it to me? She hadn’t quite enough, and I don’t know what I should
+have done if Frances had not happened to come in. Effie said that she
+did not mind borrowing from Frances, because she—she was quite like a
+sister to her! And now I shall have to make Papa angry by coaxing for
+money to pay for all those ices Effie ate on false pretenses, and
+w—worse yet, she and Frances will have the pleasure of laughing over it
+together!”
+
+“And telling Jack about it, too,” gasped the girl with the dimple in
+her chin, helplessly.
+
+“Of course I know they will do that,” sobbed the victim. “But I hardly
+thought that even an intimate friend would be unpleasant enough to
+remind me of it!” And she buried her face in the cushions and wept.
+
+“Then you are not going to the club this afternoon? Shall I tell them
+that you are busy with the dressmaker, or the dentist? They know that
+you can make everybody else wait.”
+
+“Tell them nothing. I shall go—and complain of a cold in the head,
+which will explain the pinkness of my nose and eyes.”
+
+“But will any of them believe you?”
+
+“All of them. You know those horrid quinine tablets Evelyn is always
+wanting people to try—well, I shall take one of them publicly. You
+don’t suppose that any one will suspect me of doing it unnecessarily,
+do you?”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin shuddered. “Impossible,” she said.
+
+The blue-eyed girl suddenly stopped curling her hair, and, facing her
+friend, remarked: “I can tell you one thing though—Jack Bittersweet
+shall pay dearly for this!”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The president of the Teacup club rapped for order with the handle
+of her umbrella. “I am glad to see you all here to-day, in spite of
+the weather,” she remarked. “We have a very interesting topic for
+discussion. It is, ‘Woman in Her Character of Heroine.’”
+
+“Indeed, it is interesting,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I only
+wish you had thought to mention it to me and I should have prepared
+a paper on it. No, I couldn’t have done it, either, for my aunt from
+New Jersey was in town, and I had to take her sight-seeing. Oh, dear,
+aren’t people who live in the country painfully active? And what ideas
+they have! They seem to think Lincoln Park is in the back yard and the
+Statue of Columbus across the street.”
+
+“I know a girl who has had a much worse time than that,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “She had to take her future mother-in-law to see
+the sights. The old lady had read up in preparation for her visit, and
+knew more about the city than Marie herself. Now, while the poor girl
+is being massaged with arnica and things to get over the effects of her
+exertion, the old lady is busy telling her son that such an ignorant
+girl can never make a good wife!”
+
+“Speaking of the bravery of women,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, “I know a girl who early one morning heard a noise in a large
+closet next her room, in which she kept her furs and cloth gowns. She
+slipped out of bed and into the hall, and turned the key, which was
+fortunately on the outside, and there she had the burglar safe in that
+stifling atmosphere. Then she fainted.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I should have
+fainted first.”
+
+“It took them three-quarters of an hour to restore her and find out
+what was the matter, then they sent for the police, and what do you
+think they found?”
+
+“That the burglar was dead,” breathed the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No. It wasn’t a burglar at all; it was her own father, who had risen
+early and gone into the closet to look for a file of papers which
+had been kept in the attic for twenty years. Oh, he said perfectly
+awful things when he got breath enough to speak! Unluckily, too, it
+happened just at the time when she needed a lot of new things. She said
+that nobody appreciated her bravery except a man who was paying her
+attention at the time, and he didn’t dare say a word before her father
+for fear of losing his good-will.”
+
+“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “it only goes to
+show that women are really more courageous than men.”
+
+“Of course they are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Why, only the
+other day I read of a girl who had a hole bored in one of her front
+teeth and a diamond inserted. Did you ever hear of a man who was brave
+enough to go to the dentist unless he really had to?”
+
+“No,” said the president. “Oh, girls, I once had my pocketbook snatched
+from me by a boy, and I just ran after him until he dropped it. I don’t
+know that I should have been so brave,” she added, “but for the fact
+that, beside my card, it contained several unpaid bills of which my
+husband knew nothing. If the police had caught the boy with it, they
+would have communicated the fact to him, and I never should have heard
+the last of those bills.
+
+“I hope he appreciated your bravery, anyhow,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.
+
+“Of course not,” said the president; “his only comment was that it
+served me right for carrying my pocketbook in my hand. Oh, you can’t
+make a man understand that a woman fears nothing. By the way, I wish
+several of you would come home to dinner with me. I broke Tom’s lovely
+bit of old Venetian glass to-day, and I had rather not be alone with
+him when he finds it out.”
+
+“I’ll go with pleasure,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “is anybody
+else coming?”
+
+“Nobody but Mr. Troolygood,” said the president. “I always ask him in
+such an emergency, because he prophesied that Tom would break my heart
+within two years of our marriage. Tom knows that, and—well, I could
+dance on the graves of his ancestors if Mr. Troolygood was present, and
+Tom would encourage my efforts.”
+
+“Then, I don’t see why you ask us to-day,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “he ought to be—”
+
+“Sufficient? Yes, I suppose so; but—well, the truth is that he is
+rather hard to entertain, and Tom is so busy in his presence, being
+nice to me, that he is no help at all.”
+
+“I should be delighted to dine with you, also,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “but really I have such a cold that I don’t dare to be out at all
+after nightfall.”
+
+“Have you a cold?” said the brown-eyed blonde, “why, I didn’t notice it
+when I met you in the restaurant this morning.”
+
+“Didn’t you, dear? But then you are not very observant. You had not
+even noticed that there was a wrinkle in the waist of your new gown,
+until I pointed it out to you. Evelyn, dear, mightn’t I take another
+of your quinine tablets now? I really think that I am feeling better
+already.”
+
+“Do not take too much of it, dear, if you value your peace of mind,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I’ve had such an awful cold this
+week. I don’t know how I ever caught it, unless it was sitting in that
+hot church on Sunday. Mamma would have me go, and I—”
+
+“Perhaps you caught it standing on your front steps Monday evening,”
+suggested the girl with the classic profile. “I saw you, as I passed,
+and wondered how long—”
+
+“Oh, it was only a moment. The parlor was full of people, and I just
+stepped out with Frank a moment to—to ask him how he expects to vote at
+the coming election.”
+
+“I thought you both looked as if you were discussing politics. Of
+course, he had to think well on the merits of the opposing candidates
+before he gave an opinion and—”
+
+“Oh, pshaw, it is impossible to know how one catches cold, and it does
+one no good to know, anyhow,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Unless it is some one else’s fault,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I have a cold myself, and I don’t dare to mention the fact
+to my family. They are so unsympathetic that they—”
+
+“Would want you to wrap up and wear overshoes if it was July,” said the
+president.
+
+“They would, they would,” wailed the girl with the eyeglasses, “well, I
+just knew that I had to be well in time to go to Mrs. Brownsmith’s card
+party. The way that Marie tries to attract Frank’s attention is too
+dreadful, and I knew she would be there.”
+
+“If she had to unscrew her coffin lid to get out,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“M’hm. They wanted me to take all sorts of horrid remedies at home.
+I wouldn’t do it, though; the very idea made me cross. Finally, on
+Wednesday, Frank dropped in to see if I was better and said I must
+take some quinine. Of course, I couldn’t refuse and hurt his feelings,
+especially as he remained all the afternoon and watched me take it. By
+his advice, I took a large dose of it that night, and when I woke up in
+the morning my cold was almost gone, but oh, I had the queerest buzzing
+in my ears!”
+
+“Oh, well, nobody could see that,” said the president, “so you—”
+
+“Kept on taking it all day, and was able to go to the card party, after
+all; though the quinine had made me as deaf as a statue. It made little
+difference at first, because Marie kept close at my elbow, and Frank
+and I were not alone a moment. I couldn’t get rid of her at all until,
+just as mamma said she would not wait another second Mrs. Brownsmith
+called Marie to her, and Frank—”
+
+“Improved the moment,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “What
+did he say?”
+
+“I—I don’t know,” sobbed the girl with the eyeglasses. “He whispered,
+and I couldn’t hear. And before I could ask him to repeat, Marie was
+at my side. As he put me into the carriage, he said: ‘You will let me
+have my answer by messenger to-morrow, won’t you?’ And I—I don’t know
+w-whether he ask-asked me to marry him, or only to go to the m-matinee!”
+
+“You poor, dear martyr,” cried the president. “Dorothy, dear, you had
+better not take any more of those tablets, because—”
+
+“But dear, Dorothy is in no danger of having to answer such an
+important question,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.
+
+“Very true, dear; I have answered it already—in the negative,” said the
+blue-eyed girl. “Ah, you can never know, Frances, how painful it is to
+be obliged to tell a man who loves you that there is no hope.”
+
+“Dear, dear,” said the president, hurriedly, “I’m afraid that, in spite
+of all my efforts, we have not discussed to-day’s topic as consistently
+as usual. It does seem to me sometimes that you girls talk as much as
+men. Of course you do not expect to be listened to as they do, still—”
+
+“I should think not,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “did I ever
+tell you of the time I went to make a round of calls with Ethel, and—”
+
+“Found she was leaving her sister’s cards by mistake?” said the girl
+with the classic profile. “Indeed you did. And wasn’t it funny that she
+left one for Maria, to whom her sister hadn’t spoken for a year? Just
+like Ethel, too.”
+
+“This was another time,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “You know
+how much Ethel talks? Well, we called on one woman I had never met
+before, and she asked Ethel subsequently if I was not deaf and dumb!”
+
+“Never mind, she knew better when she met you next time,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses; “but what is the topic for discussion to-day?”
+
+“‘The Heroine of To-day,’” said the president, “and I think—”
+
+“I suppose that is the bachelor girl,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Or the one who marries a foreigner,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Talk about bravery! Why, I knew a girl who became engaged to
+a Russian before she could pronounce his name.”
+
+“Speaking of that,” said the girl with the classic profile, “isn’t it
+horrid of Elizabeth to send out her wedding cards so long ahead. No
+chance this time to say that we didn’t know it in time to select a
+present.”
+
+“I shall pretend that I never received my invitation at all,” said the
+president; “one must protect one’s self somehow.”
+
+“I do hate to go shopping with her nowadays,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “if I don’t buy a lot of things myself I am
+miserable, and if I do her reproachful gaze seems to say, ‘I know the
+cost of this will come out of my present.’”
+
+“As if you wouldn’t ask your father for the money for that, anyhow!”
+said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“I shall do nothing of the kind, dear; it would make too much trouble.
+I don’t know why a man will cheerfully give a wedding present himself,
+but let—”
+
+“One of the women of the family ask for money for the same purpose and
+he feels that he is being robbed,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I suppose it is on the same principle that makes a man insist upon
+treating every other man he meets and then grumble because his wife
+wants oysters after the play,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Just as he feeds a girl on candy before he marries her and then
+complains of dentists’ bills afterward,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “men are so illogical!”
+
+“Indeed they are,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “one of them will
+keep on telling a girl that she has a swan-like carriage, and then
+think her vain if he catches her watching her own movements in the
+glass.”
+
+“Why does she let him catch her at it?” queried the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “Oh, girls, you know that awful, dark green necktie
+that Dick has been wearing! Well, I endured it until I felt as if I
+should scream if I saw him wear it again, so I begged it from him; told
+him that I wanted it as a souvenir to hang beside his college cap and
+his football colors. As soon as he sent it to me I threw it into the
+fire.”
+
+“And he came in before it was reduced to ashes?” asked the president,
+in sympathetic tones.
+
+“No. He appeared with another just like it, the very next day—said he
+didn’t like it himself, but since I had admired it and he wanted to
+please me, he had matched it before he sent it to me!”
+
+“And that was your only reward for trying to save his feelings,” sighed
+the blue-eyed girl. “Really, Emily, I often think you are too good for
+this world.”
+
+“At any rate, I shall soon be out of it if so many sorrows are heaped
+upon my head. By the way, girls, I’ve been learning to ride my bicycle,
+and talking of heroism, I—”
+
+“How many times have you fallen?” exclaimed the girl with the classic
+profile. “I heard the other day of a girl who learned to ride in a
+single lesson, without falling once, and—”
+
+“Humph. I’ve often heard of that girl myself—but I’ve never seen her.
+I’ve fallen nineteen times; that is, not counting the time mamma called
+after me to be careful, and the time that Dick said I had ridden almost
+a half block since he let go of my belt—because you know, it was not my
+fault that I fell upon either of those occasions!”
+
+“Of course not,” said the president, “but, girls, we really must not
+talk about bicycling, because if we do we shall drift away from our
+discussion, and I can’t bear to depart, even momentarily, from the high
+standard of the club. We were speaking of Elizabeth a moment ago; has
+any one seen her lately?”
+
+“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I make a point of avoiding the girl
+who is about to be married, the mother of the cleverest baby in the
+world, and the woman who is designing her own house. Really, you know,
+I don’t mind letting someone else do all the talking, but I _do_ like a
+change of topic once in a while.”
+
+“I know I was just as sensible as any one could be while Tom and I were
+engaged,” said the president, “and yet, people did act so oddly. Why,
+they would go right away if I began to talk of him at all; they didn’t
+even stay long enough to see how sensible I was.”
+
+“By the way, I believe that Jane and Mr. Sooter are engaged,” said the
+girl with the classic profile; “Jane denies it but—”
+
+“Then I think you are mistaken,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
+know Jane, and she seldom understates a case. Why do you think they are
+engaged?”
+
+“He has given up sending her flowers and candy, and begun presenting
+bric-a-brac instead.”
+
+“Pshaw, that is nothing; he may once have been engaged to a girl who
+was a china maniac, and these may be the presents she returned.”
+
+“Possibly. By the way, Kate has grown so wary now that she only gives
+the man to whom she happens to be engaged presents which she can use
+after she breaks with him; never pipes and—”
+
+“Oh, by the way, I know how her last engagement came to be broken in
+so many pieces that it could never be mended,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.
+
+“Do tell us all about it; we are all so intimate with Kate that we
+wouldn’t dare to tell anybody, because it would seem that we were
+betraying a confidence,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Well, when she was engaged to Mr. Yaleblue, she gave him a lovely
+meerchaum pipe, which of course came back with her other presents when
+the engagement was broken. By the next Christmas she was engaged to
+Dan, and it seemed such a waste to let it lie in the case, and she gave
+it to him, telling him a pretty little story of how she bought it
+when she was in Paris, and kept it hanging in her den ready for Prince
+Charming when he appeared. You wouldn’t think a little thing like that
+would have broken the engagement, would you?”
+
+“Why, of course not,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “how on earth
+did—”
+
+“Oh, he just asked how it came that it was so strong of tobacco!”
+
+“Dear me, girls,” said the president, “I am afraid that we really must
+adjourn, though there is still a great deal more to say on both sides
+of the discussion. But I have just remembered that I have invited a
+whole party of you to dinner, and neglected to mention the fact to the
+cook!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+The Club Settles Some Currency Problems
+
+
+“The topic for to-day’s discussion will be ‘Currency Problems of the
+Present Day,’” observed the president, after the club had come to
+order, “and I hope you are all prepared—”
+
+“There is only one currency problem in the present day—to my knowledge,
+at least,” broke in the girl with the classic profile, “and that is:
+how to make two dollars do the work of ten.”
+
+“Dear me, there is something actually masculine in your flippancy,”
+said the president, with ferocious gentleness. “The question before us
+is one of the deepest gravity, and—”
+
+“Nobody knows that better than myself,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, “don’t I lie awake night after night, wondering how to get my
+new things out of the money my father has allowed me for the purpose,
+or, better yet, how to coax more out of him without letting him realize
+the fact.”
+
+“Don’t talk about money, please; it makes me blue,” wailed the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “What with never having enough for myself
+and constantly seeing other people with more than I like them to have,
+I—”
+
+“What I want to know is—and you ought to be able to tell me, girls—why
+a woman who looks all sweetness and gentleness should suddenly develop
+into a raging lioness, just because her own son wants to marry some
+nice girl,” sighed the girl with the eyeglasses, waking suddenly out of
+a reverie.
+
+“Humph,” returned the blue-eyed girl, “there are some things I don’t
+quite understand myself—such as the banking system, and the reason why
+your dressmaker tells you calmly that she must have two yards and a
+half more of your dress material, when you have plainly informed her
+that you bought a remnant. But as for your question, it is so simple
+that a man could answer it. No woman ever did, or ever will, like to
+play second fiddle to another one, and—”
+
+“Oh, nonsense,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “it is just a
+question of tact. Let a man make his mother believe that she has chosen
+his wife and she—”
+
+“Yes, and wouldn’t it be pleasant to have your mother-in-law tell you,
+every time she wanted you to discharge the cook or do without a new
+gown, that her son would never have married you but for her!” cried the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Speaking of mothers-in-law,” said the girl with the classic profile,
+“Nell is to have a new woman in that capacity. I found her crying the
+other day because she had heard that Madame considered her too domestic
+to make her son a good wife!”
+
+“Yes, I know,” said the blue-eyed girl, “and did you hear of Alice’s
+woes? No? Well, you know, she and Morton fell in love at first sight,
+and became engaged two weeks later. After the engagement was announced,
+she was invited to visit his people in Iowa, and went in fear and
+trembling, for she did not know much about them, and Morton could not
+be there at the time.”
+
+“Hadn’t the courage, you mean,” murmured the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.
+
+“Very likely, dear. Well, his mother was as bad as Alice had feared.
+Her ideas were all in direct opposition to Morton’s, and the poor girl
+almost fretted herself into nervous prostration trying to please them
+both. After all, when she got home, she found—”
+
+“That she had been mistaken in her feelings for Morton, and it didn’t
+make any difference whether they were pleased or not!” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “I knew how it would end when you began.”
+
+“No. She discovered that Madame was only his stepmother, after all!
+Imagine trying to please a mother-in-law and a stepmother combined!”
+
+“I’d rather not fancy it,” said the president, with a shudder. “Girls,
+I only hope you will be as lucky when you are married as I am, for—”
+
+“You aren’t going to tell us all of Tom’s virtues again, are you?” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, uneasily.
+
+“When my mother-in-law becomes unpleasant, I just ask her to go with
+me to spend the day with Tom’s grandmother,” went on the president,
+affecting not to hear the last remark, “she doesn’t dare to refuse,
+because the old lady has some china which we both want, and she’s
+afraid I may succeed in wheedling it out of her! It is great fun to
+hear my own mother-in-law lectured by _her_ mother-in-law on the sins
+which the former thinks I have appropriated entirely to my own use.”
+
+“But, ah—doesn’t Tom’s mother take it out of you on the way back?”
+queried the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“No, dear. You see, I am careful not to sit with her in the train, and
+Tom always meets us at the station; besides, she’s hardly in her usual
+form, and I could be a match for her,” she added, modestly.
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “speaking of mothers-in-law
+makes me think of wedding presents. Did you—oh, did you hear about the
+plates I gave Elizabeth?”
+
+“Yes, I did,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and a girl
+who gives away old Crown Derby like that is either an angel, or not
+quite sane—I don’t know which!”
+
+“Say anything you like; I haven’t the spirit to reply. And after you’ve
+heard the story—well, it was this way: I ran across the dozen of them
+in a little second-hand shop, and the proprietor didn’t seem to know
+their value and asked a very moderate price.”
+
+“I beg your pardon, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“I take back all that I said before!”
+
+“You needn’t. I saw that I could beat him down, so I didn’t take them
+then, but went in a day or two later, taking Elizabeth along to make
+sure they were genuine. Really, she does know something about china,
+though—”
+
+“She doesn’t know anything else,” finished the president. “Well, they
+were genuine, weren’t they?”
+
+“They were, Elizabeth became so affectionate on the spot that I saw she
+knew what I wanted them for. I didn’t take them then, but went back the
+next day to find that the man had raised his price; he said another
+person wanted them—as if I’d believe that. Well, it went on for a week,
+until the price demanded was so outrageous that I should never have
+paid it, but for the fact that Elizabeth had told everybody what lovely
+Crown Derby plates she was to have, and I wasn’t going to have her say
+that I couldn’t afford them!”
+
+“I should think not,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “besides,
+it is necessary to give Elizabeth a handsome present, since she is
+marrying a wealthy man.”
+
+“Of course; if he was poor, a very simple thing would—ah, be in better
+taste, so that the contrast would not be so great.”
+
+“M’hm. Well, I bought the plates, and took them to her myself, because
+I wanted to see her face when she opened the package.”
+
+“But she wasn’t surprised, was she?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Yes, she was. She—well, she was the other person who wanted to buy
+them, and whose inquiries had trebled the price I had to pay for them!”
+
+“In the face of a tragedy like that, it seems hopeless to offer
+consolation,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Still, Elizabeth
+will be obliged to give you a handsome present when you are married.”
+
+“Let us hope that she will not have had time to forget her
+obligations,” said the blue-eyed girl, sweetly. “Of course, she has a
+good memory, but—”
+
+“I only hope somebody will give her two chafing-dishes,” broke in the
+president. “I only have one, and if I was not the sweetest tempered
+mortal in the world Tom and I would quarrel seriously over it. Perhaps,
+I ought not to speak of myself in that way, but—”
+
+“You surely ought to know your good points better than anybody else
+does,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Very true, dear. You see, Tom thinks he is a chafing-dish cook,
+and really he _can_ cook; but the last time he made a rarebit my
+waitress gave warning, because of the state in which she found the
+dining-room—which was very mean of her, because we had waited on
+ourselves to save trouble.”
+
+“Partly for that, and partly because you wanted to talk about Coralie,
+and her sister is her cook, I remember—I was there,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“Yes, but she didn’t know that we wanted to talk about Coralie, and I
+told her that it was to save her trouble.”
+
+“Wasn’t that the time that the rarebit made you ill, and the doctor
+couldn’t come because he, too, had eaten some of it?” asked the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“It was. I told Tom, then, that he must leave out either the doctor or
+me when he made rarebit again!”
+
+“With the result?” queried the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“That we didn’t speak for three days, dear. It was during that time,
+that I went to Annie’s chafing-dish party. She wanted me to make a
+cheese omelette, and I sent over for the dish. My messenger found Tom
+in the dining-room with a whole party of men—”
+
+“Cooking on your chafing-dish?”
+
+“No. Trying to entertain them while the new waitress hunted for it.”
+
+“But, where was it? You hadn’t taken it?”
+
+“No, dear. The cook had borrowed it for a chafing-dish party of her
+own, and neglected to mention the fact to either Tom or me!”
+
+“Then, I suppose really that each family should possess two
+chafing-dishes,” said the brown-eyed blonde, thoughtfully.
+
+“Yes—or none at all,” said the president, sighing.
+
+“Of course I am very much interested in this discussion,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose; “but I wonder if a thorough knowledge of currency
+problems will do us any practical good. None of us are earning our own
+living, and when papa talks about currency problems at home it is only
+to point the moral that times are hard, so—”
+
+“There is where your knowledge will be most useful,” broke in the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “you can bring it out to prove that times
+are _not_ hard, and run off a lot of statistics to prove your point.”
+
+“But I don’t know any statistics,” wailed the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I’m afraid you have not been paying strict attention to-day,” said
+the president, gravely. “However, if you are in danger of losing in
+an argument, be sure to say, with a smile of superiority, ‘I suppose
+you know what the statistics are?’ Now, people are not in the habit
+of carrying statistics around, like cough-drops, and they will simply
+give up the battle on the spot. If they don’t, rattle off a lot of
+figures; they can’t refute them immediately, and if they attempt to do
+it afterward, you can just say, in a supercilious tone, ‘I thought we
+settled that matter yesterday.’”
+
+“Well, I declare,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “that is just my
+own father’s line of argument, and yet it never occurred to me that
+I could imitate it. I do hope you will take very good care of your
+health, Evelyn,” she added. “People who are very intellectual are _so_
+apt to die young.”
+
+“I shall,” said the president. “I’ve no notion of dying and having Tom
+a widower while he is still young enough to be attractive. It would not
+make so much difference after that, for I shall take care that he does
+not accumulate enough money to make him fascinating at seventy-five!”
+
+“Dear, dear,” sighed the blue-eyed girl, “I wonder why so few men have
+money until their hair is only a memory!”
+
+“Case of the wind being tempered to the shorn lamb,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “after all, a man must sacrifice something on
+the altar of success.”
+
+“Humph; isn’t it usually his wife?” said the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“Not if she is clever,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Girls,
+I once knew a woman whose husband made a fortune in two years, and
+he wouldn’t give her more than the merest pittance for dress and
+entertaining. In fact, the only bills he would pay, without grumbling,
+were those of the doctor. And what do you think she did? She selected
+the doctor whose bills were the most outrageous, and settled herself to
+be a chronic invalid. She said she was determined to get something out
+of her husband’s fortune.”
+
+“Good,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “I do hope she
+really enjoyed herself after that.”
+
+“I’m afraid not. You see, the doctor seemed anxious to earn his money,
+and insisted that she had some desperate disease. I doubt if she really
+enjoyed his subsequent visits.”
+
+“All her husband’s fault, too,” sighed the brown-eyed blonde, “and yet,
+I doubt if she reproached him for it. It seems to be a woman’s province
+to suffer in silence.”
+
+“Yes, I’ve often heard my mother make that very remark to my father,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I had rather not quote his
+reply. Girls, I heard the funniest story yesterday; Annie wouldn’t tell
+me who was the heroine of it, really, sometimes she is as provoking as
+a man. I’ll be even with her, however, for I’ll never rest until I find
+out who it was, then I shall tell everybody, and Annie will never be
+able to convince her that she didn’t tell the whole. It seems that this
+girl had quarreled with the man to whom she was engaged, and a week
+later she received a letter addressed in his handwriting. She did think
+of taking it to a mind reader, but it was near the end of the month,
+and she hadn’t the money, so—”
+
+“By the way, Emily, dear, when can you come to lunch with me?” broke in
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “I don’t see half as much of you as I’d
+like to, and—”
+
+“Any day you like, dear. Where was I? Oh! She hadn’t the money, and the
+tea kettle happened to be handy, so she—”
+
+“But, why not open it with a hair-pin, like any other letter?” asked
+the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“She wanted to return it unopened if she didn’t like its contents. It
+proved to be perfectly horrid; he not only didn’t acknowledge that he
+was in the wrong, but he actually brought forward facts to prove that
+she was! Of course, no girl would endure that, so—”
+
+“Do you mean to say that Annie told you that?” asked the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I didn’t think it possible that any girl—”
+
+“Oh, I don’t see any harm in that; of course every girl wants her own
+way. Well, she sealed up the letter again, wrote on it, ‘Returned
+unopened’ and sent it back.”
+
+“H’m,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I was thinking that might
+have been Clarissa, but she is too intellectual to do anything so
+clever. Anyhow, I’m glad she got the better of him.”
+
+“But she didn’t, dear. She discovered, after the messenger had been
+gone an hour, that she had sealed up the envelope without replacing the
+letter in it! Can any of you guess who it was that—”
+
+“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but if I had done such a thing, I
+should never have trusted Annie with it. Why, are you going, dear?”
+
+“I’m going over to Annie’s this very minute,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I—I have something to say to her that will touch even
+_her_ hardened conscience!”
+
+“So it was Marion, after all,” mused the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, after the door had closed behind her friend; “well, at any rate,
+after this Annie will tell me the whole of a story when she begins it.”
+
+“I must say, though, that if I was in her place it would be a long time
+before I began one,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“So you, too, have been confiding in Annie?” said the blue-eyed girl,
+sweetly. “By the way, I am to stay over night with her, but I promise
+you that whatever she may repeat will be safe with me.”
+
+“While we are discussing currency problems, I want to say what a
+nuisance the check system is,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+“I always did hate to get my money in that way, and I had an experience
+the other day which surely ought to cure my father of giving them to
+me.”
+
+“Mercy, you weren’t suspected of being a forger, were you?” asked the
+president, turning pale.
+
+“N—no, I believe not, but—it happened that my father gave me a check
+when I was going shopping, and I found before I cashed it that I must
+have five dollars more. Father had gone to Indianapolis, and mother,
+well—the fact is, that she will not loan me money any more, because
+I sometimes forget to return it. I didn’t know what to do until I
+suddenly remembered that Ned Goldie was the person who had to cash the
+check for me at the bank; then I knew I was safe. Pshaw, it just shows
+that you can never depend on a man!”
+
+“He surely did not refuse to cash it?” asked the president.
+
+“N—no, but he—girls, I’ll tell you just what I did. I said, ‘By the
+way, Mr. Goldie, just give me five dollars more, will you? Father can
+make it right next time he comes in.’ And, if you will credit the fact,
+he actually said he couldn’t do it. A man with whom I had danced the
+german the evening before!”
+
+“I never believed Ned Goldie would be so stingy,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “What excuse did he make?”
+
+“Said it was against the rules of the bank, but he would be delighted
+to _lend_ me the extra five dollars. Did you ever hear of such
+impertinence in your life? As soon as my father comes home, I shall
+tell him that he must transfer his account to another bank, for after
+this I feel that Mr. Goldie is not a person to be trusted with money!”
+
+“Dear, dear,” said the president, gravely, “that is very bad. Don’t
+mention it outside of the club, girls; for if the bank directors found
+that he was being rude to the daughter of one of their customers he
+would lose his position at once. And there may be some apology or
+explanation he can make to your father, too, dear; though I confess I
+don’t see what it can be. Well, girls, I’m afraid we must adjourn, and
+I must say frankly that I am pleased with the work we have done to-day.
+The only reason that I suggested such a weighty topic for discussion
+was, that Tom had declared that the club was unable to grapple with it.
+After that, of course the only thing possible was to show him that he
+was wrong.”
+
+“Which you can now do conclusively,” said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“and I am quite sure he will be surprised at the novelty of some of the
+arguments advanced this afternoon!”
+
+“What is it, dear?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin, as she
+and the blue-eyed girl turned the corner. “You have been so bright and
+cheerful to-day, that I am sure something is seriously wrong.”
+
+“Indeed there is. Jack has behaved abominably! It was enough when he
+told Effie that Frances is the most amiable girl he ever knew; but—”
+
+“That proves conclusively that he is not engaged to her, dear. No man
+ever knows anything about a girl’s temper until he _is_ engaged to her.”
+
+“Oh, if you want to defend him, I shall say no more; but I did think—”
+
+“But, I don’t want to defend him. I only—”
+
+“Then, all I’ve got to say, Emily Marshmallow, is that you are
+prejudiced against the poor fellow. I might have known that from
+the start. I only wish I had not taken your advice and broken my
+engagement.”
+
+“But, you didn’t do it on my advice,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “it was all done before you said a word to me about it.”
+
+“Well, anyhow, I knew you would advise me to do it; and now you are
+not satisfied with what I’ve done. But go on, don’t spare me—I am too
+miserable to care to defend myself! I—I don’t believe I shall live very
+long, anyhow. I shall tell them to give you my marquise ring, as a
+token of forgiveness, when I’m gone. I hope you will remember me when
+you look at it—and be sure to notice if the stones are quite secure in
+their setting.”
+
+“I w—will; I promise you,” sobbed the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“but don’t you think a trip—well a trip to Old Point Comfort might save
+your life. They tell me it is very gay there now!”
+
+The blue-eyed girl shook her head. “Nothing can save me now, dear; why
+I can hook all my gowns now without holding my breath, and yesterday I
+ate no luncheon at all—took nothing between breakfast and dinner but a
+couple of cream sodas, a box of caramels, and a cup or two of afternoon
+tea. You know nobody can live long at that rate. Well, I am sorry for
+Jack Bittersweet when I am gone; a lifetime of remorse and—and Frances
+is not a pleasant thing to look forward to!”
+
+“You haven’t told me yet about Jack, dear, so—”
+
+“True; and some one should know the true story when I am no more. Here
+is the place where they make such nice chocolate; let us stop in and
+drink a cup while I tell you. You take the chair facing the mirror,
+dear,” she said, as they selected a table, “my personal appearance is
+no longer a matter of importance to me.”
+
+“You said that Jack—”
+
+“Has behaved abominably. It is a long story, but I—I shall probably
+never tell you another long story, so you can afford to listen to this
+one. You know the little beggar boy with the beautiful brown eyes that
+I told you about a week or two ago?”
+
+“Yes; but about Jack. I—”
+
+“This is about Jack. I told you how I sympathized with that boy’s sad
+story, and went with him to investigate it, didn’t I?”
+
+“Yes, but you never told me whether his home was—”
+
+“I didn’t get there. He led me through the most awful slums, telling
+me all the time how his father would beat him, when he failed to bring
+money home, and how he knew I was the beautiful lady he had dreamed
+of, as soon as he saw me.”
+
+“Well? Go on, dear.”
+
+“Oh, nothing; only the horrid little wretch suddenly dived down an
+alley and disappeared; and, oh, Emily, I—I believe he made a face at me
+as he went! Worse yet, when I felt for my pocketbook it was gone, and I
+had to walk all the way home!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, had he taken it?”
+
+“I surely had not given it to him. I had almost forgotten the affair,
+when the cook came up yesterday to tell me that he was in the kitchen,
+and had brought my pocketbook back, with a long story about having seen
+another boy take it. Said he had followed him, when he left me, and
+taken it away from him, in turn.”
+
+“Well, I declare; and there was all your money intact after you had
+doubted his honesty!”
+
+“Not a cent of it, dear; and the cook said he was wearing a nice new
+suit. I told her she had better go back to the kitchen, and count the
+spoons, and I called loudly after her, ‘Tell him I never want to see
+his deceitful face again!’ The housemaid had come to the door of my
+room, too, and was trying to put in a word, but I wouldn’t listen to
+her.”
+
+“Trying to excuse the little wretch; the idea!”
+
+“That was what I thought. But, oh, Emily, just then the front door
+closed with a bang which shook the house to its foundations, and then I
+noticed for the first time that the housemaid was trying to give me a
+card!”
+
+“Good gracious, Dorothy, you never mean to say—”
+
+“That it was Jack’s! Indeed I do. He had heard me scream over the
+bannister ‘Tell him to go away; I never want to see his deceitful face
+again.’ And he—he must have thought I meant it for him. Oh, Emily, was
+there ever such a miserable girl as I!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+The Pioneer New Woman
+
+
+“I think the topic for to-day’s discussion should be ‘The Pioneer New
+Woman,’” observed the president of the Teacup Club. “Have you all got
+that down in your note-books? You don’t know how it pleases me to see
+your methodical ways; it shows the real intellectual advancement of our
+club. Why, for my part, I have gained so much that I am not afraid to
+discuss any subject with any one.”
+
+“We have advanced,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “I feel it, too. By
+the way, has any one seen my note-book? I haven’t had it for three
+weeks—are you sure that none of you have gotten it by mistake? I forgot
+to put my name in it, and—”
+
+“I know where it is,” said the girl with the classic profile. “You
+loaned it to Kate—she told me so herself,—in order that she might read
+up on some of the topics we have already discussed, and so qualify for
+admission to the club.”
+
+“I shall blackball her, for my part,” spoke up the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “She is so frivolous that she would drag down our high
+standard. Besides, she once left me out when she gave a luncheon, and
+told people that it was because she had all the decorations in yellow,
+and feared they would not shade with my complexion.”
+
+“Oh, well, Kate is color blind, any way,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.
+
+“Yes, and she is a little deaf, too,” remarked the president, “and
+really does not know just how sharp her own speeches sound.”
+
+“Perhaps not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “but I shall
+blackball her just the same. By the way, Alice is giving a birthday
+dinner party next week—twenty-six covers, one for each year. Clever
+idea, isn’t it?”
+
+“For whose birthday?” asked the girl with the classic profile. “Her
+own? Ah, really, I knew she was forgetful, but this is carrying it too
+far.”
+
+“I wonder why otherwise sensible people will tell such stories about
+their ages,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“I’m sure I don’t know,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Neither do I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Of course, it doesn’t matter who knows my age, as yet,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Nor mine,” remarked the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Nor mine, either,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“No, indeed,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “I got twenty-two birthday
+gifts the other day on my twenty-second birthday.”
+
+“Are you twenty-two? Why, so am I!” cried the girl with the classic
+profile.
+
+“Just my own age, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“And mine; how odd!” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“That is one of the advantages of the new womanhood,” said the
+president; “its beautiful candor. Now, I tell everybody that I am
+twenty-two years old.”
+
+“I wish you would tell Mrs. Van Tompkins,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “She wouldn’t take my word for it the other day,
+though I told her that I couldn’t be mistaken, as you had told me so at
+least six times in the last eighteen months.”
+
+“Cora asked me the other day if there was any age qualification for
+membership in this club,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses, during
+the slight pause which followed the last speech. “She says she has not
+yet celebrated her twenty-first birthday.”
+
+“Born on the 29th of February, then, wasn’t she?” asked the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Yes, it is true that the new womanhood is breaking down old
+traditions. We are not at all jealous of each other now.”
+
+“Of course not,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “we have
+learned to value our own attractions properly. Why, the other day I
+stopped Amy and Fred to tell her there was a dab of powder on her
+nose. Formerly another girl would have been jealous of her dazzling
+complexion, and let her go on as she was.”
+
+“How sweet of you,” murmured the girl with the eyeglasses; “and yet, I
+doubt if she was really grateful.”
+
+“That was not the question, dear; I—”
+
+“Oh, dear,” broke in the president, “if my watch is right it is time to
+adjourn, and yet. Why, here is Elise! What has made you late to-day?”
+
+“A discussion with a stupid man,” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
+“Only think, he actually said that no woman was mathematician enough
+to count up her own birthdays correctly. I was so enraged—why, he said
+that ‘I am twenty-two’ is the same thing to a girl as ‘Polly wants a
+cracker’ is to a parrot, or the Spanish fandango to a guitar player—but
+what on earth is wrong? You all look so queer.”
+
+“It’s nothing at all, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “We were just
+looking at your new hat, that is all. I think your watch must have
+stopped, Evelyn dear, for mine is only—”
+
+“Perhaps it has,” said the president. “Tom talks so much, sometimes,
+that I quite forget to wind it.”
+
+“Oh, well, it needs a rest sometimes,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I know that mine—”
+
+“Oh, dear!” said the president, “I know I am a fright to-day, and
+nothing but a sense of duty has brought me here. Why, I actually have
+not had a chance to curl my hair properly for six days, and—”
+
+“Been getting ready your new gown, have you?” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I only wish I had mine off my mind.”
+
+“It wasn’t my new gown,” said the president. “It was Tom. He has had
+a heavy cold, and the house smells so strong of camphor that there
+will not be a moth within a block of it this year. I don’t mind being
+bidden a tragic farewell at mid-day, but I do mind being waked up at
+midnight for that purpose.”
+
+“But it was nothing serious, was it?” asked the brown-eyed blonde. “I
+thought the other day, when he came to the top of the stairs and called
+to you that he was dying, that a man who was breathing his last would
+manage to do it with less noise.”
+
+“Oh, pshaw!” said the president. “That was nothing to the time he waked
+me up at one o’clock in the morning to tell me that he was dying, but
+if I let that mug-faced young preacher who used to come to see me,
+officiate at his funeral he would come back and haunt me. It took a
+hot-water bottle, a mustard plaster, two hot toddies, and the camphor
+to quiet him that time.”
+
+“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “I wonder why a man
+always thinks a cold or a boil fatal—when he has it?”
+
+“Perhaps he doesn’t himself,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “but
+he always wants the women of the family to act as if they did.”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses; “but do you know what
+Dolly does? As soon as her husband complains of being ill she begins to
+weep and tear her hair and lament that he will die, she knows he will.
+That frightens him, and when she insists upon putting him to bed, and
+giving him a bowl of hot ginger tea (which he detests), he pretends
+that he was only joking, and flees to the office, when she calls him up
+every half-hour to ask how he is. She says he seldom complains of his
+health nowadays.”
+
+“You know my sister Amelia, don’t you?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Well, her husband had a heavy cold last week. He waked her
+up at two o’clock to tell her that he was dying, and that he knew
+he had not been a good husband to her, and could not go without her
+forgiveness. She wept, and said that he had not been very nice to her,
+and had never given her half enough money. Upon this, the dying man sat
+up, and began to argue the case. From argument they passed to something
+warmer. He went down to the office next day, and hasn’t said a word
+about dying since.”
+
+“I wouldn’t mind Tom thinking he was dying once in awhile,” said the
+president, “if he’d only allow me the same privilege occasionally. He
+won’t, though; he comes in and says, cheerfully, ‘Oh, you’ll soon be
+all right. You should have seen how much worse I was once when I had
+it, and never missed a day at the office, either!’ The last time he
+did that my throat was too sore for me to reply properly, and I really
+thought I should die of rage.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “As if a
+woman couldn’t always stand more than a man, anyhow! For instance,
+I wonder how many of them could go out in thin shoes, and without
+overshoes, as we do. And yet you never hear a girl say that she has
+caught cold in that way.”
+
+“Never,” said the blue-eyed girl; “we have too much fortitude. My
+cousin Edith’s husband used to be always complaining of his health,
+until this last winter, I wondered what had caused his miraculous
+recovery, until she told me a few days ago. She was away from home, and
+received a telegram, saying that she must come at once if she wanted to
+see him alive. The message was delayed, being improperly addressed, and
+when she reached home, expecting to find him dead, he met her at the
+door. It seems that he had called in a new doctor, who was the cause of
+his miraculous recovery. He said he would never have another physician
+to prescribe for him as long as he lived.”
+
+“Completely cured, eh?” said the president.
+
+“Not that time. Next time he was ill, and the new doctor appeared, he
+turned out to be an old admirer of Edith’s. Her husband is frightfully
+jealous, and Edith’s potential second husband is a very real person to
+him. Edith, as nurse, always went out into the hall to talk with the
+doctor after his call. She says she is sure that she did not remain
+away so _very_ long; but when she came back, after the first visit, her
+husband sulked; after the second, he raved; and after the third, he
+got up, declaring he’d live, if only to spite them both. And now, the
+doctor points to him as an example of his remarkable healing powers,”
+she added.
+
+“Speaking of old sweethearts,” said the president, “what do you think
+happened to me the other day? I was calling on Mrs. Vansmith and her
+guest, as she had requested. Both of them happened to be out, and, to
+my annoyance, I found I had no cards with me. At last I found one of
+Tom’s in my card-case, and I left that, knowing that Mrs. Vansmith
+would understand.”
+
+“Well, and didn’t she?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Perhaps. But the visitors didn’t. It turned out that she used to
+be engaged to Tom; while I was in the kindergarten, I suppose. It
+seems that his card was handed to her; and you should have seen the
+unbelieving smile with which she listened to my explanation of the
+matter!”
+
+“You poor, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl, “you must have been as angry
+as if somebody had trodden on your gown. A rather unpleasant thing
+happened to Florence the other day, too; Molly was calling on her,
+and a note was handed in. She thought it was from Teddy Crœsus, and
+pretending that she had ink on her fingers, asked Molly to open it for
+her, which she did.”
+
+“How stupid of Molly; she might have known that it was some trick of
+Florence’s,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Was it a proposal from
+Teddy?”
+
+“It wasn’t from Teddy at all; handwritings are so much alike nowadays.
+It was a bill from the hairdresser, of whom Florence had bought those
+lovely little curls which cluster around her brow—and Molly read it
+aloud, as she had requested.”
+
+“But who told you about it?” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Molly. You didn’t suppose it was Florence, did you? I declare, it made
+me feel like trying to persuade both of them to join our club. There
+isn’t a girl in it that would do such a mean thing, and the example
+might—”
+
+“No, it wouldn’t; they are too frivolous,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Oh, girls, I sometimes wish that the men who dance with
+us could hear the serious discussions which go on in this club,—so
+harmoniously, too.”
+
+“True,” said the president, “not one unkind word has been spoken, even
+of the absent, since we organized. I wonder if as much can be said of
+any other club.”
+
+“I doubt it,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and it isn’t as if we couldn’t
+think of clever things to say about people, either.”
+
+“Of course not,” returned the girl with the Roman nose; “why, I know
+some things, even about the other members, which—”
+
+“So do I,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Why, I heard the
+other day that you—”
+
+“Of course I wouldn’t mention, for the world,” finished the girl with
+the Roman nose, in some agitation.
+
+“I thought not, dear; it would hardly be wise,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses, “for you, especially.”
+
+“I’m sure, I don’t see why I, es—”
+
+“Don’t you, dear? But, then, you never were clever,” said the
+president. “Yes, I am very proud of the amiability we have all
+displayed since joining the club. I must say that I didn’t expect—”
+
+“I don’t see why not,” said the blue-eyed girl. “As for me, I can get
+along with anybody, so I was not at all afraid.”
+
+“Yes, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “your tongue would be a
+protection, even if—”
+
+“Other people were even _more_ envious of me? That is hardly possible,
+dear; but I thank you for your good opinion of me.”
+
+“Don’t overwhelm me with gratitude, dearest; I really do not deserve
+it.”
+
+“But, luckily for you, love, people seldom get their deserts.”
+
+“Oh, girls, don’t quarrel,” said the president, wringing her hands;
+“I’ve always wanted this to be different from a man’s club, and now—”
+
+“Really, Evelyn, you seem to be the one who is doing the quarreling,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde, tartly. “As for me, I am naturally amiable,
+and—”
+
+“It is not your fault if your temper _is_ a bit soured by repeated
+disappointments,” broke in the blue-eyed girl; “of course not.
+Everybody says it is no wonder.”
+
+“I—I resign from this club,” sobbed the brown-eyed blonde. “I’ll not
+stay here another minute to be insulted!”
+
+“Girls, girls,” said the president, “do be reasonable. I—”
+
+“This is the first time _I_ was ever accused of being unreasonable,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose; “and all I’ve got to say is, that I
+pity Tom from the bottom of my heart, and—”
+
+“I don’t doubt but that you’d be glad to comfort him—if I was dead,”
+sobbed the president. “If this is all I am to get for keeping you at
+peace during the meetings, I’ll just resign, and let you run the club
+to suit yourselves. And a p-pretty mess you-you’ll make of it!” And
+she retired behind her handkerchief.
+
+“I’ll resign, too, this very minute,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “I knew just how it would be when Dorothy asked me to join the
+club, but—”
+
+“You were afraid to refuse, lest something happen, and you didn’t know
+all about it,” finished the blue-eyed girl. “Well, I wish to tender
+_my_ resignation from the club, to take effect at once.”
+
+“And so do I,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“And I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“I, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“W—why, then, there’s nobody left!” exclaimed the blue-eyed girl,
+gazing about the room in astonishment. “Oh, w—what will all the men of
+our set say when they hear of this!” she wailed.
+
+“I never thought of that!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I know
+well enough, though, without thinking,” she added.
+
+“They will say that women never _can_ agree among themselves,” sobbed
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and they will keep on saying it,
+in spite of the fact that it is a baseless libel!”
+
+“Of—of course, I am not an—angry, only hurt,” sobbed the president.
+
+“I am not angry at all,” said the blue-eyed girl, “only distressed that
+the others—”
+
+“I’m sure I—I haven’t a hard feeling against any—anybody,” wailed the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Mercy, no,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“If anybody is sorry for having hurt my feelings, I am quite ready to
+forgive it,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“And so am I,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Then, I don’t see that any of us need resign,” said the president.
+“Does anybody remember the topic under discussion?”
+
+“‘The Pioneer New Woman,’” said the blue-eyed girl, “and a very
+interesting topic it is, I’m sure.”
+
+“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the Roman nose, as she tucked her
+handkerchief into her belt.
+
+“One thing is always a mystery to me,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “why does no female creature ever acknowledge that she is a
+new woman until she is quite an old one?”
+
+“Oh, well, by that time her years will entitle her to a seat in a
+street car, even if she wears bloomers,” thoughtfully replied the
+president.
+
+“Who really _was_ the pioneer new woman?” asked the girl with the
+classic profile.
+
+“Eve; although, she did not call herself by that name, I believe,”
+returned the blue-eyed girl. “So far as I can see, the new woman is
+just like all the rest of us—she wants to get everything she can out
+of the world, and give as little as possible in return.”
+
+“And it is perfectly natural that she should,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “The only way we can make the men give us what we really
+want, is by asking for a great deal more, so that they will think
+themselves lucky if we compromise on what we originally decided to
+have.”
+
+“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the Roman nose, making an entry into
+her note-book, “I’ve been acting on that theory all my life, but I
+never thought to formulate it.”
+
+“Pardon me for the suggestion,” said the president, “but I hope you are
+not in the habit of leaving that note-book around where any man can see
+it.”
+
+“It wouldn’t make any difference if I did, dear. I went to such
+a fashionable school that no one but myself can ever read my
+chirography—I can’t myself, if it was written long enough ago for me to
+have quite forgotten what I said.”
+
+“Then, you needn’t be uneasy about any old love letters which have not
+been returned,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Not at all. Nobody could tell whether I had written a promise of
+undying affection or a recipe for hair tonic.”
+
+“I do wish my father had sent me to the same school,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, sorrowfully.
+
+“Pshaw, old letters don’t tell half as many tales as old photographs,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses, sighing. “I know a girl who had been
+engaged to a man who returned everything she had given him except one
+photograph. She couldn’t refuse to let him keep it when he begged so
+hard.”
+
+“He had probably lost it, and didn’t know how to account for its
+absence,” said the president.
+
+“No, he hadn’t. Well, six years later, she became engaged to another
+man. I fancy she must have told him some stories about her age.”
+
+“It’s always better to understate rather than overstate a case,” said
+the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“So my old nurse used to say. Well, when she was about to be married,
+her old lover sent her a beautiful present, and with it an envelope
+addressed to her fiancé.”
+
+“Which she should have opened herself,” said the president, promptly.
+
+“He happened to be present when the box was opened, dear. The envelope
+contained the photograph taken seven years before—”
+
+“Why didn’t she say that—”
+
+“It was a picture of her elder sister? She did, dear. What really
+caused the trouble was her own name, and the date on the back of it,
+coupled with the statement that it was taken on her twenty-second
+birthday!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, how sly men are?” said the president. “And to think
+that never, as long as she lived, could that girl tell him what she
+really thought of him!”
+
+“I know. She used to say that she sometimes regretted that she _hadn’t_
+married him.”
+
+“Oh, well, he is probably married to somebody else, by this time,
+anyhow,” said the president, “though I doubt if his wife would fully
+appreciate the enormity of his behavior, since it was toward another
+woman.”
+
+“Never mind,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “people are sure to be
+punished in some way or another. I wouldn’t get up early on Sunday
+morning, and go to church if I did not firmly believe that.”
+
+“Goodness me,” said the president, “it must be awfully late, girls, and
+I promised Tom to adjourn early and meet him down town. I do wonder if
+he has been waiting for me all this time!”
+
+“I’ve seen Jack,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, as the
+friends went down the stairs; “met him on the street this morning.”
+
+“And, I suppose you hurried right on, and never said a civil word to
+him,” returned the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Indeed I didn’t. I called after him to wait for me, and—”
+
+“And I suppose he thought that I had told you to talk to him, since
+you were so eager. You needn’t tell me a word that you said—I don’t
+want to hear anything about it. Did—did he look sort of hollow-eyed and
+worn?”
+
+“‘M—I can’t say that he did. But he said that he thought he must give
+up chafing-dish suppers.”
+
+“I should think he must have bad dreams,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+viciously.
+
+“He—he told me that he had called at your house the other day, and—”
+
+“I suppose you let him go on thinking that I meant that message for
+him. A nice friend you are, Emily Marshmallow!”
+
+“Why, Dorothy, I—”
+
+“You don’t surely mean that you explained it all, and actually let him
+think that I wanted to apologize! Well, if anybody had told me such a
+thing of you, I never would have believed it.”
+
+“No, I didn’t,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I didn’t
+say a word, for just then Frances joined us; and if _you_ are clever
+enough to get a private word with any man, after Frances sees him, I am
+not!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+Woman in Legislation
+
+
+“Let us discuss ‘Woman in Legislation,’ to-day,” said the president. “I
+had written you a note, Marion, to prepare a paper on it, but I found
+it in my desk this morning.”
+
+“Too bad,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I should have been
+delighted to do it.”
+
+“Why, Marion,” cried the girl with the Roman nose, “have you forgotten?
+You said you were too busy painting dinner cards to touch it. That was
+when I told you that Evelyn wanted you to do it, you remember.”
+
+“No, I don’t,” snapped the girl with the eyeglasses. “Of course I
+shan’t have a minute to prepare a paper for next week; but I should
+have been delighted to—”
+
+“Girls,” said the president, “only think! Tom says this club is
+actually making me masculine.”
+
+“Mercy, you must have convinced him that you had the better of him in
+an argument,” cried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No—but I forgot to mail some letters he intrusted to me the other day
+when he was going out of town. By the way, it seems to me that when
+legislation is in the hands of women. What are you girls whispering
+about over there in the corner?”
+
+“We are only comparing samples of bicycle suitings,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “Dorothy has a larger selection than I, and—”
+
+“Why, I have a lot of them, myself,” said the president. “Has anybody
+seen my hand-bag since I came in?”
+
+“Here it is,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I’ve just been
+comparing your samples with mine, and I find—”
+
+“Goodness me, I’m late,” said the brown-eyed blonde, as she bounced
+into the room. “I just stopped on my way here to look at a new design
+for bicycle suits, and—”
+
+“I’ve been trying for half a block to catch you, Frances,” said the
+girl with the classic profile, as she opened the door, in turn; “I’ve
+been looking at the new bicycles, and was detained longer than I
+expected.”
+
+“Oh, shall you get a new wheel this year?” asked the president.
+
+“No, dear,” returned the girl with the classic profile; “but, of
+course, I wanted to see what they are like.”
+
+“Naturally,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “My dears, you never
+heard of such luck as mine. You know papa said I shouldn’t have a new
+bicycle this year, if I had to walk—”
+
+“Oh, if you call that luck,” said the blue-eyed girl, “my father said
+the same thing.”
+
+“So did mine,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Wait until you hear the rest,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I
+had my old machine set in order, and expected to have to do with it
+all this season. The other day, I went into the store-room to have a
+look at it, and, to my surprise, found it all splashed with mud, the
+enamel scratched, and—”
+
+“The cook had been riding it, of course,” broke in the president.
+
+“I knew that at once, and I went to tell mamma she must discharge her
+on the spot. However, mamma was lying down with a headache, and as
+I had some shopping, a luncheon, two teas and a dinner on hand that
+day, I had no chance to speak to her. Two days later, I remembered it,
+and went in to look at it—I knew that mamma was so prejudiced against
+bicycling that I must make the case very bad to excite her sympathy.
+It was bad enough, by this time, too; one pedal was all bent, the
+handle-bar was broken, and the enamel was a sight!”
+
+“I hope you made your mother discharge that cook on the spot!” said the
+blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I rushed right up to mamma’s room to do it. I opened the door, and a
+familiar odor greeted me—a combination of arnica and witch hazel, and—”
+
+“You forgot all about the cook. Had your mother fallen downstairs?”
+
+“No; she hadn’t. The cook had been trying to teach her to ride my
+bicycle; she had a black eye, a sprained shoulder, and a skinned face.
+The cook had gone home with a dislocated collar-bone, and I had to wait
+on mamma, and do all the cooking for two days!”
+
+“And you call that luck!” groaned the president.
+
+“Not that, dear. But mamma gave me a beautiful new wheel for keeping
+the whole thing from papa’s ears. And I sold the old one for enough to
+buy me a lovely new suit,” she added, triumphantly.
+
+“I am glad _somebody_ has had a stroke of luck,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “As for me, I’ve just had an object-lesson in the selfishness
+of this world, which is enough to make a misanthrope of me for life.”
+
+“Mercy, has your grandmother decided to buy a wheel for herself instead
+of for you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“No. But you see it scratches the enamel to learn on a wheel—not to
+mention the other accidents which may befall it. Now, Nell’s bicycle
+is old, and I sent to borrow it to ride while I was taking my lessons.
+She actually refused it, unless I would lend her my new one while I had
+hers. Did you ever hear of such selfishness in your life?”
+
+“Never,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “By the way, I
+suppose Jack Bittersweet will teach you to ride?”
+
+“Why, yes; but how did you guess it?” There was a note of triumph in
+her voice.
+
+“Oh, that was easy enough. He is always teaching somebody, you know. I
+told him the other day that I was afraid people would soon think him a
+professional.”
+
+“B—but he told me that he only teaches people whom he—likes,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, faintly.
+
+“Why, of course, dear. But, Jack hasn’t a bit of discretion; he likes
+everything that wears petticoats, I verily believe.”
+
+“Oh—I— By the way, Evelyn, dear, what is to-day’s topic? You had
+started the discussion when I came, and I didn’t like to interrupt you
+to ask.”
+
+“It is ‘Woman in Legislation,’” said the president, after a peep at her
+note-book, “By the way, Frances, I know the cheapest place in town for
+arnica, if you want—”
+
+“Mine doesn’t cost anything, dear. Papa always has a bill at the drug
+store. I know the clerk, and he has promised if I use a very large
+quantity to put it down as toilet soap and postage stamps. Papa has
+never ridden you know, and he might not understand.”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What a comfort
+bicycling is, anyhow. For instance, if you meet a strange man, and the
+conversation lags—”
+
+“Get it on bicycles, and it runs smoothly enough,” said the president.
+
+“I wish _I_ could do the same,” wailed the brown-eyed blonde. “Well
+it is lucky for me that the dancing season is over, for my arms are a
+perfect sight.”
+
+“Oh, if it is only your arms!” said the girl with the Roman nose,
+cheerfully. “_I_ always fell on my face when I was learning. The only
+comforting thing about that was, that I soon became unrecognizable, and
+could fall right up and down my own street without a soul knowing who I
+was. It was very convenient, too, for they hadn’t far to take me when I
+had a really bad accident.”
+
+“How long did you have to wait to sit for your photograph?” asked the
+blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Six weeks, dear—and then it had to be a profile.”
+
+“Elizabeth had rather a hard time of it, too,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “she would learn in her lovely new suit, and by the
+time she could ride, she hadn’t enough of it left to make a bathing
+costume.”
+
+“Tom tells a rather good bicycle story,” observed the president. “He
+met a member of his club, who is a noted scorcher, the other day. He
+was wheeling along a very disreputable specimen of a woman’s machine.
+‘Hello,’ said Tom, ‘got yourself into trouble?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply,
+‘I ran into a woman up yonder, and I’m afraid it will be cheaper to buy
+her a new wheel than to have the old one repaired.’ ‘Humph,’ said Tom,
+who knows him pretty well, ‘it’s a wonder you didn’t just ride away
+and leave her, when you found what you had done.’ ‘I did,’ said the
+scorcher, ‘but it didn’t do me any good.’ ‘Policeman saw you, eh?’ ‘No.
+The woman turned out to be my wife!’”
+
+“Good!” said the blue-eyed girl. “I came very near not getting my
+bicycle last year. Papa said I should have one if I learned to make a
+good pie. I agreed to do it, but I had reckoned without the cook. She
+said flatly that she wouldn’t have me messing up her kitchen. Finally,
+I compromised by agreeing to trim her a hat, if she would make the
+pie. It was really quite the same you know.”
+
+“Quite,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“And did it turn out all right?” asked the president.
+
+“The hat did; but the pie—well, the cook had lived with us for three
+years, and that was the first time she had turned out an uneatable pie!”
+
+“But, why didn’t you ask your father to let you try again?” asked the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“I did, dear; but I took no chances that time; I bought the pie from
+the Woman’s Exchange. And I must say that I think I quite deserved the
+bicycle after all I had been through to earn it.”
+
+“Indeed you did,” said the girl with the classic profile. “By the way,
+Emily, I hear that you and Dick had an almost fatal quarrel while you
+were both learning.”
+
+“We did,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “It happened this
+way: I was able to ride at least two blocks without assistance, so
+I got up very early, and went to the park alone to practice. I was
+getting along very well until I heard somebody coming up behind me at
+a terrible pace. That made me so nervous that I fell right off. The
+cyclist who had frightened me was Dick, and he actually kept right on
+without offering to help me!”
+
+“Perhaps he didn’t know it was you,” suggested the girl with the Roman
+nose.
+
+“Yes, he did; but he kept right on, and a perfect stranger had to take
+me and my bicycle home. Two hours later he appeared with his arm in a
+sling, and explained. He said it was first time he had ridden outside
+of the riding school, and he had gotten a terrific pace which he
+couldn’t have stopped if a rich uncle had been in his way. He said that
+if something in his machine hadn’t broken, he verily believed he’d have
+circled the globe without stopping!”
+
+“So you forgave him, didn’t you? You always were amiable,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Ye—es. Especially as he offered to have my bicycle repaired; papa
+having declared the last time that he wouldn’t pay another cent for
+repairs, if it stood in the attic all summer!”
+
+“That was good of you. Some girls would not have been so just,” said
+the president.
+
+“Oh, don’t praise me too much,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, modestly. “Nobody who knew me happened to be in sight when it
+occurred—else I might not have let him off so easily.”
+
+“Dear me, how modest you are,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I never knew a
+human being with so little vanity in my life.”
+
+“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Did I tell you
+about Florence’s latest trouble? No? Well, you know that horrid Mr.
+Brownsmith, who rides beautifully, begged to be allowed to teach her.
+She accepted, and as soon as she had learned to ride well, she wondered
+how to get rid of him.”
+
+“Why didn’t she ask her father to—”
+
+“Forbid him to the house? That’s just what she did. I believe you have
+heard this story before.”
+
+“Yes. And her father?” queried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Absolutely refused to do it. Said he was the finest young man he knew,
+and only wondered that he cared for her society.”
+
+“Well, I declare! And Florence?”
+
+“Would have had to treat him just like anybody else, if he hadn’t heard
+all about it, and stopped calling of his own accord. Now, every time
+her father sees him, he asks why he hasn’t been to the house for so
+long!”
+
+“How unreasonable men are to be sure—Florence’s father, in particular.
+Why, he actually refuses to speak to Dickey Doolittle, whose third
+cousin married a British baronet, and who has all his garments made in
+London!” said the president.
+
+“I know—he says it makes no difference to him _where_ Dickey gets his
+clothes; so long as he pays for them promptly,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“Which is the last thing Dickey would even think of doing,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Oh, well, he may _think_ of it,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “I suppose that even Dickey thinks sometimes.”
+
+“You have been reading the comic papers again,” said the president,
+severely. “Whenever I hear old jokes I—”
+
+“No, dear,” said the girl with the classic profile, sweetly, “but I had
+a long talk with your husband only yesterday.”
+
+“Dear me,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, rousing herself
+from a reverie, “I’m afraid I’ve not been paying attention to the
+discussion. I can’t even remember whether we decided that women should
+be legislators or not.”
+
+“I’m sorry to hear that,” said the president. “I fear it is too late
+to go over the discussion again for your benefit. I thought you were
+taking notes of it as we went along—I saw you jotting something down in
+your note-book.”
+
+“That was only my calculations for a bicycle suit. There must be
+something wrong about them, too, for I make it twenty-seven dollars,
+and I only have twenty-one dollars and thirty-eight cents to my name,
+even if somebody pays my car-fare home.”
+
+“I only make it twenty-six dollars and two cents,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “and I have allowed for everything just the same as you have.”
+
+“But then you are so economical that your sums in addition always come
+out less than mine, dear. I think you had better go over it again; or
+let Evelyn do it for you.”
+
+“I make it twenty-eight dollars and sixty cents,” said the president.
+“Try it Frances, and see if I am right.”
+
+“Oh, don’t,” said the blue-eyed girl, “if anybody else adds it up, it
+may come out thirty dollars, and then I can’t afford it at all. Well,
+I do hope one thing,—that when women are legislators they will arrange
+that we all have more money to spend.”
+
+“Of course they will,” said the president, “else why should they
+bother to be legislators at all?”
+
+“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“What a comfort you are with your knowledge of parliamentary usage,”
+said the president.
+
+“Yes, I have gained that by joining this club, if I have gained nothing
+else,” replied the girl with the Roman nose. “I observe, too, that papa
+and the boys are less inclined to engage in argument with me than they
+were before they knew the kind of topics we discuss here. Not that I
+give myself any airs over it, of course,” she added.
+
+“Oh, none of us do that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “But there is
+another benefit which I derive from the club. Mamma allows me to spend
+a good deal more money on my wardrobe, now that she is afraid that I
+may begin to look intellectual if I’m not well dressed.”
+
+“Oh, speaking of bicycle suits; did you ever hear what happened to
+Molly’s old one?” asked the blue-eyed girl. “No? Well, she was
+determined to have a new one this year, so she put the old one away
+without any moth-balls, and—”
+
+“It was completely ruined by the moths, so that she had to get a new
+one?” asked the president.
+
+“No, it was comparatively uninjured; but the moths from it had got into
+all her brother’s spring garments, which were hanging up near it. Molly
+is thinking of going away on a nice long visit about the time that he
+discovers it.”
+
+“H’m; if I know anything about men, she had better,” said the
+president. “Poor Molly, I suppose she had meant to coax him for another
+suit. How unlucky that girl is, and she doesn’t in the least deserve
+her ill-luck, either.”
+
+“No. She often says it would be easier to bear if she did. Now, last
+year that very same brother was always coaxing her to ask Ida to pay
+her a visit. Finally, he said he’d give her fifty dollars if she would
+do it, and she thought she might as well be good-natured and oblige
+him. However, she was busy, and put it off a week or two, and when
+Ida’s letter of acceptance actually came he had fallen in love with
+another girl, and let Molly do all the entertaining!”
+
+“Just like a man. Did he give her the money?” asked the president.
+
+“No. He compromised on half, because Molly had put off asking her. And
+Ida stayed two weeks longer than she had been asked for, and made eyes
+all the time at the man Molly really liked herself.”
+
+“Yes, poor Molly,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “she says
+the next time her brother offers to pay her for having a girl to visit
+her, she will send the invitation by telegraph!”
+
+“And demand payment in advance,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “of course
+he would be willing to pay for the telegram, anyhow.”
+
+“Yes, and take it to the office, too,” said the president, with a sigh.
+“Tom used to send off all my telegrams before we were married—he always
+said it was too far to the office for me to go myself. Now, he says
+that the exercise will do me good.”
+
+“I suppose he doesn’t want to pay for the message,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.
+
+“Oh, I never pay for my telegrams, I always send them at receiver’s
+cost. People are so curious to know what is in a telegram that they pay
+without a murmur.”
+
+“H’m, I shall have to try that,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“But not on me,” cried the president. “I’ll never forgive you if you
+do. Oh, girls, did you hear the awful thing that happened to Milly
+when she sold her bicycle? No? Well, she only got ten dollars for it,
+because the man said it was in such an awful condition that he only
+took it to oblige her, and it would be a dead loss on his hands. He
+told her to come in in about ten days, and he’d have some second hand
+ones in such good condition that they would be the best bargains in
+town.”
+
+“That was very nice of him, since he made nothing on the transaction,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“So Milly thought. At the end of that time she went back, and found one
+that she liked very much, it being the same make as her old one. He
+wanted sixty dollars for it, but she beat him down to fifty, and took
+it home with her at once for fear he would change his mind. What do
+you think she found when she got home? That she had bought her own old
+machine back again!”
+
+“But how did she know that?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“By the number on the plate, goosie. He had put on new pedals, raised
+the seat a bit and given it a new coat of enamel—making forty dollars
+on the transaction! And when Milly wanted her husband to punish him for
+his rascality, he only laughed until she actually thought seriously of
+applying for a divorce!”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the blue-eyed girl. “One man will do a mean thing
+and another will uphold him. You don’t find women doing such things for
+each other!”
+
+“No, indeed,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “our own
+standard of feminine behavior is so high, that we hardly even give each
+other credit for the good things we do!”
+
+“I’ve often noticed that,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “and I
+regret to see that men are unable to appreciate our lofty motives, and
+often set it down to envy.”
+
+“My goodness,” cried the president, with a guilty start, “it must
+be long past time to adjourn, and I don’t want the janitor to look
+at me as he did last time we were late. Why, he couldn’t have been
+more unpleasant if I had been his own wife! And the look which always
+reduces Tom to instant submission hadn’t the least effect upon him!”
+
+“I’ve been dying for an opportunity to speak to you all afternoon,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin, to the blue-eyed girl, as
+they turned the corner, “I met Effie Bittersweet to-day, and she spoke
+so nicely of you that I am sure she thinks you and her brother are
+about to become reconciled.”
+
+“It isn’t Jack this time, dear,” was the calm reply. “The fact is, that
+Clarence Lighthed has been paying me a good deal of attention lately,
+and she was afraid you would think her jealous.”
+
+“Clarence! Well, I never—how on earth did you manage it, Dorothy?”
+
+“Strange as it may appear, I didn’t manage it at all; he did it
+entirely of his own accord. But though that is the honest truth, there
+isn’t another girl of my acquaintance who would even _pretend_ to
+believe it if I told her.”
+
+“I suppose not, dear; and yet men must sometimes admire girls of their
+own free will. Well, Effie must be feeling very badly, then, for she
+said that of course she knew I would laugh at her for saying it, but
+for her part, she considered Dorothy Darling the prettiest girl in our
+set.”
+
+“Humph, I’ll remember that when Clarence calls to-morrow afternoon. You
+couldn’t persuade Effie to drop in with you for a cup of tea, could
+you?”
+
+“Ye—es, I suppose I could, if you will promise to put enough rum in my
+cup to fortify me for the walk home. And I have always wanted to own a
+hand mirror like that silver one of yours. Do you suppose anybody will
+ever give me one?”
+
+“You may have mine, if you will promise to bring Effie in at precisely
+half-past four; Clarence will be reading poetry aloud by that time.”
+
+“I promise; and I might just as well stop in and get the hand mirror
+now. You won’t want me to leave you a moment to-morrow.
+
+“Indeed, I shall not. By the way, of course I told you that I cracked
+the mirror breaking taffy the other afternoon! No? Why, I wonder how I
+could have overlooked the fact.”
+
+“Never mind, dear, Ned Crœsus will have it mended for me—and thank me
+for letting him do it, instead of Dick. By the way, how can you endure
+so much of Clarence’s society? You always said he was so stupid.”
+
+“That was when he used to talk of nothing but Effie. Any man would be
+stupid, if his only theme was another girl. You—you couldn’t let Jack
+know about Clarence, could you? If it was any one else Effie would tell
+him the first time she was provoked with him. Frances will be careful
+not to let him know, and men have such silly ideas about interfering
+with other peoples’ affairs, that I doubt if any of them say a word to
+him about the matter.”
+
+“I might. Yes, I know I could, if only I was sure that you would not
+blame me if it turned out badly.”
+
+“Well, Emily Marshmallow, to think of refusing to do a little thing
+like that for me—when I’ve just given you that lovely hand mirror,
+which I like better than anything I own. I just believe you want Jack
+Bittersweet yourself, and I’m sure you are welcome to him, for aught I
+care!”
+
+“Look here, Dorothy, I think you forget that Jack is two whole inches
+shorter than I; and if you think I am capable of caring enough for
+_any_ man to make myself look like a—a bean pole for the rest of my
+natural life, you are very much mistaken!”
+
+“Oh, well, if you are sorry to have hurt my feelings, of course I shall
+overlook it. I only hope, however, that you will not rely too much on
+my natural amiability and push me too far. If you should see Jack in
+the near future you might, as you suggested,—”
+
+“But, I didn’t suggest at all. You must just tell me what you want me
+to say to Jack and, if I get a chance, I—”
+
+“You are entirely mistaken. I don’t want you to say anything to Jack;
+after the way he has treated me, I have too much pride to raise a
+finger to bring him back. I only thought that, as you are a friend of
+his, you might like to warn him that there are others who appreciate
+me, if he does not.”
+
+“B—but I rather fancy that he will expect—er some kind of an
+explanation of the—the occurrence at your house last week. Suppose I
+just say—”
+
+“Well, then, all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet is too
+stupid to understand a simple accident, I don’t care if he never speaks
+to me again. Clarence Lighthed is one of the very nicest fellows I ever
+knew, and I am one of the hap—happiest girls in the world. Don’t look
+at me as if you thought I was crying! I am not—and if I was, it would
+be out of p—pure joy!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+An Executive Meeting
+
+
+“Why, Frances, is that you? And on your way to the Club, too,” cried
+the blue-eyed girl, as she caught up with the brown-eyed blonde, “how
+lucky I am; I shall have a nice long talk with you as we go along! How
+well you are looking to-day, quite fresh, I declare! Dear me, I should
+have put on my gloves before I left home, but I was in such haste that—”
+
+“By the way, Dorothy, it seems to me that you are not wearing as many
+rings as usual this winter. Surely, I miss the diamond you used to
+wear!”
+
+“Why, no I’m not; so much jewelry is always vulgar, and rings are _so_
+hard on one’s gloves. Mercy, we have walked a whole block, and you
+haven’t told me a bit of news!”
+
+“Haven’t I? By the way, I heard Ja—a man I know, say something about
+you yesterday which was quite a surprise. I don’t really know whether I
+ought to repeat it, or not.”
+
+“Oh, he wouldn’t have said it before you unless he expected you to
+repeat it, dear. You must tell me what it is, or I shall fancy it was
+not really unpleasant, and, really I’ve had so many compliments of late
+that it will be quite a change. I am actually afraid that Cla—a friend
+who thinks too well of me—will make me vain, and that—”
+
+“Impossible, dear. By the way, I hear that Clarence Lighthed comes to
+see you occasionally now, and—”
+
+“Not oftener than once in twenty-four hours, dear.”
+
+“Yes. And really he has been so devoted to so many girls that—”
+
+“It is a wonder that he has never thought of _you_! Why so it is, now
+that I think of it. But never mind, there may be a chance for you yet.
+Pardon me, you were about to repeat something you had heard about me,
+and I’m afraid I interrupted you.”
+
+“Was I? Dear me, I have quite forgotten what it was; nothing very
+important, I’m sure.”
+
+“Very true. By the way, I heard something about _you_ the other day,
+too. It was extremely complimentary—so much so indeed, that you will
+think I am trying to flatter you, if I repeat it.”
+
+“Indeed? Oh, I remember now what I was about to tell you. It was—so you
+really heard something nice about poor little me?”
+
+“Yes, I really did. I’ll tell you after you have finished your story. I
+really must not interrupt you again.”
+
+“Yes, Ja—I mean the man I know—said the other day that he thought
+you—now you mustn’t mind this, at all, Dorothy; I told him at once that
+nobody else had ever said such a thing of you.”
+
+“How kind of you to champion me, dear; I really did not expect it.”
+
+“Oh, yes; I often do it. He said—I wouldn’t repeat it to you, but the
+absurdity of the charge takes all the sting out of it. He said, ‘I
+consider Dorothy Darling the most heartless flirt I ever knew!’ Isn’t
+it too funny!” and she burst into a peal of laughter.
+
+The blue-eyed girl paused to pat a little dog before she replied: “How
+well you do tell a story, Frances, dear. Look at that poor, old blind
+man over yonder; let us cross over and give him some pennies,” and she
+was almost dancing as she crossed the street.
+
+“Perhaps he is an impostor, after all,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “By
+the way, you said somebody paid me a nice compliment the other day. Do
+tell me what it was, and if I ever get the chance—be it twenty years
+from now—I’ll do the same for you.”
+
+“Oh, yes, indeed. Old Miss Lucy Brownsmith said to me, only the other
+day, ‘Really, Frances is quite a nice-looking girl now that she has
+given up lacing so tightly.’ I knew you would be so pleased. Well,
+here we are at the Club; I am afraid that I must have walked too fast
+for you, dear; you look quite flushed.”
+
+“Oh, Emily, dear,” she whispered, as she embraced her friend in the
+cloak room, “Jack is wild with jealousy! He told Frances the other day
+that I was the most heartless flirt he ever knew!”
+
+“Then, he is ready to go half-way toward making up! Oh, I am so glad
+that I—”
+
+“Half-way? Do you suppose, Emily Marshmallow, that after allowing
+Clarence Lighthed to bore me almost to death for two weeks, I shall be
+willing to go half-way to make up with Jack?”
+
+“But you said the other day that unless you _did_ make up with him, you
+would learn to be a trained nurse and devote your life to others, and I
+thought—”
+
+“Never mind what I said the other day—that was before I knew how
+jealous Jack was. And all I’ve got to say, is this: if you expect me
+to make a fright of myself in a gray cloak and bonnet and cotton gown
+just to please _you_, you are very much mistaken!”
+
+The girl with the eyeglasses put her head in at the door, “Come into
+the club-room right away, girls,” she said. “Evelyn is here, and she
+has something of the greatest importance to tell us.”
+
+The president was evidently excited as she called the meeting to order.
+“I am just as angry as I can be,” she said. “What do you think I found
+in my mail to-day? A letter from a man who is old enough to know
+better, suggesting a topic for discussion by this club. That topic was,
+‘The Best Method of Keeping the Hat on Straight.’”
+
+“You don’t say so!” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, it only
+shows that our mental advancement has made him uneasy.”
+
+“Of course,” said the president. “Then, as if that was not enough,
+he suggests a small mirror fastened to the inside of an umbrella or
+parasol as—”
+
+“Pshaw!” said the brown-eyed blonde, “a highly polished silver handle
+answers the same purpose and attracts less attention.”
+
+“Talk about hats,” said the girl with the classic profile, “men are
+just as fussy about their own. Did you ever see anybody put on a man’s
+hat to suit him?”
+
+“Never,” said the president. “I had an awful time when Tom’s arm was
+broken. I would put on his hat as carefully as I could—he always would
+tip it too far back himself—and yet, each time he would remove it, look
+suspiciously into the crown, and put it on again himself.”
+
+“As if it makes any difference how a man looks, anyhow,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “So long as they are nice and generous, no girl
+cares—”
+
+“Very true,” broke in the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and it
+is frequently the pocket of a last year’s overcoat which harbors the
+largest box of candy.”
+
+“I should like to know how a man manages to keep his hat on without
+veil or pins,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“He doesn’t always do it in a high wind,” said the girl with the
+classic profile.
+
+“And yet he always wonders why a woman holds her hat on when she is
+driving,” remarked the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“You know what a fuss men always make about big theater hats,” said
+the president. “Well, thinking to please Tom, I got a tiny bonnet,
+which was so becoming that it attracted as much attention as a regular
+mountain of feathers and velvet.”
+
+“And wasn’t he pleased?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Not when the bill came in, and he found that it cost rather more
+than a large hat. I said that he ought to be content to pay for the
+principle of a thing. He replied that it looked as if the interest was
+all about all he could afford. I suppose he thought that was sarcastic.”
+
+“Men have such queer ideas of humor, anyhow,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “why, I know a man who once laughed heartily at a
+joke on himself.”
+
+“Perhaps he owed money to the man who made it, or wanted his vote for
+something,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Well, I’d like to know who first invented hat-pins,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I am sure it was not a woman, because—”
+
+“It was a man, and he was either an old bachelor or a bigamist,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I had two pins running straight into my
+scalp all during service on Sunday. Dick was with me, too, and it was
+so hard to look saintly when—”
+
+“Men always ask why we don’t tie our hats on, when we complain of
+pins,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Wouldn’t we
+look nice with our jaws tied up like those of a small boy with the
+toothache?”
+
+“To say nothing of having our hearing so impaired that we couldn’t be
+sure whether compliments whispered into our ears were intended for us
+or were merely remarks made about other girls,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.
+
+“Well, girls,” said the president, “I see you all resent it, as I do;
+and I’m just going to write that horrid man a letter telling him that
+the Teacup Club has too many serious topics to discuss to waste time
+upon anything relating to millinery.”
+
+“Speaking of millinery,” said the blue-eyed girl, “did you ever see
+anything as sweet as the new hats! I went with Elizabeth to select the
+ones for her trousseau the other day, and it did seem hard to me that
+a girl only has a chance _once_ in her life to buy as many hats as she
+really wants, and—”
+
+“Not to mention the fact that it is just at the time when she is so
+much interested in her future husband that she can’t give her whole
+mind to the subject,” broke in the girl with the eyeglasses. “Now, if
+she could only choose her trousseau a year after her marriage, instead
+of before.”
+
+“Yes; or even six months,” said the president. “Well, my new hat
+must cost five dollars less than I had hoped. I borrowed that amount
+from Tom last month; and—will you believe it?—he took it out of my
+allowance for this month, in spite of the fact that I told him I had
+spent it for his birthday present.”
+
+“But why didn’t you take it out of your housekeeping allowance? You
+usually do,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Because I had already taken enough for a half-dozen pairs of gloves
+out of that. It happened that he had not given a single stag dinner
+during the month, so I could not filch too much without discovery. When
+he gives a dinner, I can always pay myself well for the trouble of it.
+If he complains of the bills, I just say, ‘Yes, dear, I see that we
+cannot afford any more stag dinners,’ and that settles it at once,” she
+added.
+
+“I should think it would,” said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully. “Did
+you tell Tom how mean you thought it of him to expect you to pay back
+money that you had borrowed?”
+
+“I did. I said, ‘I wouldn’t be as selfish as you are for anything!’”
+
+“And did that make him feel badly? I should think so.”
+
+“Not a bit. You don’t know Tom; he just laughed as if it was funny.
+Luckily, I had given him a silk umbrella for his birthday, and as he
+has two already, and this one is—er rather small, I shall get a good
+deal of use out of it myself.”
+
+“And you hadn’t one at all, had you?” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I remember the day you lost yours.”
+
+“Yes. Wasn’t it nice of me to buy one for him when I really needed it
+for myself? But one can’t expect a man to appreciate generosity.”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “what do you
+think I heard to-day?”
+
+“I don’t know what _you_ heard,” said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“but I heard that Clarence Lighthed has just inherited a fortune from
+an uncle whom he had never seen! You know he is my cousin, and—”
+
+“Have you just heard that,” said the blue-eyed girl, “He told _me_
+about it a week ago—the day you said he was stupid, Emily. I knew at
+the time that you would feel badly when you discovered that it was
+only—er—grief for the death of his uncle, which made him so quiet and
+thoughtful. Poor fellow, it must have been _such_ a shock to him!”
+
+“How kind of you to comfort him in his sorrow,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, in sarcastic tones.
+
+“Yes, dear—especially as he could have his choice of comforters. I
+think you said that you, too, have a piece of news, Emily.”
+
+“Why—er—yes, I heard that Effie Bittersweet is on the verge of nervous
+prostration.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl said never a word; she looked out of the window
+opposite her, and there was a soft, sweet smile on her face. Perhaps
+she failed to see the glances that were exchanged by the others.
+
+“Oh, girls, have you heard the awful thing that happened to me
+yesterday?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses. “No? Then, I had
+better tell you all about it myself. I had an engagement with Harry;
+we were to call on his aunt who lives in Rogers Park—nothing very
+exciting, you know. Well, Mr. Doolittle came in early to ask me if I
+wouldn’t go to the matinée with him. Now, I knew Harry would take me to
+see his aunt any day, and Mr. Doolittle might never ask me to go to the
+matinée again, so I accepted his invitation at once.”
+
+“You would have been very stupid if you hadn’t,” said the president.
+
+“So I thought. Then, I told him that I must stop in at the drug store
+and send off a telephone message. You see, I didn’t want to give Harry
+all the trouble of coming up in vain.”
+
+“You are always so thoughtful,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I try to be. I called Harry up, but he was not in, and I told the
+office-boy to tell him that I was ill, and could not go with him to
+Rogers Park, but hoped to be out in a day or two. The boy was as stupid
+as he could be; I had to repeat the message twice, and even spell my
+name. Oh, it was awful!”
+
+“What? his stupidity?” asked the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No; my own. As I was going out, the clerk stopped me, and said, ‘You
+needn’t have taken all that trouble, Miss Marion; you were telephoning
+to Mr. Vansmith, weren’t you? Well, that was he that just went out;
+he was standing about three feet away from you all the time you were
+trying to make the person at the other end of the line understand!’”
+
+“Well, I hope your father is satisfied _now_,” said the president. “You
+have been trying to get him to put in a telephone all winter.”
+
+“Humph; you don’t know my father very well, dear. When I told him about
+it, he only said that he was more fully satisfied than ever that women
+were not to be trusted with telephones!”
+
+“Then there was that horrid drug clerk,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “why didn’t he stop you when Harry came in, instead of
+letting you—”
+
+“The fact is, that I knew he was trying to attract my attention all the
+time, but I thought that it was only somebody else who wanted to use
+the telephone in a hurry, and I took my own good time.”
+
+“He might have known you would have done that,” said the girl with
+the classic profile. “Girls, I often wonder why drug clerks are such
+gloomy, misanthropic creatures?”
+
+“Dear knows,” said the president; “I’ve often noticed it, though.
+And how cross a clerk in a shoe store always is! Strange, too, when
+they have such light, easy work. I tried on seventeen pairs of boots
+only yesterday, and I never was so tired in all my life; yet I was as
+amiable as possible, and the clerk, who had nothing to do but wait
+on me, was so rude that I thought seriously of having the proprietor
+in to hear of it. However, I compromised by going out without buying
+anything.”
+
+“It was very good of you, I’m sure,” said the blue-eyed girl. “You
+know Marie sends to Paris for all her shoes. I never saw such beauties
+in all my life as she wears.”
+
+“H’m. I know she _says_ so,” returned the girl with the Roman nose,
+“but—look here, if I tell you something, will you promise never to tell
+it as long as you live? Well, then, I spent the day with Marie last
+week. She had a lovely new pair of shoes, and I tried my best, without
+asking directly, you know, to find the name of the Parisian boot-maker,
+and how much she paid for them.”
+
+“Of course you didn’t find out,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “Marie can be as impervious to a hint as a man.”
+
+“M’hm. Well, she got ready to go out with me, and just as we were ready
+to start she was called out of the room. Her boots were all in the
+closet, and I—well, somehow I just happened to be near the door, it was
+ajar, and I stooped down to look at the maker’s name on them, when—oh,
+girls, the door behind me suddenly flew open!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, it was Marie herself! What did—”
+
+“No, it was the maid. She said: ‘Will you please tell Miss Marie, when
+she comes in, that Cashly has sent up for the pair of boots she didn’t
+take. The boy is waiting in the hall.’”
+
+“Well, I never,” said the blue-eyed girl. “But I’ve always said that if
+I sent to Paris for my boots I’d have better looking ones than _she_
+gets!”
+
+“But then Marie gets a great deal for her money, dear, even if the
+boots themselves are not of a superior quality,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.
+
+“Very true. By the way, who went to Marie’s tea yesterday?” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin; “I did not. Since the founding of
+this club I have cared less and less for gossip and society, and—”
+
+“Then you didn’t mind not receiving an invitation to Marie’s after
+all!” said the brown-eyed blonde. “I must tell her that. She said
+yesterday that she didn’t expect you to speak to her for a month.”
+
+“By the way,” said the girl with the Roman nose, hastily, “Dick made
+rather a good suggestion yesterday. He said why not have a phonograph,
+or even a stenographer, in the room while we are discussing a topic;
+then we could have copies made, and—”
+
+“That reminds me,” said the president, and she rapped loudly for order.
+“Girls, do be quiet. We have a very important question to decide
+to-day. A number of men have expressed a desire to become members of
+this club, and—”
+
+“I vote against it,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “We can all
+express our real opinions now, knowing they will go no further,
+whereas—”
+
+“No club man can ever keep a secret,” broke in the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “As for us, we would die rather than divulge—”
+
+“They are so curious, too,” broke in the girl with the classic profile.
+“We have all talked so much about our meetings that they want to know
+how they are conducted, that is all.”
+
+“Yes, that is just it,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “and once in they
+would spoil all the originality of it by having rules and all that.
+Then they’d go away and say that we couldn’t get along without them.”
+
+“The idea!” said the president, “when that’s the very reason I set our
+time of meeting in the afternoon!”
+
+“Look here,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “of course we don’t
+want to offend them. Why not have a ‘man’s day’ once in a while?”
+
+“So we might,” said the president; “but we had better wait until we get
+all our new things. Well, I suppose, since we are all agreed, that we
+had better not waste time in voting on it. I’m awfully glad to see you
+here, Elise; I was afraid you would not be able to come.”
+
+“Oh, I was determined not to miss it,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “I left word for them to tell the doctor I was asleep if he
+called in my absence. I have been troubled with insomnia, you know, and
+he would tell them not to disturb me. Of course, he gave me strict
+orders not to go out, but he—”
+
+“Will never know that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh, such a time as
+I had last fall when I was ill! You see, papa was going to make me go
+to Philadelphia to stay with old Aunt Borely. I—I was not very well,
+anyhow, so I took to my bed.”
+
+“Yes, and you had that nice young doctor, too,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Oh, why am I so brutally healthy!”
+
+“I did, and he cured me of my particular ailment,” went on the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I had a most becoming light in the room the first
+time he called, and what do you think he did? Pulled every window-shade
+up to the top, until I looked a perfect fright—and he young enough to
+know better!”
+
+“Pshaw!” said the girl with the classic profile. “All doctors are
+horrid. Why, I once had such a handsome one that he sent my pulse away
+up every time he felt it. I did look so horrid that one day I—I put on
+a little rouge just before he came. In consequence he said I had a
+high fever, and put me on a milk-and-water diet for three days, besides
+giving me—”
+
+“Like the mean thing I had last year,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “I had a cough, and wanted a trip to Florida; instead, I got
+a pair of overshoes, a lot of flannels, and a mackintosh.”
+
+“Of course,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, I don’t believe
+my doctor is a good one; he—”
+
+“Is too ugly to be a really good one, anyhow,” broke in the blue-eyed
+girl. “Fancy being delirious, and seeing that creature enter the room!”
+
+“By the way,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I wonder why
+ugly men are always having their photographs taken and expecting one to
+keep them hanging up where one can see them constantly!”
+
+“Perhaps,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “they hope it may be a case of
+
+    “But seen too oft, familiar with its face,
+     We first endure, then pity, then”——
+
+No, I don’t mean that,” she broke off, blushing.
+
+“I should hope not,” said the blue-eyed girl, in shocked tones. “I
+should be sorry to think that any member of this club—”
+
+“The very queen of clubs,” broke in the president; “that is what Tom
+calls it—when he is in a particularly good humor, I mean. I think we
+had better adjourn now,” she added; “Elise really ought not to be
+out late, and I am wild to tell Tom that men will not be admitted to
+membership. Doesn’t the doctor do that pain in your chest any good,
+Elise?”
+
+“You don’t suppose that I told him anything about that, do you?” cried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I hope I am not so silly as that—with
+Elizabeth’s wedding coming off in a week, and my lovely low-cut gown
+all ready to wear to it!”
+
+“Just wait one moment,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+haven’t got to-day’s topic down in my note-book. What did you say it
+was, Evelyn?”
+
+“Oh, my goodness!” cried the president, turning pale, “here we have
+had a meeting, and I have forgotten to suggest any topic—and not one of
+you thought to remind me of it! Oh, I am afraid that all my efforts to
+advance you intellectually are wasted, after all!”
+
+“Never mind,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “this has been an
+executive meeting, anyhow.”
+
+“Why, so it has,” said the president, kissing her; “what a comfort you
+are, Marion dear. Tom’s handsome cousin is coming home from Montana
+next week with a lot of money, and you shall be the very first girl to
+have an introduction to him!”
+
+“Have you seen Jack Bittersweet lately?” asked the girl with the
+eyeglasses, as she linked her arm in that of the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, after the meeting had dissolved.
+
+“Yes, he came to see me yesterday. I was in agony all the time he was
+there, lest Dorothy come in. I knew she would never believe that it was
+the first time he had done it since they quarreled!”
+
+“Of course she wouldn’t. Did he ask your advice?”
+
+“Yes. So does she—but neither of them take it.”
+
+“You don’t expect that, I hope. Well, did you find out if he still
+cares for her?”
+
+“He does. I sat on the sofa, in my prettiest house-gown, and he took a
+chair six feet away. He didn’t even tell me that fewer men would go to
+the dogs if there were more women like me in the world!”
+
+“Well, I only hope that they will soon come to their senses, that’s
+all. Dorothy looks like a ghost, and as for Jack—”
+
+“If they don’t,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, savagely,
+“I shall just have to spend a month or two in a sanatarium. And I’m not
+sure that that will save my life,” she added.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+On the Use and Abuse of Political Power
+
+
+“The absurdity of some people!” said the president, pausing as she
+was about to call the meeting to order. “What excuse do you suppose
+Elizabeth gave for not asking me to look at her pretty things? She said
+she fancied I had grown too intellectual to care for gowns and hats!”
+
+“How ridiculous! She had probably heard that you do not intend to send
+her a wedding present,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“I haven’t told a soul but the members of this club that I shouldn’t
+give her one,” said the president.
+
+“Then she couldn’t possibly know it,” said the blue-eyed girl, hastily.
+
+“What enrages _me_, is the insinuation that I have ceased to care for
+pretty things, just because I study politics, and—er—other things. I
+don’t see why intellectuality has anything to do with doing up one’s
+hair with three hairpins, or—”
+
+“Wearing gowns which are frayed around the bottom,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “neither do I. And, yet they seem to be somehow
+connected in people’s minds.”
+
+“Very true,” said the president. “Girls, the editor of a literary
+journal has asked for some of the papers which have been read before
+this club. He says—”
+
+“Mercy, what answer shall you make?” cried the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.
+
+“I told him that I could not think of such a thing. I always disliked
+notoriety. It was very kind of him, though, and he even offered to let
+the authors of the papers have copies of their effusions at reduced
+rates, provided they took over a hundred.”
+
+“Which, of course, they would,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Well, you
+were quite right to refuse, Evelyn. I, for one, have such a horror of
+publicity, and, besides, it would be quite expensive sending copies to
+all one’s acquaintances.”
+
+“True,” said the president; “we are all in accord, as usual. Let us
+discuss, ‘The Use and Abuse of Political Power,’ to-day. It is a
+subject which is of the greatest importance to all of us, and—”
+
+“How do you spell ‘political?’ With one _t_ or two?” asked the girl
+with the eyeglasses, as she opened her note-book.
+
+“With one—no, two. Pshaw, I can’t remember. Just write it indistinctly.”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy,” whispered the girl with the dimple in her chin, “I saw
+Dick this morning, and he says Jack told him yesterday that he didn’t
+really know what your quarrel was about, but he meant to go and see you
+to-day, and ask you to forgive him!”
+
+“I shall,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and I don’t mind confessing to
+you, Emily, that I, too, may have been just the merest possible bit in
+the wrong. I’ve felt it right along, but I couldn’t admit it, until he—
+What shall I wear when he comes to see me?”
+
+“You might wear the blue gown he always admires so much.”
+
+“So I might. You know I wore a blue gown the day he asked me to marry
+him, and he said I must keep it always. Of course, this isn’t the same
+one, but I am careful to have each succeeding one the same color, and
+he doesn’t know the difference. Perhaps I have told you this before.”
+
+“I think you have, dear—once or twice,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, demurely.
+
+“Yes. I don’t mind letting you know, Emily, that I have missed him a
+good deal. Why, I had his photograph—the one I pretended to have lost,
+so I needn’t send it back—out when you knocked at my door to-day. You
+couldn’t have helped seeing me thrust it under Clover’s cushion, if you
+hadn’t thought something was wrong with your boot heel, and stooped
+down to see.”
+
+“You don’t say so. Well, all I’ve got to say is, I wish I might see
+Frances’ face at the wedding!”
+
+“You shall, dear. I’ll ask her to be bridesmaid, and you, as maid
+of honor, can have a good chance to watch her. You have been such a
+faithful friend to both Jack and myself that you deserve at least that
+much satisfaction.”
+
+“Look here, Emily and Dorothy, I am afraid you are not attending
+strictly to the discussion,” said the president. “The topic is—
+Frances, what on earth has made you so late?”
+
+“It was all an accident,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “I stopped
+for you, Dorothy, on my way to the club. The maid said you had gone
+already, and I was just coming away when I noticed that your little
+dog—what is his name? Rover? Ah, Clover! I knew it was something like
+that—was chewing something at the back of the hall! I went to see what
+it was, and—”
+
+“Oh, my goodness gracious! Not my new sixteen-button gloves,” wailed
+the blue-eyed girl. “I’ll give that dog away to-morrow!”
+
+“No, dear, not your gloves. It was a photograph. Just as I was trying
+to get the pieces away from him, Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—came up the
+steps with a huge bunch of violets. He must have seen me standing in
+the hall; you know the door was open.”
+
+“Yes, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “that checked
+gown of yours speaks for itself!”
+
+“I—ah, where was I? Oh—he succeeded in getting the fragments away
+and—really, it was too funny! It turned out to be a photograph of
+himself! I told him that I was almost sure that you didn’t give it to
+the dog purposely, Dorothy; but I am afraid I didn’t quite convince
+him.”
+
+“Indeed; and where are the violets?” asked the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “you don’t seem to be wearing them!”
+
+“Why, er—no. Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—threw them at the dog. You will
+find them right by the stairway, Dorothy, dear; but I’m afraid they are
+not in very good condition. What is to-day’s topic, Evelyn?”
+
+“‘The Use and Abuse of Political Power,’” said the president, in a
+faint voice. “Will somebody open the window, please; I need air!”
+
+“Oh, Evelyn,” said the girl with the Roman nose, after the president
+had announced that she felt better, “I do hope you are not sitting up
+at night studying, and that sort of thing.”
+
+“Why, er—no, I believe not. The fact is I’ve been going to a good many
+dances of late on Tom’s account.”
+
+“But Tom doesn’t go, does he?”
+
+“No. B—but everybody knows how fond of dancing I am; and if I didn’t
+go they would say he kept me at home. I don’t want Tom to pose as a
+tyrant, you know!”
+
+“Of course not. You—”
+
+“Yes. The only thing which makes me feel uncomfortable is the angelic
+way in which he bears my absence. It isn’t like Tom, and—”
+
+“Clarence—my cousin you know—was saying only the other day, that he
+thought you an angel to allow Tom and his friends to smoke in the
+drawing-room, just because you happened to be out,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I wonder if that—”
+
+“To smoke in the drawing-room!” shrieked the president, turning
+pale. “I’ll go home this minute, and tell him what I think of such a
+proceeding. No, I won’t, either; he is at the office, and it would not
+do any good! I never suspected such a thing and—”
+
+“Oh, well, then the smoke couldn’t have done the rugs and curtains much
+harm, after all, if you never noticed the odor.”
+
+“It’s the principle of the thing, my dear. What hurts me, is the fact
+that my husband respects my wishes so little, when I only go to dances
+to keep people from thinking ill of him, too! Well, one thing sure,
+I’ll have all new curtains and carpets—since mine are ruined with
+smoke—if he keeps on talking about hard times until he is black in the
+face!”
+
+“I wonder why men are always talking about hard times,” said the girl
+with the classic profile; “women never say anything about them.”
+
+“Unless they are driven to it,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “My sister’s husband wanted to have his mother come for a nice,
+long visit, but she told him that she hardly thought they could afford
+it in such hard times. You see he had just made that excuse for not
+doing up the house.”
+
+“With the result?” queried the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“That he decided to have the house done up at once! And, after all, the
+old lady only stayed about a week. Helen says she can’t imagine why she
+went, unless, she was offended at her suggestion that she might like to
+take a course at the cooking-school while she was here.”
+
+“Well, I don’t blame Helen, at all,” said the blue-eyed girl. “No man
+has a right to be dyspeptic before he is married, and her husband was.
+Everybody ought to have a fair chance, and Helen’s cooking might not
+have given it to him for years.”
+
+“At any rate, he can’t blame _her_ for his dyspepsia—and that is
+something,” said the president. “Girls, does any one know why Josephine
+has given up her lessons at the cooking school?”
+
+“I suppose she has made one really good loaf of bread, and doesn’t want
+to tempt fate again,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“That is not the reason,” said the girl with the eyeglasses, “she is
+engaged to a man who knows how to cook, so there is no use for her to
+waste any more time over it. She is studying political economy now.”
+
+“And a very good thing, too,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “for the way money is wasted on elections, is really shocking!”
+
+“Hear! hear!” cried the girl with the Roman nose. “Of course I don’t
+want to have men as members of this club, but I can’t help wishing
+sometimes that a few of them might hear Emily and Evelyn when they are
+attacking political abuses and monopolies.”
+
+“For my part, I don’t see why they haven’t thrust the privilege of
+suffrage upon us long ago,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Then
+they would have somebody to blame, when civic and national affairs go
+wrong!”
+
+“Pshaw,” said the president, “that isn’t necessary at all. They can
+come home and scold because dinner is late, or the hall gas is unlit,
+and so relieve their feelings just the same.”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t want to vote,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “It is ever so much nicer to do as the men do with our
+housekeeping—just criticise that which we can never display our
+ignorance by attempting to do ourselves.”
+
+“That is only your sweet modesty, dear,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “What do you think Mr. Bonds said the other day! Ah, I was so
+indignant! He said it was a mistake to say that women could not throw
+stones.”
+
+“I don’t see why you were indignant at that,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “It seems to me—”
+
+“It wasn’t that. It was what came afterward. He said he knew it was a
+libel for they could—at each other! And every man in the room laughed
+as if he had said something clever!”
+
+“I declare,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “it is enough to make a
+man-hater of me. If only people would not say that it was because of
+some particular man who failed to admire me—”
+
+“There is no danger of it being laid to the door of any _one_ man in
+your case, dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Is that your new gown that
+you are wearing to-day, Frances, dear?”
+
+“Why, yes. Quite a novelty, isn’t it. How do you like it?”
+
+“Very much indeed, dear. I stopped and looked at it hanging in the
+cleaner’s window the other day, and thought how well it looked. You
+remember, don’t you, Dorothy, my calling your attention to it?” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Quite well. I thought at the time that it was well she had not
+attempted to clean it herself. By the way, Helen’s little boy said such
+a clever thing the other day. We were speaking of favorite perfumes,
+and how nice it was to always use the same one, and he said: ‘I know
+what is Miss Frances’ favorite perfume. Her gloves always smell of it.’
+‘And what is it?’ Helen asked. ‘Gasoline,’ said the dear little fellow.
+Did you ever hear anything so clever in your life?”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily, “speaking of gloves: I had
+a letter from Pauline the other day, and such a heart-rending thing
+had occurred to her. A nice man was buttoning her gloves one day, and
+he said she had the hand of a fairy—Pauline seemed to think that an
+original remark.”
+
+“Perhaps it was the first time she had ever had it said to her,”
+replied the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Um—perhaps it was. She said carelessly, ‘Do you think so? Why, I
+consider it quite large. I wear a number six.’ She was sorry for that
+afterward.”
+
+“I suppose he looked in the other glove, and—saw that she had made a
+mistake,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“No, dear. But, shortly after that, they made a bet of a dozen pairs
+of gloves, and Pauline won. Oddly enough, she didn’t know it until the
+gloves arrived. They were number six, and—”
+
+“Pshaw, she could exchange them for a larger size; he would never know
+the difference,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Not in this case, dear. He had had her monogram embroidered on the top
+of each pair. And now he is offended that she does not wear them!”
+
+“How exactly like a man,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Now, I have too high a regard for truth to—”
+
+“Waste it on such a little thing as that? I know,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Well, I hope Pauline’s mishap will be a warning to you.”
+
+“She might say that she could not accept such a gift from a masculine
+friend,” thoughtfully suggested the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“But she had thanked him very prettily, and said they were just her
+size, and how did he know it? before she discovered that she could not
+exchange them! Oh, I just don’t see any way out of it. I told Tom about
+it, and he said, ‘Pshaw, let her tell him the truth, and be done with
+it.’ And yet Tom is very clever—for a man.”
+
+“Indeed he is,” said the blue-eyed girl, warmly, “he is one of the few
+people who always understands a joke when I tell it. Just because I
+leave out a little bit of it, some people—”
+
+“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the classic profile, “I’ve been
+waiting for a good chance to tell you that Eunice is married!”
+
+“Is it possible?” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I remember that
+she always said people ought to know each other very well before they
+_were_ married. That was why she went for a long visit to that Kansas
+girl whose brother was so much in love with her. She married _him_, I
+suppose.”
+
+“Why—er—no. You see, he asked her, and she said she could not give him
+an answer until she concluded her visit. They would know each other
+much better then.”
+
+“And she refused him, after all?” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Well, no. For some reason he failed to renew his offer, after her
+visit was over. She had known the man she married exactly three weeks
+when they became engaged.”
+
+“And the engagement lasted?”
+
+“Just a month, dear. And she was so busy all the time with the
+trousseau that she hardly had time for a word with him.”
+
+“Perhaps it was just as well,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Has the man
+she married any money?”
+
+“I suppose so. He was thirty-four, and a bachelor. A very poor man
+would have married long before he was as old as that. By the way,
+speaking of the abuse of political power, Mr. Dickenharry tells Nell
+that if he is really elected to the office he hopes for, she will have
+to ask all sorts of people to her receptions, in order that—”
+
+“And what did Nell reply to that?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Oh, she just smiled and let it go. It will be much easier to manage
+all that after they are married. She says he is so busy now that she
+doesn’t like to thwart him unnecessarily. Nell is always so thoughtful
+of the feelings of others.”
+
+“Indeed she is,” said the president. “Anyhow if she is obliged to ask
+all those awful people to her receptions, she can snub them thoroughly
+if they accept. Oh, she is just the ideal wife for a politician; how
+she will help him!”
+
+“That is just what she says herself,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin, “and she also says that she wants to join this club as soon
+as her trousseau is off her mind. She thinks our debates on political
+subjects will be of great benefit to her. In the meantime, she wants me
+to make notes of the discussions, and let her have them.”
+
+“Yes, and let Mr. Dickenharry make use of all our original ideas in his
+speeches!” cried the president, hotly. “I am surprised at you, Emily,
+for—”
+
+“Oh, I didn’t say I meant to do it, dear; I only said she wanted me to.
+It is so much easier to promise a thing, and then forget it, you know.
+Girls, I went to see dear old Mrs. Pepperly yesterday, and—”
+
+“What, that cross, disagreeable woman!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.
+“What on earth made you do such a thing?”
+
+“Oh, I always liked her, dear. When I got there, I was _so_ surprised.
+Her son is home from Mexico on a visit, and—”
+
+“Why, don’t you remember, Emily, I told you that on Sunday?” said the
+president. “I mentioned that he had made a lot of money there, and—”
+
+“How strange of me to forget it; I believe I do remember it now. We
+used to be quite friends before he went away, too; which makes it all
+the stranger. Do you know, I’m afraid I shall have to accept one of
+those lovely Mexican opals he brought with him, or hurt his feelings!
+I’d hate to do that, too, when I haven’t seen him for so long.”
+
+“By the way, what is Mrs. Pepperly’s number?” asked the brown-eyed
+blonde. “I—I have been meaning to call on her for ever so long. What a
+clever, original woman she is!”
+
+“Yes, do go. She said she expected you would come to see her now.
+I’m afraid you will not have an opportunity to see the opals though.
+Her son has given all the rest of them to her, and they are at the
+jeweler’s being set. And, by the way, he insisted so that I had to let
+him have mine set for me. I don’t know what Dick will say, but really
+I could not hurt the feelings of such an old friend by refusing—and of
+course he knows nothing of Dick!”
+
+“For my part, I consider opals unlucky,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I wouldn’t wear one for anything!”
+
+“I’ve heard others say the same thing, dear,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “but luckily they were people who were not
+likely to have the chance! So far as I am concerned, the good luck
+of receiving such a handsome present will quite overbalance anything
+unpleasant which might follow!”
+
+“Nobody ever had such ill luck as I have, and I never owned an opal
+in my life,” wailed the girl with the classic profile. “You know how
+unpleasant my Aunt Clara is, don’t you? Well, the poor old soul seemed
+so lonely in that great big house that I asked her to make me a nice
+long visit, knowing that she intended to go abroad soon, and—”
+
+“She might take you along. Good!” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“Did she accept?”
+
+“She did. Said she would stay three whole months. At the end of that
+time, she expects to marry a delicate clergyman with three grown
+daughters, and take the whole party to Europe.”
+
+“And that is all the compensation you receive for thinking of others!”
+cried the girl with the Roman nose. “Shall you let her come?”
+
+“I shall not. I shall tell her that unless she hears from me within two
+weeks, she may know that I am down with a threatened attack of scarlet
+fever. She has a horror of illness, and wild horses couldn’t drag her
+here after that. But I shall have an exciting time with my sire, if he
+ever finds it out!”
+
+“Humph, your father may never find it out,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses; “and if he did, you could simply say that you really
+thought you were getting scarlet fever, and only concealed the fact
+from him to save him anxiety.”
+
+“Pardon me, but you forget that I am a younger daughter. Papa has
+already had so much experience with my sisters that I have to be very
+careful in my explanations. This thing of being the third daughter is
+as bad as marrying a widower—worse, for that is voluntary.”
+
+“Not always—on the part of the widower,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+“Dear, dear, how queer some things are! I know a pair of twins, and one
+of them is called an old maid, the other a young widow. If anybody can
+explain—”
+
+“Pshaw, I know a brother and sister who have hair of the same identical
+shade. He is called red-headed while she is a Titian blonde,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“And I went to school with a girl who was always called snub-nosed
+by everybody but the man she married,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “he said her nose was ‘tip-tilted, like the petal of a
+flower.’ Can you explain that?”
+
+“Yes,” said the president, shortly, “she has money. Oh, girls, I went
+to the photographer’s last week, and I haven’t had the courage even
+to snub my sister-in-law since I got the proofs. Indeed, sometimes I
+almost feel grateful to Tom for marrying me—though of course I don’t
+let him know that. You have no idea how I felt when—”
+
+“Oh, yes, I have,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a shudder. “I once
+knew an awfully nice man, who turned out to be an amateur photographer.
+He took two hundred and seventy-five pictures of me one summer, and I
+used to know just who my enemies were. They would pretend that they
+recognized me in them all!”
+
+“That’s nothing,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I once
+appeared as Cinderella at a charity entertainment, and an amateur
+photographer took a picture of me in costume. My foot was thrust
+forward, and oh, girls, it looked the size of a pumpkin. And the
+photographer actually took credit to himself because the face was an
+excellent likeness!”
+
+“I was once photographed by an amateur,” said the brown-eyed blonde;
+“he said my picture was his masterpiece. I always keep it on my
+dressing table during Lent,” she added.
+
+“I once knew an amateur photographer quite well,” said the girl with
+classic profile, “but for each photograph he took of me I made one of
+him!”
+
+“With the result—” said the president.
+
+“That he gladly bartered his collection for mine. Somehow, we haven’t
+been very good friends since. I often think things might have turned
+out very differently if he hadn’t bought that camera;” and she sighed,
+softly.
+
+“Well, girls,” said the president, “I am afraid that we must adjourn,
+though I had hoped we might find time for a social session after
+the day’s work was concluded. However, I promised both Tom and the
+dressmaker that I’d meet them at five o’clock. She won’t wait, and he
+will; so I—”
+
+“But why not make him go to the dressmaker’s with you,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Because I want to tell him just what I think of his behavior—smoking
+in the drawing-room, just because I happened to be out. If he once
+heard Madame contradict me in the way she does, I could never hope to
+produce any impression on him again.”
+
+Emily and Dorothy walked home in silence, and the former noticed, with
+alarm, that Dorothy did not attempt to protect her skirts from the mud.
+When they reached her door, she turned and said:
+
+“If I am not here when you come to-morrow, you may know that I have
+gone to take up social settlement work, and devote my time to the poor.
+If you never see me again, you may know that I forgive all my enemies.
+It may make Frances feel better, though I must say that she does not
+deserve it.”
+
+“And Jack, dear; what shall I say to him?”
+
+“If it is any comfort to him, you might say that I do not regret
+my fruitless efforts to make peace with him. I hope you will think
+of me sometimes at work among the poor and the afflicted. And now,
+good-bye—perhaps forever!”
+
+Emily had walked perhaps a block, when she heard her name called once
+more.
+
+“Yes, what is it,” she said.
+
+“If you know any one who wants a nice little dog, send him to me. I—”
+
+“What! You surely don’t mean Clover?”
+
+“I just do. After what has happened to-day, I never want to see the
+little beast again! And, Emily—!”
+
+“Yes, dear.”
+
+“If you were in my place, would you wear the blue or the geranium pink
+gown at the dance to-night?”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+Woman as a Parliamentarian
+
+
+“Oh, dear me,” said the president, “I don’t see why men can never
+understand things.”
+
+“H’m,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Are we to understand that you have
+just discovered that fact?”
+
+“Of course not,” said the president, “but I’ve just had an argument
+with my husband—that’s why I am late to-day, girls. He will insist that
+this club ought to have a constitution and by-laws, and a lot of other
+unnecessary things, in spite of the fact that we get along nicely just
+as well without them.”
+
+“I suppose he would like to draft them for us,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “That is always the way with men. When they see
+women doing anything well they always want to come in, and take the
+credit of it.”
+
+“So they do,” said the girl with the classic profile. “I suppose he
+would want us to have parliamentary rules, too—as if anybody would obey
+them! Anyhow, it is only a man who can do but one thing at a time. I
+suppose it is necessary in a club of men that only one person have the
+floor at a time, and all that sort of thing.”
+
+“I suppose it is,” said the president, “no man that ever lived could
+tell what anybody else was saying while he was talking himself. Well, I
+only wish they could see how orderly our meetings are, and how well we
+keep to the subject in hand, without any rules or regulations. By the
+way, let us discuss ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ to-day. What do you
+say?”
+
+“Oh, pshaw,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “you said the subject
+was to be ‘Woman as a Factor in the Business World,’ and I was to speak
+on it.”
+
+“Oh, well, you can use the same line of argument, anyhow; I forgot to
+tell you that I had changed my mind. Girls, do be quiet while she
+reads her paper on—”
+
+“Oh, but I am not prepared, anyhow,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“I was obliged to stop in the midst of it to write the invitations for
+my five o’clock tea. A nice job it was, too, for I just couldn’t get
+all I wanted to say on a card!”
+
+“Why, I heard a man saying only the other day, that you write the most
+charming notes he ever read,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Thank you for telling me, dear. I shall use the telephone exclusively
+after this—the idea of living to know that everybody says when you are
+spoken of, ‘Yes, what charming notes she does write.’ Think of knowing
+that you are expected to be brilliant when you write to say you can’t
+come to dinner because your face is swollen, or to ask how to take
+coffee stains out of your new evening gown.”
+
+“I know all about that,” groaned the brown-eyed blonde; “once in an
+evil hour somebody called me ‘vivacious,’ and I’ve cultivated three
+wrinkles in trying to live up to it. Think of having to be vivacious at
+a church sociable, or when the man to whom you have just been revealing
+your views on the subject of friendship turns out to be engaged!”
+
+“Awful!” shuddered the girl with the eyeglasses, “but pity me,
+all of you. People who like me always say that I am a delightful
+conversationalist; those who do not, simply remark that I talk all the
+time. Sometimes, when I am low-spirited, it seems to me that there is
+not much difference between the two.”
+
+“Yes, but think of me!” moaned the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Somebody once discovered that I had a ‘little head running over with
+curls,’ I calculate that I have spent a fortune in patent curlers and
+alcohol lamps since then!”
+
+“I suppose that is why you wouldn’t go to the seashore with me last
+summer,” remarked the president. “Well, for my part, I only wish I knew
+who it was that first called me a ‘nice little woman’—it’s as bad as
+being named Smith or living in a row!”
+
+“Pshaw, I wouldn’t mind that a bit,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “there’s nothing like a reputation for amiability—you can be as
+ill-natured as you please, once it is gained.”
+
+“Humph, you seem to forget that I have a husband to remind me of
+things,” said the president. “Well, there is one person I don’t envy,
+and that is Barbara.”
+
+“Humph, I don’t think she is so beautiful,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “for my part, I think her nose might be called a snub.”
+
+“Neither do I,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “the lower
+part of her face is actually coarse.”
+
+“Say what you please,” said the president, “she has the reputation of
+being a beauty, and if she doesn’t look as well as usual she just has
+to stay at home. She has a cold now, and her complexion is awful.”
+
+“Is it?” said the girl with the Roman nose, “I must certainly stop in
+to see her to-day. I never saw her when she had a really bad cold.”
+
+“And so shall I,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “she really ought not to
+be neglected when she is ill.”
+
+“I shall go, too,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “And by
+the way, Dick has been teasing for an introduction to her for ever so
+long. This will be the very time to take him to call on her—when she is
+certain to be at home, I mean.”
+
+“I understand,” said the president; “it is very thoughtful of you to
+want to cheer up the poor thing. Girls, shouldn’t you love to see her
+face when she finds that Emily has brought a strange man to call when
+her complexion is in such a condition.”
+
+“Oh, I don’t suppose that she will mind Dick,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde; “nobody else does, you know.”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, sweetly. “Of
+course he has eyes for nobody else when I am in the room; but I did
+not expect you, Frances, to acknowledge as much.”
+
+“Why, Dorothy,” cried the president, “here you are, at last! It isn’t
+like you to keep anybody waiting—that is, of course, except a man; they
+are accustomed to it, and—”
+
+“Why, does Dorothy ever keep a man waiting?” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, elevating her eyebrows. “I had understood that she usually met
+them in the front hall when—”
+
+“Yes, dear, but then I am always dressed to see masculine callers. I
+have so many, you know. Why, Evelyn, I would not have been late for the
+world, but my new gown—”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t blame you for it, dear. I couldn’t have helped making
+a dramatic entry in such a poem myself.”
+
+“But it wasn’t that which made me late, dear. I fancied there was a
+tiny wrinkle in the back of the waist. After examining it in every
+mirror in the house, I discovered that it was only the way I twisted
+my shoulders to look at it, which made the wrinkle.”
+
+“Well, I am glad that your mind is at rest about it, anyhow,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses, “one’s back is so defenseless. Annie once sat
+behind me at the theater, and I endured agonies lest the bow at the
+back of my collar was crooked. When we came away, I found that she had
+actually been so absorbed in the people on the stage that she didn’t
+know I was there. I had been wanting to see that play for months, and,
+to save my life, I couldn’t have told you a thing in it after I saw it.”
+
+“I know just how you felt,” said the president, “I once went to a
+matinée with Eustace just before Tom and I were married, and I expected
+to have great fun, because there was so much danger of being found out.
+Toward the end of the first act, I heard that horrid Miss Blanque in
+the seat back of me, saying, ‘Oh, Tom, what would she say if she knew!’
+I can tell you that my blood boiled when I thought of such duplicity,
+and I was tempted to turn and wither them on the spot with a single
+glance!”
+
+“And did you?” eagerly asked the girl with the classic profile.
+
+“Why—er, no. I thought Tom might ask why I had come with Eustace,
+though that was very different.”
+
+“Very different, indeed,” said the blue-eyed girl. “And did you—”
+
+“Oh, I didn’t enjoy that play a bit. I told Eustace I had a headache at
+the end of the second act, and—”
+
+“No doubt by that time it was true enough. Such duplicity in one whom
+you trusted was—”
+
+“Yes. And he had always said he did not admire Miss Blanque at all.
+Well, I went home and wrote him a scorching note. I said that but for
+Eustace, I should never have discovered that he was flirting with
+another girl while pretending to think of nobody but me!”
+
+“That was quite right. I hope he was ashamed of himself!”
+
+“Well, no; he wasn’t. He had been at a stockholder’s meeting all that
+afternoon. My own father was there, and he called him as a witness! And
+I actually had to explain why I had gone to the matinée with Eustace!”
+
+“Oh, my goodness, how awful!” cried the girl with the Roman nose. “But
+you said you heard Miss Blanque call him Tom!”
+
+“So I did. It was Tom Dashaway who was engaged to Elaine. And wasn’t it
+a joke? She never found him out at all!”
+
+“It is awfully hard to get ahead of a man,” sighed the girl with the
+classic profile; “and it is the irony of fate that when one _does_
+succeed in doing it, the victory is usually of such a character that,
+in order to retain it, one must say nothing at all about it!”
+
+“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, I am so enraged
+with Harold that I feel ready to die! I had an engagement with him on
+Saturday afternoon, and I forgot all about it and went out with Marie.
+I never thought of him at all until I saw him coming up the street,
+and then I dragged Marie into a shop. I was so excited that she thought
+a mad dog was coming, and almost created a scene!”
+
+“And did he recognize you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“I’m afraid so. He didn’t come, as usual, on Sunday; and I took the
+dilemma by the horns, and wrote him a note, saying that I remained at
+home all Saturday afternoon expecting him; and why didn’t he come, as
+he had promised?”
+
+“Good idea!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “then, he would
+think he had mistaken some one else for you. You could pretend to be
+very much offended at that, and so snatch victory from the very jaws of
+defeat.”
+
+“So I thought. But his reply—oh, I knew I should die of rage! It
+said: ‘My dear Miss Marion: Pray pardon me for quite overlooking my
+engagement with you on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I know you were at
+home—for I saw you at the window as I passed!’ And as long as I live, I
+shall never be able to tell that man what I really think of him!”
+
+“Never mind, you can tell everybody else—and that is almost as
+satisfying,” said the president; “more so, perhaps; for then you need
+not hear what he has to say in reply.”
+
+“I am so glad to see you looking so well to-day, Dorothy, dear,”
+whispered the girl with the dimple in her chin; “it pleases me to see
+that you still take an interest in dress, and—”
+
+“Pray, why shouldn’t I take an interest in dress? Really, Emily
+Marshmallow, you are the queerest girl I ever did see! Here, you see
+me trying to conceal my poor broken heart with smiles, and then you
+begrudge me the slight pleasure I take in appearing decently clad. And
+when I mean to go and teach in a free kindergarten—well, next week,
+and wear a black gown with white collar and cuffs for the rest of my
+natural life!”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t mean to begrudge you anything, dear. And Jack says
+that he is sure that if you would just see him, he could explain the
+whole thing—”
+
+“Of course, you have been on his side all along. That is the way of the
+world; everybody sympathizes with the one who is in fault, and—”
+
+“He said that he was hurrying to catch up with you on the street
+yesterday, and that Frances—this is what he says, dear—not knowing what
+he was doing, called him to rescue her hat, which had blown away. By
+the time he had done it, you were out of sight. You see, Dorothy, he
+seems to fancy that you are—well, rather nice to Clarence, and—”
+
+“Oh, I thought Clarence was coming. So I am rather nice to the one
+human being who really understands me, am I? Well, you may just tell
+Jack Bittersweet that I shall keep on being nice to him as long as I
+choose—and he might know me well enough by this time to be sure that I
+shall keep my word!”
+
+“Dear me, Dorothy, you surely are not crying, are you?” cried the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Do tell me what is wrong; perhaps I can help you.”
+
+“I am afraid not, dear. I was just telling Emily that there is so
+much trouble in the world that I sometimes feel actually guilty when
+I think of my own absolutely cloudless existence! By the way, have
+you heard that Clarence Lighthed has just bought that pretty place in
+Astor Street, which was for sale? He must think that my knowledge of
+architecture is valuable, for he told his agent to make an offer for it
+just because I admired it so much!”
+
+“Poor Effie Bittersweet,” said the president. “I—ah, I don’t know
+what has made me think of _her_ just at this time, but Madame told me
+yesterday that she had been obliged to alter all her gowns for her.
+They are a full half-inch too loose, she says!”
+
+“Really? Is Effie ill?” cried the blue-eyed girl, in surprise. “How odd
+that you never thought to mention it, Frances! I should have gone to
+see her immediately, had I known it. Pray, tell her so when you see her
+next.”
+
+“If you are so anxious to see her, why not go with me, and tell her so,
+yourself,” said the brown-eyed blonde, dryly.
+
+“In this gown? and when all of hers are at the dressmaker’s! I couldn’t
+think of doing such a mean thing. I only thought that as you are always
+at her house, you could take a message for me; that is all.”
+
+“Tom says Clarence asked him the other day, if he didn’t consider that
+the best thing a fellow could do was to marry some nice girl, and
+settle down,” said the president, suddenly.
+
+“Yes? And what did Tom say?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“He must have said ‘yes,’ dear; otherwise he wouldn’t have dared to
+mention the occurrence to me at all.”
+
+“What _I_ am wondering,” said the blue-eyed girl, innocently, “is: what
+on earth made Clarence ask him such a question?”
+
+“Sheer curiosity, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly; “what
+other reason could he possibly have had? By the way, girls, have you
+noticed that Marie is showing great strength of character lately? She
+has broken with Mr. Mushley, and actually refused to send back any of
+his presents. She says the sight of them could not fail to remind him
+of his loss, and she would rather have people speak unkindly of her
+than cause him unnecessary pain!”
+
+“How sweet of her,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I only hope he
+will appreciate her consideration. Girls, what do you think Elizabeth
+told me the other day? Why, that all the photographs of girls my
+brother saw when he called on Fred belonged to a man with whom he used
+to room, and he was only keeping them until he happened to run across
+him again.”
+
+“And she believed him?” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+scornfully. “How silly some girls are, to be sure! They believe
+anything a man tells them. To be sure, Dick was telling me the truth
+when he said that he only wrote all those sonnets to Clara as a joke;
+but that was very different.”
+
+“Very different,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Girls,
+I heard to-day that Jack Bittersweet is thinking of throwing up his
+partnership, and emigrating to Australia. I beg your pardon, Dorothy,
+did you speak?”
+
+“Yes, dear, I was about to say that I think ‘Woman as a
+Parliamentarian’ is the most interesting topic we have ever discussed.
+By the way, I wonder if the climate of Australia is as unhealthy as
+some people think! I—I am so fond of Effie that I should hate to have
+anything happen to her brother.”
+
+“I think Effie could bear it, dear,” said the president, “even in her
+present state of health. She says Jack is so cross that a hyena would
+be amiable by comparison.”
+
+“Jack Bittersweet cross!” cried the brown-eyed blonde. “Why, he is one
+of the nicest fellows I ever knew, and—”
+
+“But after all, you are hardly a judge of masculine dispositions,
+dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Your acquaintance
+with the sex has been so limited, you know. Oh, Evelyn, I’ve been
+intending to ask you if we can’t take up theosophy, and discuss it
+thoroughly at one of our meetings in the near future. I am so anxious
+for a thorough knowledge of it.”
+
+“Indeed we can,” cried the president, heartily. “You don’t know how
+pleased I am to hear you say that, Emily,—well, if there is one thing
+this club can safely pride itself upon it is its thoroughness; and I am
+sure that is more than most organizations can do—!”
+
+“I know it,” said the blue-eyed girl; “why, my father belongs to a
+club which has taken six months to study the financial problems of
+Europe and the United States. They are not yet through discussing the
+subject—and yet they have the temerity to call themselves students!”
+
+“I hope you have pointed out to them the superiority of our system
+over—”
+
+“Well, no, dear; somehow it does not seem wise to discuss such a
+subject with one’s father. Dear, dear, do you suppose that girls were
+so very different in the days when our fathers were young?”
+
+“Humph, no,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “but they were much
+more afraid of remaining single. Besides, our fathers were young, too,
+in those days, and ever so much easier to please. Still,” she added,
+thoughtfully, “I don’t know that it is altogether that. No one is so
+easily subjugated as an elderly man who has become a widower. It is so
+long since girls have really tried to make themselves agreeable to him,
+that all their little ways are new to him.”
+
+“H’m, yes—unless he has grown daughters of his own,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“I don’t see what difference that makes. They don’t try their little
+ways of—of being nice on _him_; and seeing them tried on some one else
+is very different.”
+
+“Isn’t it?” said the girl with the classic profile. “Now, for instance,
+it is very interesting to have a man pay one compliments; but how it
+does bore one to hear him say the very same things about another girl!”
+
+“Doesn’t it? and yet, such is the selfishness of man, that he expects
+one to be as much interested,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+
+“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple in her chin, “you know that
+old Mrs. Myllons is always making presents to Barbara and me! Well, one
+day in the beginning of the season she called for me to go shopping
+with her. Of course, I went. Now, it was not long after Barbara had
+encouraged her to give me that awful picture of Burns, and I was as
+eager for her to select a present for Barbara as for me. I knew I could
+direct her choice in either case. To my joy, she stopped to look at
+silks, and her choice fell upon a hideous piece of green which would
+demolish Barbara’s complexion completely—and I really think that girl
+would sooner part with her life than her complexion. I managed to
+convey to Mrs. Myllons my personal preference for a lovely pink which
+cost a dollar less a yard, while encouraging her to buy the green. You
+see she was planning her reception, and Barbara and I were to assist
+her on that occasion.”
+
+“So she took it, did she?” said the president. “I only hope I may see
+Barbara in the green!”
+
+“You never will,” wailed the girl with the dimple in her chin—“it was
+for me! Mrs. Myllons sent it with a lovely note complimenting me on my
+unselfishness in wishing Barbara to have the handsomer piece. I dare
+not refuse to wear it at the reception; and my own father actually says
+it serves me right for trying to play a joke on Barbara!”
+
+“You must not expect sympathy from your father, dear,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose; “he will expect you to wear that gown all season,
+to save buying another. And nothing will ever happen to it, either,”
+she added. “It is only the gown that is dearer to you than life itself
+which has a fatal attraction for cups of coffee or fowls carved by
+inexperienced hosts!”
+
+“Did I ever tell you of the awful thing which happened to me last
+winter?” said the girl with the classic profile. “I believe not,
+though; we hadn’t started our club then. Well, I just had to have a
+new gown, and I was so afraid that my father wouldn’t give it to me
+that I got it without saying a word to him. I knew that even if there
+was a cyclone over the bill I’d have the gown anyhow. That being the
+case, I got a much handsomer one than I would have chosen under other
+circumstances.”
+
+“Quite right,” said the president; “if there must be an unpleasant
+scene, better have it over something which will fully repay one.”
+
+“So I thought. Well, the gown only came home the evening of my sister’s
+dance; and I really wanted to enjoy that, so I decided not to give papa
+the bill until the next day, though the dressmaker was in a great hurry
+for her money.”
+
+“They always are,” sighed the president.
+
+“Yes. I was having a lovely time until supper was served, and then
+Mr. Rocksby emptied a plate of lobster salad over the whole front
+of my new gown! Florence was near; she never got farther away from
+him than—than she could help; and—well, you all know how he admires
+amiability! He apologized profusely, and I, smilingly, said, ‘Oh, it
+doesn’t make the least difference. The gown is of no value at all, and
+I should probably never have worn it again, anyhow.’”
+
+“How lovely of you!” said the blue-eyed girl. “It must have made a deep
+impression upon him.”
+
+“H’m, I don’t know about that; but it did upon me. I happened to turn
+my head just then, and papa was at my elbow! I’d rather not tell you
+the things he said when I gave him the bill for that gown the next
+morning!”
+
+“We can all guess,” said the blue-eyed girl, with a shudder. “But
+wasn’t Mr. Rocksby awfully nice to you after that?”
+
+“No, he wasn’t. He said that the girl who cared nothing for the
+destruction of such a handsome gown was too extravagant to make a good
+wife for a poor man! And the hardest part of it all was the fact that
+he must have lots of money, else he never on earth would speak of
+himself as ‘a poor man!’”
+
+“Let us hope your father never found that out,” said the president, in
+devout tones.
+
+“But he did. He overheard Mr. Rocksby saying it to Florence; and that
+was one of the things he mentioned when I gave him the bill.”
+
+“You poor dear!” said the president. “I declare it really depresses
+me to hear of such persistent ill-luck. Well, girls, since we have
+thoroughly exhausted our subject, I think we may just as well adjourn.”
+
+The blue-eyed girl went home with the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+and after they had begun to sip their tea, she said:
+
+“Is it true that Jack intends to go to Australia unless our quarrel is
+made up?”
+
+“He—he _says_ he will,” was the cautious reply.
+
+“Then, I want to know what you intend to do in the matter?”
+
+“What I—intend to do in the matter?” she gasped.
+
+“Yes. Of course it is thoroughly in your hands. I have not made a
+single move without consulting you, and being guided by your advice.
+And if the quarrel is never made up, and I die of a broken heart, it
+will be entirely your fault!”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+The Club Investigates Theosophy
+
+
+“We will discuss to-day: ‘What Theosophy Really Teaches,’” said the
+president, as soon as she could make herself heard. “You expressed an
+earnest wish to study it,’ Emily, and—”
+
+“Did I?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin, looking surprised.
+“I had quite forgotten it. However, I have been so busy with my new
+hats and the chairmanship of a committee appointed to instruct tenement
+house mothers as to the best method of bringing up children, that I
+have had no time for anything else.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the classic profile. “How grateful
+those poor ignorant people must be for your instruction!”
+
+“M—I don’t know about that. At times, I am very much discouraged. One
+woman said she would gladly allow her children to wear two fresh aprons
+a day, if I would pay for the washing of them. Another said that she
+had already raised six children without my assistance, and she believed
+she could worry on without it a bit longer. Still another was so stupid
+that she couldn’t be made to understand how I, who had never had any
+children, was able to offer her such valuable suggestions.”
+
+“As if it depended on experience,” said the president. “The theory is
+ever so much more important.”
+
+“That was what I said to the woman who— You knew that I had resigned
+from that same committee, didn’t you?” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.
+
+“Why, no; this is the first I have heard of it. And you were so
+enthusiastic, too! What on earth has made you change your mind?”
+
+“A woman. She—”
+
+“Oh! I thought, perhaps, it was a man,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“No. I am not as easily influenced as you are, dear. This woman lived
+up six flights of the dirtiest stairs I ever saw. I wondered at the
+time why she didn’t ask the landlord to have an elevator put in;
+probably she hadn’t thought of it. She lived in two rooms, and you
+never saw such awful poverty in your life. I thought, as she was so
+awfully poor, she couldn’t have much feeling, so I told her plainly
+that she could never expect her children to love and honor her if she
+did not at once give them each a hot bath, and put up fresh curtains
+and a pot or two of flowers in the windows. Everybody knows how cheap
+curtains are nowadays—not the real lace ones, of course, but—”
+
+“Tamboured muslin and all that,” said the president. “Was she grateful
+for your interest in her?”
+
+“I fear not. She looked at me, earnestly, and said: ‘You’ve been to one
+of them, haven’t you? I’ve always wanted to see somebody that had!’”
+
+“Was the woman mad?”
+
+“I was afraid so, and I began to back out of the door, when she called,
+‘Mary Ellen! oh, Mary Ellen! come right in here this minute! Here is a
+lady who has been to one of them there beauty doctors we was talking
+about yesterday! She must be awful old, for she’s brought up a lot of
+children; and come here to teach me how to raise mine; and if that
+beauty doctor ain’t fixed her up so she looks real young!’”
+
+“And did Mary Ellen come?” asked the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+sympathetically.
+
+“I don’t know. I didn’t wait; but I am almost sure I heard several
+people laughing as I came down-stairs. After this, I shall devote my
+energies to foreign missions or something like that. If the heathens
+are not grateful for my efforts in their behalf, they at least express
+themselves in a tongue I don’t understand; and they are too far away
+for me to hear them, even if I _could_ understand!”
+
+“Their ingratitude is awful,” wailed the president. “Well, I’m glad
+you have told me all this. Otherwise, I never could have had courage
+to tell you my last experience with visiting the dwellers in the slums
+as a member of the ‘Society for Procuring Better Ventilation in Other
+People’s Bedrooms!’ I called on one woman, who really seemed impressed
+by my arguments; she was quite polite, and never took her eyes off my
+bonnet all the time I was talking to her. I was so pleased with her
+that I gave her my address, and told her I would let her have a lot of
+pamphlets on the subject, if she would send for them. I knew I could
+not get one of my maids to carry them into that district, and besides
+her husband could easily come for them. He was a street paver, and no
+doubt would be glad to get the exercise.”
+
+“Of course,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Did he come?”
+
+“No. But she herself walked in on my reception day a few weeks later.
+She wore a bonnet which was a perfect caricature of mine. She said she
+hoped I would forgive her for delaying the returning of my call so
+long; and didn’t I think my reception-room was too warm to be quite
+healthy?”
+
+“Did you ever hear of such impertinence! and in your own house, too!”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What did the other members of the
+society say?”
+
+“I don’t know. I resigned, by telephone, as soon as Tom and the doctor
+succeeded in bringing me out of my fainting fit.”
+
+“And no wonder,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+sympathetically. “And yet, people complain that we take so little
+interest in the poor! Only a real philanthropist can appreciate the
+rebuffs we receive. The only thing which helps us to bear them, is the
+knowledge that we are doing such incalculable good.”
+
+“It is very sweet and good of you to feel so,” sighed the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I don’t know that I am quite so magnanimous, myself. Oh,
+Catharine, dear; you were speaking of Mr. Rocksby the other day. Did
+you ever hear the end of his affair with Florence?”
+
+“Why, no,” said the girl with the classic profile. “I only knew that it
+_had_ an end. How on earth did you find out about it?”
+
+“I heard that she and Effie had fallen out, and I asked Effie all about
+it. Of course she was glad enough to tell. It seems that there was a
+dance at the club in Arcadia, and Florence went out to stay with the
+Brownstones and attend it. Mr. Rocksby happened to meet her at the
+station, and went out with her, intending to return by the next train.
+It turned out that there was no train back until midnight, so the
+Brownstones invited him to dine and go to the dance with them. They
+even brought out a dress coat of Mr. Brownstone’s for him to wear, and
+Florence told Effie that he looked as if he weighed twenty pounds less
+when he put it on.”
+
+“It’s really wonderful the way people always help Florence along,”
+sighed the girl with the classic profile. “Nobody ever does such things
+for _me_.”
+
+“I fancy Florence wishes they hadn’t for _her_, dear. Well, he was
+lovely to her at the dance, and after a while he coaxed her out on the
+balcony for a quiet talk. Before she fairly knew what he was about, he
+had fallen heavily on his knees and said, ‘Florence, I—’ when she heard
+the queerest sound, and he sprang to his feet, with his hand on his
+back!”
+
+“Good gracious, I hope the poor old soul hadn’t hurt himself?”
+
+“No; I believe not. But he had split Mr. Brownstone’s dress coat from
+top to bottom. And though Florence tried her very best, she never could
+coax him to finish the sentence he had just begun!”
+
+“Poor Florence! No wonder she says now she thinks a man looks better
+in cycling garb than anything else. The sight of a dress coat must be
+enough to make her ill.”
+
+“I should think so,” said the president. “By the way, speaking of
+theosophy, I wonder why its stout and elderly devotees wear such
+flowing white robes? The younger ones seem content with short hair and
+general dowdiness.”
+
+“Good gracious, you will be wondering next why politicians always wear
+diamonds or why dressmakers invariably appear in old-fashioned gowns,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose; “and I must say, frankly, that I
+can’t answer either of those questions. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose I
+am to congratulate you. I hear that Tom has just inherited ten thousand
+dollars.”
+
+“I don’t know whether you may congratulate me, or not,” said the
+president. “Sometimes, I—”
+
+“Oh! Then, there is no truth in the report?”
+
+“Yes, it is true enough, but I don’t know whether I am to be
+congratulated or not. You see, I was getting along very well as we
+were, and now I see that I need a lot of things I never thought of
+before—more than the extra income could possibly cover—and I shall be
+absolutely wretched unless I can have them.”
+
+“But you will have some of them, anyhow, won’t you?”
+
+“I’m not sure. Tom talks now of putting all the money into his
+business. In that case he will be obliged to work harder, because he
+will have more at stake; he says, also, that I shall have to be more
+economical than ever because every cent will be needed to extend his
+operations. On the whole,” she added, thoughtfully, “I am rather sorry
+his aunt is dead. It was ever so much nicer when she was living, and I
+could spend the expected legacy royally, in imagination, at least.”
+
+“You poor dear; to think of having cause to regret the death of a
+wealthy relative,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but—er—couldn’t Tom put
+you on the pay-roll as a clerk, or something?”
+
+“I did suggest that; but he said he’d rather pay me a salary to stay
+out of the office. I haven’t spoken to him since.”
+
+“Do you know, I always think it a mistake to stop speaking to any one,”
+said the blue-eyed girl; “it seems unkind, and then one loses the
+opportunity to say unpleasant things to them, too.”
+
+“I believe you are right,” said the president. “No married man seems to
+appreciate speechless indignation, anyhow.”
+
+“I must see you alone a moment, Emily, dear,” whispered the blue-eyed
+girl. “Can’t you come with me down to the other end of the room, and
+let me pretend to straighten your hair?”
+
+“With pleasure, dear,” replied Emily, but there was no alacrity in her
+voice; “only we must not stay too long lest Frances suspect something.”
+
+“What if she does? She would only think we are talking about her—and
+I doubt if that would make her particularly comfortable. It is about
+Jack. Perhaps, you can pardon his behavior, but for me the last link
+which bound us is broken, and I feel now that I can start for India as
+a missionary without a pang!”
+
+“My goodness, what has he done now? I’ve been afraid all along,
+Dorothy, that you would put off the reconciliation too long. While he
+confines his attentions to Frances, it is all right; but some time he
+will find out that there are a number of nice girls in the world, and—”
+
+“Frances has nothing to do with it,” she replied, with great dignity.
+“It happened this way: I was coming home about dusk yesterday—you
+remember how it rained, don’t you? Well, I was so miserable that I
+didn’t even attempt to hold up my skirts—it was a kind of a comfort to
+let them get thoroughly draggled. A gust of wind blew my umbrella to
+one side, and I saw Jack and Mr. Bonds just ahead of me. By the way,
+did you ever notice that—er—there is a certain likeness between those
+two?”
+
+“I’ve always said they looked enough alike to be brothers. Don’t you
+remember, dear, when you were first engaged to Jack, you wouldn’t speak
+to me for two weeks because I mentioned the fact?”
+
+“No, I don’t remember. Well, all of a sudden, I felt that I could
+forgive Jack all if I could just lay my head on his shoulder, and hear
+him say that he was sorry.”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy, dear, I am so glad! He told me this morning that he—”
+
+“If you will kindly allow me to proceed, without interruption, I will
+explain how that is now impossible. I was wondering how Mr. Bonds could
+be gotten rid of, so that Jack could go home with me and apologize
+comfortably before dinner; when he suddenly left him and ran up the
+Vansmith’s steps. Jack was walking slowly, and I just shut my eyes,
+and made a dash to catch up with him. My own voice sounded like a fog
+whistle, as I said: ‘W—wait a moment; I—I wish to speak to you.’ And,
+oh, Emily—”
+
+“You surely never mean to say that Jack wouldn’t stop when you called?”
+
+“It wasn’t Jack. It was Mr. Bonds; Jack had gone into the Vansmith
+house! But, oh, Emily, if he really loved me, he would have known that
+I was right behind him, ready to forgive and forget. I shall sail for
+India some time next week, and if I never return, you—”
+
+“But, Dorothy, Jack is only too anxious to make up. He says that a
+lover’s quarrel is worse than a Welsh rarebit for keeping a fellow
+awake at night. And he told me to tell you—”
+
+“Well, Emily Marshmallow, if this is all the interest you take in
+our discussion of theosophy, we might as well adjourn, and go to a
+millinery shop or an afternoon tea,” said the president, with some
+asperity; “and, after all the trouble I’ve taken in reading everything
+the dictionary and the encyclopædia have to say on the subject, I think
+you might at least pay attention to my remarks!”
+
+“Dear me, Evelyn, I really beg your pardon. I shall borrow Elise’s
+note-book, and study it all out before I sleep. There is nothing so
+productive of a good night’s rest as half an hour’s solid reading after
+one is in bed. Why, the other night, I took a book on philosophy to
+bed with me, and before I had read six sentences I was asleep. I never
+woke till nine o’clock in the morning, and the gas was blazing all that
+time. I doubt if I’d have waked then if somebody hadn’t knocked at my
+door.”
+
+“It was the sweet consciousness of duty well performed,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “Now, if your book had been a really interesting
+novel, you would have been awake half the night.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile, “and been as yellow as
+a primrose in the morning. I often say that a few pages of really good
+literature just before retiring is the best thing in the world for the
+complexion. One girl I know says she always reads her Bible then; but I
+don’t approve of that—if one falls asleep suddenly, allowing it to drop
+heavily upon the floor, it is sure to awaken the other members of the
+family. If I do that, my father—”
+
+“I know,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, plaintively.
+“Mamma says that if I take any more solid reading to bed I may confront
+papa with this month’s gas bill, when it comes in, for she absolutely
+refuses to do it!”
+
+“Pshaw, men are all alike; though I didn’t use to think so,” said the
+president. “Now, I always forget all about the topic for discussion
+until half an hour before it is time to start for the club. A man would
+say that he hadn’t time to prepare for it, but a woman’s courage never
+deserts her. I am all ready at the appointed time, even if I have to
+tell the cook to have anything she chooses for dinner. Now, Tom thinks
+I ought to be ready by the day before, even if I have to give up a tea
+or a luncheon to do it.”
+
+“The idea!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Really, women have so
+many things to do nowadays that is a wonder they find time for them
+all; and yet, men seem to expect them to be just as good housekeepers
+as they were when they had nothing else to do. I regret to see that the
+sexes have not progressed equally.”
+
+“Indeed they have not,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Who ever heard of
+the new man? And if there _was_ such a creature he would no doubt be so
+effeminate that nobody would care anything for him.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile, “sometimes, I fear
+that Helen’s husband will develop such proclivities. Of course it is
+only a harmless eccentricity which makes him sew on his own buttons—I
+can overlook that. But the other day he was getting ready to go down
+town while she was out on her bicycle. Just because she was wearing one
+of his shirts and a collar and tie of his, he dressed up in that lovely
+lace collarette of hers, and was actually going out with it on! What
+would people have said of a man who appeared in such feminine attire!”
+
+“Goodness me, I hope he is not losing his mind,” said the president.
+“However, if he is, Helen is always ready to supply him with a piece
+of hers. By the way, girls, what queer questions men do ask! Several
+of Tom’s friends dined with us last evening, and they actually wanted
+to know why a stout woman always selects a tiny dog for a pet, while a
+wisp of a woman will be tugging at the chain of an enormous mastiff. I
+simply told them that they must not be so curious, for, though I would
+not confess it to _them_, I really could not answer the question.”
+
+“And you were quite right,” said the blue-eyed girl, indignantly; “by
+and by, they will actually expect us to give a reason for everything we
+do! Which is palpably absurd, since we so often do things without any
+reason at all!”
+
+“Well, luckily, we are not responsible for anybody,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “Oh! I just wouldn’t be a man for anything in the
+world.”
+
+“Would anybody, if he could help it?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Of course, they all pretend to like it, but one can easily see the
+hollowness of the pretense. Why, they would not be half so anxious to
+criticise our actions if they didn’t feel that we have the best of
+things. Of course, I would not be a man for anything—”
+
+“Nor I,” said the president, “and have to give up my comfortable seat
+in a street car every time a woman entered.”
+
+“But of course it is only right for them to give up their seats to us,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“Certainly, it’s right. Only I shouldn’t like to have to do it myself.”
+
+“Of course not. Or to have to pay for pretty things for somebody else
+to wear. Or to have to drop a nice book, and go out in the rain to
+escort home a girl who had been calling on some one else,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“Yes. Or to have to buy candy for somebody else to eat,” said the girl
+with the classic profile.
+
+“M’hm. Or to have the nearest woman manage one, without one being aware
+of the fact,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I know! Or to have to
+fall in love with a girl, and marry her, just because she had made up
+her mind that one should,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+
+“Yes. Well, really the poor things have a great deal to endure, though
+many of their sufferings are mercifully hidden from them,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “But, after all, we are very nice to
+them, you know.”
+
+“Of course we are,” said the president; “we wouldn’t get nearly so
+many things out of them, if we were not. Girls, I hear that Annie has
+finally decided to marry Nelson.”
+
+“I thought she had done that long ago,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Talk of a woman not knowing her own mind. That man never—”
+
+“He knew his own mind well enough, dear. It was only about Annie’s that
+he was doubtful,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Annie
+told me herself how it came to be settled. She said that she couldn’t
+decide whether to accept him or not—”
+
+“Which means that she had done all she could, and was doubtful whether
+he would do the rest,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Perhaps so. At any rate it was still uncertain until last Tuesday.
+He had been out of town for several days, and returned unexpectedly.
+Annie had gone out to mail a letter, and just as she raised the lid of
+the letter-box she saw him coming up the street toward her. As they
+walked away together, she glanced down and saw that she still held her
+letter in her hand, but her pocket-book was gone!”
+
+“Goodness, you don’t mean to say that she—”
+
+“I do. She said she knew at once that she must care a good deal for a
+man whose sudden appearance was enough to make her post her pocketbook
+instead of a letter—so she said ‘Yes.’”
+
+“As soon as he asked her,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Well, what he
+can see in _her_, I’m sure _I_ don’t know!”
+
+“What _she_ can see in _him_ puzzles me,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+thoughtfully. “I don’t see how any girl can really love and honor a man
+who wears red neckties; do you?”
+
+“For _my_ part, I can’t see what they see in each other,” said the
+president, thoughtfully. “Well, I really think Annie ought to give me
+a handsome present, for it was I who brought it all about.”
+
+“Mercy, did you speak ill of her to Nelson?”
+
+“No; but I told Tom the other day that I didn’t believe that girl would
+ever get married. And when I make a remark like that about any girl,
+she may as well set about selecting her trousseau, for somebody is sure
+to propose to her at once.”
+
+“And yet, I doubt if Annie would be grateful to you, if you told her,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully.
+
+“One must not expect gratitude in this world, dear. The consciousness
+of having done one’s duty is reward enough for a right-minded person.
+By the way, Emily dear, I hear that Dick says he will positively wait
+no longer. You must give him a decisive answer one way or the other, or
+he—”
+
+“Yes; but he hasn’t yet screwed up the courage to tell _me_ so,
+dear. When he _does_, it will be time for me to make up my mind. I
+do wonder,” she added, thoughtfully, “why a girl who has one lover
+already, is sure to win the affections of another man?”
+
+“Cause and effect,” said the president, gloomily. “I never thought of
+buying that new hat until I heard Helen tell the milliner it was too
+expensive for her. After I got it home, I found it didn’t match a thing
+I possessed. I just believe Helen said that before me for meanness,
+knowing I would be compelled to buy it, then. And now the milliner
+absolutely refuses to take it off my hands. I threatened to withdraw my
+trade if she didn’t; but it had no effect. She knows I have more hats
+already than I need for this season, and by the time they are all worn
+out—and paid for—I shall have forgotten all about it.”
+
+“But why not pay your bill at once, and open another with somebody
+else? That—”
+
+“I don’t care to let Tom see the old bill just now, dear. It wouldn’t
+matter ordinarily, but since he inherited that money from his aunt he
+is feeling unusually poor, and it might cause a family unpleasantness.”
+
+“How thoughtful you always are, Evelyn! Really, the study of theosophy
+seems to have developed your character wonderfully. I do hope you will
+explain it all thoroughly to me,” said the girl with the Roman nose; “I
+am really so stupid that even after to-day’s discussion, I feel that I
+do not fully understand it.”
+
+“Perhaps at some future time,” said the president, hastily. “I am sorry
+to say that we really must adjourn now. My mother-in-law is coming
+to dine with us, and I don’t want her poking about the house in my
+absence.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+A Discussion and a Surprise
+
+
+“‘Civic Organizations Among the Ancient Greeks,’ will be our topic for
+to-day,” said the president. “And, oh, girls, I am so angry with Tom
+that I would go right home to mamma, but for the fact that she always
+agrees with him. Papa invariably thinks _I_ am in the right; but he
+would say unpleasant things about Tom, and I shouldn’t like that,
+either. The consequence is that I must just endure my martyrdom in
+silence.”
+
+“But, what is wrong? Is it about that legacy from Tom’s aunt?” queried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “Dear me, I often think it’s so hard that
+really poor men are usually nicer than those that have money.”
+
+“I don’t see why you always think of money in connection with me,” said
+the president. “Heaven knows, I am not mercenary, and I only want to
+live well and dress properly, in order that people may see Tom is not
+stingy. No, this is quite another matter. It all came from the topic
+I selected for to-day. I was talking, rather learnedly, about ‘Civic
+Organizations Among the Ancient Greeks,’ when Tom asked me suddenly
+what ward I live in! Of course, I didn’t know—”
+
+“Why, neither do I,” said the brown-eyed blonde, “but it must be the
+same one, for we both live on the north side!”
+
+“I really don’t know, either,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “I don’t see what difference it makes though, for I could ask the
+clerk at the corner drug store if I needed particularly to know.”
+
+“Of course you could,” said the president, “and so could I. But, Tom
+was awfully unpleasant—he couldn’t have been more so if we had been
+married twenty years instead of two. He said he didn’t see any use in
+my poking about among the civic organizations of ancient Greece, when
+I did not know what ward I lived in.”
+
+“Humph! I suppose next thing he will be saying that he doesn’t see any
+use in the Teacup Club,” said the girl with the classic profile, in
+sarcastic tones. “A man will say anything when he is angry.”
+
+“Humph! I fancy he will hardly say anything like that, dear. He knows
+it has its use, if it is only to make me look more leniently on his own
+club. When we first organized it he complained a good deal about the
+demands it made on my time and attention, and I just said: ‘Oh, very
+well, dear, let us both give up our clubs, and spend all our spare time
+at home together.’ After that, he held his peace on the subject.”
+
+“But you wouldn’t have given it up, would you?” asked the brown-eyed
+blonde, anxiously.
+
+“Of course not—but Tom didn’t know that. By the way, Emily, what is
+making Dorothy so late to-day?”
+
+“I fancy she is engaged,” replied the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, demurely; “at least Jack Bittersweet was on his way to call on
+her a couple of hours ago, and I suppose—Pardon me, Frances, did you
+speak?”
+
+“I—I was about to say, ‘how nice’—for Dorothy, I mean. By the way,
+girls, I—I am thinking of going to Omaha for a nice, long visit as soon
+as I can get ready.”
+
+“But I thought you had already refused Lola’s invitation,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.
+
+“I—I had. But, really I have bought so many pretty things of late that
+I can get ready for my visit without the slightest trouble, and as my
+last visit was cut short, I—”
+
+“Yes, I remember that quite well, dear. I remember that you came home a
+few days after Dorothy broke with poor Jack. But I don’t understand why
+you have been embroidering so much table linen lately. You surely will
+not need that for a visit to Omaha.”
+
+“Why, er—no. I—I shall take it as a present to Lola’s mother, I think.
+You have no idea of how fond she is of me.”
+
+“Indeed, I have, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+warmly. “I’ve often noticed that married women who have no grown sons
+_are_ fond of you. It is rather a pity, as things turned out, that you
+cut your last visit short; I am really afraid, if you go now, that you
+will miss Dorothy’s wedding.”
+
+“At any rate, dear, she will not miss it herself. Really, I think
+the poor girl would have lost her mind if she had lost Jack. These
+disappointments are so hard to bear that—”
+
+“I shall tell her that you said so, dear. I am sure she and Jack will
+both—”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily, “do you suppose that Greek
+women used actually to wear those dowdy gowns on the street? Of course
+they would do very well for tea gowns, but—”
+
+“I don’t suppose anything of the kind,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “It was chiefly the men who made the antique statues, wasn’t
+it? Very well, then, the poor creatures had no idea of style, and just
+reproduced the gowns they happened to admire themselves.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile; “men always detest the
+ruling fashion of the hour. And yet, they seem to think we dress to
+please them,” she added, derisively.
+
+“I know it. And the women of ancient Greece were just like anybody
+else, I suppose,” replied the girl with the eyeglasses. “However, if
+they really wore white as frequently as they seem to, they must have
+had more money than I have to pay the laundress.”
+
+“Yes, or the principal street of Athens—I forget the name of it, must
+have been a good deal cleaner than State street,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin. “I don’t suppose, however, that the carving of
+statues could have made much dirt, and really the ancient Greeks seem
+to have done little else.”
+
+“At any rate their system of civic organization was—dear me, what was
+it? I had it all written down on the back of an invitation to dinner,
+and I must have lost it as I came along,” wailed the president. “Oh,
+dear, what shall I do?”
+
+“Never mind, you can tell us what you remember,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, soothingly. “None of us know enough about it to detect the
+fact if you _are_ wrong.”
+
+“It isn’t that; I’ve got it all at home in the old school book I copied
+it from. But, as I say, it was on the back of an invitation to dinner,
+and I can’t remember whether it was for next Tuesday or Thursday!”
+
+“Goodness me, that is really serious,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “but perhaps Tom will remember.”
+
+“Tom remember the date of an invitation to dinner! How little you know
+about men. Why, he would tell me the wrong day, if he did remember,
+just to escape putting on his dress coat and going with me.”
+
+“Humph! from what Helen says, you may be thankful that he goes at all.
+Her husband does not. She says—”
+
+“Helen didn’t manage him properly at first, that’s all. When Tom first
+began to declare he wouldn’t go to dinners, I would just say, ‘Very
+well, dear, we’ll both remain at home, and tell our would-be hostess
+the true reason why we didn’t come. And now, I often reap the benefit
+of that Spartan policy. Of course, he is sometimes detained at the
+office by important business, or even called off by a telegram just as
+we are about to start. However, I always remember that he is only human
+after all, and seldom revenge myself in any other way than by telling
+him that Mr. Troolygood sat next me at table. Life will be a much more
+complicated affair for me if that dear fellow ever takes it into his
+head to marry.”
+
+“I think you are perfectly safe for some time to come, dear,” said the
+girl with the classic profile, “his married sister, with whom he lives,
+is anxious for him to marry. She has the habit of inviting any girl he
+seems to admire, so constantly to the house that she soon loses all her
+charm for him.”
+
+“No man likes courtship made easy,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“Mr. Troolygood will surely die a bachelor unless he succeeds some day
+in unearthing a girl whom his sister dislikes. That is hardly probable,
+either, since he invariably admires a girl with money—a habit, by the
+way, which I have also noticed in other young clergymen.”
+
+“It is not confined to young clergymen, dear,” remarked the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Talk about women being mercenary, I have often noticed
+that men think much more of money than we do. We know that they must
+provide for us somehow, and the doing of it is their affair.”
+
+“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, “what excellent
+mental training we do receive at this club! Dorothy was wondering the
+other day how we ever got along without it; and, indeed, so was I. A
+reputation for being intellectual is the nicest thing in the world;
+once you have it, you can be as silly as you choose, and people will
+feel actually grateful to you for unbending. It has its drawbacks,
+though. I find one must be more careful than ever to have cuffs and
+gloves immaculate.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Girls, a college
+professor asked me the other day why we always wear veils on the
+street!”
+
+“And what did you reply?” queried the girl with the Roman nose.
+
+“To keep our faces clean! What did you suppose?”
+
+“Oh! I thought you told him the truth. However, the more intellectual a
+man is the less he understands women. One of his students would—”
+
+“Know better than to expect the truth in reply to such a question?
+Of course he would,” said the president; “but oh, girls, if an
+octogenarian knew as much about us as a sophomore _thinks_ he does,
+what a queer world this would be!”
+
+“Unpleasant rather than queer,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “Of course we understand men thoroughly; but that is a very
+different matter.”
+
+“Oh, very different,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “But aren’t
+they queer? Why, I once knew a man who called a girl a ‘most adorable
+little flirt,’ and then felt very much aggrieved when she kept on
+flirting after they became engaged!”
+
+“Lots of girls never have an opportunity to flirt until they _are_
+engaged,” remarked the girl with the dimple in her chin. “To some men,
+an engagement ring on a girl’s hand has the same effect that a ‘Keep
+off the grass’ sign has on children.”
+
+“True,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Oh, Marion, shall you also
+visit Lola this year?”
+
+“Not this century,” replied the girl with the eyeglasses. “Didn’t you
+hear what happened the last time she was here?”
+
+“Why, no; except that she was to dine with you. What happened? Did she
+discuss art in a monologue from soup to coffee? or, did—”
+
+“Yes, she did that; but it wouldn’t have really mattered, except
+for—you see it was this way: when she was here last summer, she gave
+me one of her, well, _she_ calls them paintings. I accepted it with
+profuse thanks; and hung it in the darkest corner of the attic as soon
+as her train was well out of Chicago. When I heard that she was coming
+back, I fished the picture out of its corner, and gave it a prominent
+place in the parlor, telling her it had been there all the time.”
+
+“Well, I’m sure she ought to be satisfied with that,” said the
+president; “not many people care enough for Lola to hang her pictures
+even temporarily on the parlor walls. The one she gave me is in the
+cook’s bedroom—the poor woman has been complaining of insomnia lately.”
+
+“No wonder. Unluckily I forgot to coach my family, and when we came in
+from the dinner table, my brother Frank joined us. You know Lola _is_
+pretty when she remembers to comb her hair and remove her painting
+apron.”
+
+“Mercy on us! did he criticise her painting while she was present?”
+
+“No. He only said, ‘Hello, where did you get this new picture? I never
+saw it before. Looks like the one that has been vegetating in the
+attic!’”
+
+“You needn’t tell us the rest, dear; we all know Lola. It was too bad,
+when you had only done it to spare her feelings, too!”
+
+“Dear! dear!” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I wonder
+why the most hopeless artists are ever the most generous with their
+productions? They seem to wish to give them away, whereas—”
+
+“Self-preservation, dear. When one has done something dreadful, one
+dislikes to be constantly reminded of the fact!” said the girl with
+the classic profile. “You know my eldest sister, don’t you? Well, her
+husband has an awful temper, but he seldom gives Sophie any trouble.
+Whenever he begins to be unpleasant, she says: ‘Isn’t it fortunate,
+dear; if you should die, or we should ever separate, I could have a
+good income, anyhow—I could just publish in book form the poems you
+wrote to me before we were married!’”
+
+“And what then?” asked the president, breathlessly.
+
+“Oh, he kicks the dog or snubs his typewriter; but he never says
+another word to Sophie.”
+
+“And yet, Sophie used to be considered dull at school,” said the
+president, thoughtfully. “Well, that’s only another proof that even
+genius needs a special opportunity.”
+
+“Speaking of opportunities,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“have you heard of Marie’s last mishap? No? I thought not. You know
+that delightful young physician who cares nothing for society, and
+declines all non-professional invitations, and never calls on a woman
+under seventy. Well, Marie has developed neuralgia, grip, and nervous
+prostration in swift succession, and he has been called in to attend
+her. You see, it is this way: it gives her an opportunity to see him in
+bewitching tea-gowns, and she studies new poses on the sofa when she is
+not taking powders.”
+
+“Oh! And when are they to be married?” asked the president.
+
+“Never, dear. He says he had long loved her silently, and was trying to
+summon up enough courage to tell her so. Now, however, he sees that she
+is too delicate to make a good wife for a hardworking professional man!”
+
+“Humph! No wonder Marie’s little brother told mine he wants to go away
+to boarding-school,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “Well, I always
+did hate deceit. I never—”
+
+“By the way,” said the president, “I thought you had such a bad
+headache that you could not go out to-day.”
+
+“That was when mamma wanted me to accompany her to a meeting at the
+orphan asylum, dear. I felt ever so much better after she was gone.”
+
+“I am so glad you care so much for the club,” said the president.
+“I gave up a luncheon at my mother-in-law’s, in order to come,
+myself. I wanted awfully to go—all the other guests were lovely old
+ladies—perfect walking encyclopædias on the subject of servants, and
+the proper time to hunt moths or cut first teeth.”
+
+“Oh, I forgot to tell you, dear,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Tom’s mother sent you a message by me that she had put the
+luncheon off until Friday because you were so disappointed at your
+inability to be present.”
+
+“Well, if she expects me to waste a whole morning on those old frumps,
+she is very much mistaken, that is all. And you are no true friend of
+mine, or you would have told her I had an engagement for that day, too!”
+
+“Humph! You seem to forget that I am afraid of her, too. She was my old
+Sunday-school teacher, and she would as lief be disagreeable to me as
+to you. Besides, it is not as if Tom had no unmarried brothers. One has
+to consider her feelings, you know, and—”
+
+“Very true, dear. You always were charitable, Emily—I can just as well
+go to bed with a cold on Friday. Well, I fear we must adjourn now. What
+a profitable meeting we have had! I only wish Dorothy could have heard
+some of the arguments that—”
+
+“Yes, indeed, Dorothy needs all of the good sense she can possibly
+obtain in any form,” murmured the brown-eyed blonde.
+
+“Not now that she is about to be married, dear,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “However, I am sure that nothing save death or a
+boil on her chin will ever keep her away from another meeting. She says
+she considers the founding of this club her life work.”
+
+“And a noble one, too,” said the president, warmly. “Well, if ever a
+girl entered upon matrimony with bright prospects, _she_ is that one. I
+verily believe she could make Jack Bittersweet do anything she wanted,
+whether he liked or not!”
+
+“At any rate, she has begun well,” said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.
+
+When the girl with the dimple in her chin reached the blue-eyed girl’s
+home, she ran up the stairs to her friend’s room, two steps at a time,
+and burst open the door. That young person was discovered, radiant with
+smiles in spite of the traces of recent tears; she was seated at her
+desk, and the waste basket was overflowing with crumpled sheets of her
+best note paper.
+
+“Oh, you dear, Dorothy,” said the visitor, “tell me all about it, do!
+I was dying to come earlier, but I wanted to see what Frances would do
+when she heard that Jack was coming here, so I had to stay all through
+the meeting. Evelyn says that no girl ever had brighter prospects in
+marrying than you, and—”
+
+“Oh! then, they all know I am to be married, do they? Did Jack tell? I
+thought he would hold his peace, because—”
+
+“Well, not exactly; but he told me that he was on his way here to ask
+you to forgive him for everything he ever did! And he said he just
+wouldn’t come away until you set your wedding-day, and so—”
+
+“Oh! he told you that, did he? Well, it is set, and—”
+
+“Dear old Jack, he must be the happiest fellow in the world, for he—”
+
+“M—I can’t say that he looked it when he went away; however, some
+people have such a way of concealing their emotions. I never had
+myself; I am as open as the day—anybody could know just what I intended
+to do all the time.”
+
+“Of course; I told Jack how it would be from the start. But I don’t
+see why he looked so melancholy when he came away. Didn’t you set the
+wedding day early enough to please him?”
+
+“He said he didn’t want to know the day, and—”
+
+“Didn’t want to know the day of his own wedding! Why, the poor boy must
+be crazy; he—”
+
+“The date of his _own_ wedding! Emily Marshmallow, are you out of your
+mind? I said the date of _my_ wedding, and—”
+
+“Would you mind feeling my pulse, dear, or examining my eye to see if
+there is a look of insanity in it! For really, I don’t see how you and
+Jack can be married to each other on different days, unless you are
+thinking of matrimony on the instalment plan; and that—”
+
+“Married to each other? Jack Bittersweet and I? Why, Emily Marshmallow,
+you haven’t listened to a word I have been saying, when I have been
+telling you for the last half hour I am to marry Clarence Lighthed, the
+only man I ever loved, next month, and—”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy, don’t! If Jack did not ask you to marry him to-day, it
+was only that he hadn’t the courage, and—”
+
+“He did, dear—twice. But you see, I had accepted Clarence an hour
+before he came. Well, it is a great comfort to know that I never
+encouraged poor Jack! You will bear me out in that, I know. And oh,
+Emily, Clarence is the dearest person in the world! You can’t imagine
+how happy first love makes one! I—I wouldn’t say a word to Frances now
+if I saw her with one eyebrow a full half inch higher than the other.
+But, what is the matter? You—”
+
+“I—I feel a little faint, dear; that is all. Did you—er, try to soften
+the blow to Jack?”
+
+“I did. I advised him to marry Frances; said that I knew she would make
+him happier than I could ever have done, and their marriage was the one
+thing needed to complete my own happiness.”
+
+“Well, he wouldn’t marry her now if—not if she was a wealthy young
+widow. Did—did Jack say anything about me?”
+
+“Why, er—yes; he seemed sort of offended with you for something.
+I don’t know what it was. The only reference I made to you in our
+whole conversation, was to tell him that you had seen all along that
+I intended to marry Clarence. Of course if you had not been able to
+make him understand that fact, it was his own stupidity, and not your
+fault. Oh, I tell you, I always defend my friends—even before they are
+attacked! But what is the matter? You look sort of queer?”
+
+“I—I was only wondering what they would say at the club! They—they
+seemed to have an idea that you would marry Jack, and—”
+
+“Marry Jack Bittersweet! What on earth could have put such an idea into
+their heads? I only hope, Emily, that you—”
+
+“Oh, no, dear; nothing of the kind. I—I merely told them that he was on
+his way to ask you to marry him, and—”
+
+“Very thoughtful it was of you, dear. I only wish I could ask you to be
+bridesmaid for your pains; but Clarence has somehow gotten an idea that
+you are not a friend of his. There was no one else to oppose the match,
+and I—I doubt if he’d have asked me quite as soon if you hadn’t; so I
+shall try to forgive you, in time, for the things you have said about
+him.”
+
+The girl with the dimple in her chin gasped, but her only reply, was:
+“I really don’t know what the other members of the club will say. They—”
+
+“The club. I am so glad you mentioned it. There was a meeting to-day,
+was there not? I was just writing Evelyn a letter when you came in,
+saying—”
+
+“That you want us to meet twice a week after this! How nice; that is
+just—”
+
+“No, dear; it was a letter of resignation I was writing. Dear Clarence
+has such a horror of intellectual women, that I—”
+
+“But, Dorothy, you know when you founded the club, you said the
+membership would be for life, and—”
+
+“Emily Marshmallow, I never said anything of the kind! And, if I _did_,
+only a person of your colossal selfishness would expect me to waste my
+time on a mere club when I want to devote eighteen hours a day to the
+selection of my trousseau, and the other six to Clarence! And, if you
+want to know my real opinion of the club, I consider it the greatest
+bore among my social duties!”
+
+
+    PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY
+    & SONS CO. AT THE LAKESIDE
+    PRESS, FOR WAY & WILLIAMS,
+    CHICAGO, U.S.A. MDCCCXCVII
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber’s Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. This text uses both single
+quotation marks and double quotation marks within dialogue. This was
+retained as printed.
+
+Page 82, “nowaday” changed to “nowadays” (nowadays don’t intend)
+
+Page 216, “absense” changed to “absence” (bears my absence)
+
+Page 245, removed repeated word “heard” (you heard Miss Blanque)
+
+Page 296, “he” changed to “her” (criticise her painting)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
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+Title: The Teacup Club
+
+Author: Eliza Armstrong
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+
+<h1 class="faux"><i>The</i> Teacup Club</h1>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 510px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="510" height="800" alt="Cover" />
+</div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<div class="maintitle"><i>The</i>
+Teacup Club</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a><br /><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<div class="bbox">
+
+<div class="maintitle"><i>The</i><br />
+Teacup Club</div>
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br />
+BY<br />
+<span class="author">ELIZA ARMSTRONG</span><br /><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/emblem.jpg" width="150" height="160" alt="emblem" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br /><br />
+<i>CHICAGO</i><br />
+WAY AND WILLIAMS<br />
+1897<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="copyright">
+COPYRIGHT<br />
+WAY AND WILLIAMS<br />
+1897<br />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>NOTE</h2>
+
+
+<p>A portion of the matter in this little book
+originally appeared in <i>The New York Journal</i>,
+and is used by the courtesy of W. R. Hearst,
+Esq.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a><br /><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+<td align="left" colspan="2"><small>CHAPTER</small></td>
+<td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">I&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE TEACUP CLUB IS FORMED</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">II&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE CLUB DISCUSSES WOMAN IN POLITICS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">III&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">MAN’S REAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IV&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">CONCERNING THE HEROINE OF TO-DAY</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">V&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE CLUB SETTLES SOME CURRENCY PROBLEMS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VI&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE PIONEER NEW WOMAN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VII&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">WOMAN IN LEGISLATION</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VIII&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">AN EXECUTIVE MEETING</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IX&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF POLITICAL POWER</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">X&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">WOMAN AS A PARLIAMENTARIAN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XI&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">THE CLUB INVESTIGATES THEOSOPHY</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XII&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="left">A DISCUSSION AND A SURPRISE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a><br /><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter I<br />
+
+<small>The Teacup Club is Formed</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“You can never be sure of pleasing a
+man,” sighed the blue-eyed girl, who was
+calling on her dearest friend; “that is, if
+you try to please him,” she added reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose not,” replied the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “unless you succeed
+in concealing from him the fact that
+you are trying to please him.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; yes, I suppose there is something
+in that. However, we ought not to be
+hard on the poor things. The whole truth
+with the sterner sex is that they are never
+really practical. They—”</p>
+
+<p>“How clever you are!” cried the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, admiringly.
+“Sometimes it does seem a pity that you
+are to marry Jack, instead of studying law,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+or—theosophy or something like that.
+Really, a very little study would fit you for
+the bar, but of course Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t intend to marry Jack,” said
+the blue-eyed girl, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>“O, my goodness, does he know that?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know whether he knows that
+or not; but he does know that I’ve broken
+my engagement with him. I sent back his
+ring, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear; that ring must have already
+cost its real value in messenger fees alone.
+Let me see, how many times have you sent—”</p>
+
+<p>“And you may know that I am in earnest
+when I tell you that I am to pour tea for
+Nell to-morrow, and everybody will comment
+on its absence.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you want me to come over and
+stay with you to-night, dear?” queried the
+girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“No, thank you, dear. I can just as
+well talk it over with you now. Of course
+it was Jack’s fault.”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin was
+silent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, I did think
+that you, of all people, would sympathize
+with me, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here, Dorothy; of course I sympathize
+with you, but you remember
+when you quarreled with Jack the last
+time I—”</p>
+
+<p>“I remember the last time that Jack
+quarreled with me,” replied the blue-eyed
+girl, with dignity.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I sympathized violently with you,
+and the consequence was that you wouldn’t
+speak to me for a month after you made up
+with him!”</p>
+
+<p>“O, of course, if you really do sympathize
+with me, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“You might know that. But tell me all
+about it. Is it that you want a new ring
+which is too expensive for anything save a
+peace offering? Or is Edwin coming home
+on a visit? Or has—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing so frivolous, my dear; this is a
+serious matter. Jack—that is, Mr. Bittersweet,
+joined a new club without even letting
+me know that he meant to do it. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+shouldn’t have minded if he had only told
+of it beforehand—”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not, dear; for then you could
+have made him give it up!”</p>
+
+<p>“Exactly. Well, when I did find it out,
+I told him that I plainly saw he did not
+really love me, and that it was lucky I had
+discovered the fact before it was too late!”</p>
+
+<p>“How very original you are!” murmured
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Go on, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, it is all over and I never was so
+hap—happy in my life! Where is my
+hand—handkerchief? I—I got s—something
+in my eye on the way here, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Here it is, dear, and let me draw down
+the window shade, so the light will not
+hurt your poor eye.”</p>
+
+<p>“You needn’t, dear. I saw them coming
+up the street a minute or two ago and
+all I’ve got to say is, that if Jack Bittersweet
+thinks he can make me jealous by
+parading up and down with a made-up
+thing like Frances, he is very much mistaken!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I suppose you have coaxed Edwin’s sister
+to write and tell him that you have
+broken with Jack?” queried the girl with
+the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“No, I haven’t. I did that last time
+and he was so unpleasant after we made
+up!”</p>
+
+<p>“Who was unpleasant? Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not, goosie. A man is
+always nicer than usual just after making
+up. No, it was Edwin; he—men are so
+awfully selfish, you know! Just because I
+was nice to him while I was angry with
+Jack, he imagined I had treated him badly—did
+you ever hear of such a thing? How
+did he ever expect me to bring Jack to his
+senses in time for the opera season, without
+a little jealousy as an incentive?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, you know, men are so awfully
+vain that he probably thought—”</p>
+
+<p>“That I really liked him? Perhaps he
+did. I never thought of that. Still, badly
+as he has behaved, I can’t help a kindly
+feeling for him. You see, I had such a
+lovely new gown for the opera and everybody<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+knew that I expected to go often,
+so—”</p>
+
+<p>“You might even have had to give in
+and acknowledge that you were wrong, but
+for Edwin!”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear,” replied the blue-eyed girl,
+with great dignity. “Never that. I really
+expected to marry Jack, you know, and it
+would never have done to establish such a
+precedent. How could I ever expect a
+happy married life, if I began it by acknowledging
+that I could ever be in the
+wrong?”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear. By the way, do you
+think a peep at my lovely new waist would
+do you any good?”</p>
+
+<p>“You seem to have misunderstood me
+entirely,” retorted the blue-eyed girl,
+severely, “I am feeling quite happy. Indeed,
+I don’t know that I ever felt happier
+in my life, unless it was the day upon which
+I was mistaken for my younger sister!”</p>
+
+<p>“But what are you going to do in regard
+to Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Emily Marshmallow, how stupid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+you are to-day! You seem to imagine that
+I want to be flattered, like a man, by being
+asked to explain things. I told you,
+didn’t I? that Jack and I quarreled about
+his membership in a new club. Very well,
+I too, have decided to join a club!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, that isn’t a bad idea. But
+what kind of a club? An Ibsen or a Browning
+one, I suppose. I notice that men
+dislike particularly to have us members of
+really intellectual clubs.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I did think of either an Ibsen or
+a Symphony club, but neither of them just
+seemed to suit me, so—well, the fact is
+that I’ve decided to found a club of my
+own.”</p>
+
+<p>“But even then you can’t always have it
+to suit you, because the other members—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes, I shall dear. You see, I’ll
+make all the—the by-laws and resolutions
+just as I want them, before I invite any one
+to join the club. I think I shall ask Evelyn
+to be the president, because she is married
+and accustomed already to making somebody
+do as she wishes.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear, I’m only afraid that you
+are too clever to—”</p>
+
+<p>“Succeed? Not quite so bad as that, I
+hope. Now, you see, the chief objection
+to Jack’s new club was that he wouldn’t
+tell me anything about it. Said he didn’t
+know just what its purpose was. As if a
+man would join a club without knowing—”</p>
+
+<p>“I begin to see now. You mean to keep
+the purpose of your own club a secret,
+too?”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s just it, and when Jack hears how
+nice it is, he’ll find out that we are a great
+deal cleverer than he thinks. I shall make
+the membership for life too, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“But you haven’t even told me the purpose
+of the club yet.”</p>
+
+<p>“The Advancement of Woman, dear.
+Jack hates advanced women and when I
+make up with him—”</p>
+
+<p>“But you said a moment ago that you
+would never—”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, Emily,” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, hastily, “do stop talking a moment
+and let me get in a word edgewise:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+I’ve been trying for half an hour to get a
+chance to ask you where the new waist you
+offered to show me, is, and I can’t—”</p>
+
+<p>“Here it is in my wardrobe and isn’t it a
+dream? You may try it on, if you like.”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, dear; but no. I care so
+little for such frivolities, now that I have
+come to enjoy the real intellectual life.
+Did you ever see such darling sleeves? It
+does seem that a girl who could not be
+happy in them must—”</p>
+
+<p>“Have at least a boil on her chin! Yes,
+doesn’t it? But really, Dorothy, you make
+me ashamed of caring so much for such
+vanities. Why, those very sleeves cost me
+two whole nights’ rest!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind about that, dear; we can’t
+all be intellectual. Look here, Emily
+Marshmallow, if you’ll promise never to
+breathe it as long as you live, I’ll tell you
+the last mean thing that Frances—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, do! She has a new gown that
+would arouse the envy of Dr. Mary Walker.
+All chiffon, spangles, embroidery and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know. My story has reference to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+that very gown. You know how very mysterious
+she always is about her new things!”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. As if anybody cared to know
+about them! Do tell me if her waist is
+made—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I—you see, it was this way: I
+knew she was having her new gown made
+at Madame’s, and I accidentally discovered
+that she was to be fitted on Friday at two.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I see. Then, you called upon
+Frances at one o’clock, thinking that she’d
+take you along, rather than risk offending
+Madame by being late?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; Frances isn’t afraid of Madame—she
+doesn’t owe her anything. I just happened
+in at Madame’s at half-past two.
+They told me she was busy, but I said I
+knew she wouldn’t mind if I stepped into
+the fitting-room for a minute, as I had a
+letter from Paris and wanted to tell her all
+about the new skirts.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, you clever thing!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. So in I bounced, and there stood
+Frances, all in billowy waves of turquoise
+blue and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But I thought her new gown was green
+and white, with—”</p>
+
+<p>“And you should have seen how sweetly
+she smiled. So sweetly that I knew she
+was wild with rage!”</p>
+
+<p>“But did you make it right with the Madame?
+Did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pretended that I must have left the
+Paris letter at home, and told her I’d fetch
+it the next day. Then, after a good, long
+look at Frances, I came away and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And ran in to tell all the other girls
+how her new gown was made?”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Annie first: you know, she
+hasn’t a bit of originality and she said, at
+once, that she’d have her new one just like
+it. Then, I dropped in at Evelyn’s tea
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Told all the others, too. M’hm.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But what do you think that cat,
+Frances, had done? She’d been there before
+me and told them all that I had come
+into the fitting-room out of sheer curiosity—I
+curious, the idea! And the gown she
+was trying on was not her own, after all,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+she said, but one about which Madame had
+asked her opinion and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Gracious, do you suppose that was the
+truth?”</p>
+
+<p>“Alas, I know it;” groaned the blue-eyed
+girl, “it belonged to Jack’s sister,
+Effie! Now, Effie detests Annie and when
+she sees her in a gown which is an exact reproduction
+of her own, she will—”</p>
+
+<p>“Won’t she, though? Well, my dear,
+Effie was an unknown quantity before, but
+now you may depend upon one thing—she
+will use any influence she may have with
+Jack against you.”</p>
+
+<p>“True. And all because of such a silly
+thing, too! But, then, people are so
+frivolous. Well, you will join my new
+club, won’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, yes. You had better invite
+Frances, too; she will tell Effie all about it,
+and the first time Effie is offended with
+Jack, she will tell him, thinking to annoy
+you both—”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall, though it is hardly necessary,
+either, for, once started, everybody will talk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+of nothing else. But, whatever you do,
+don’t tell Dick a word about it. Evelyn’s
+husband is sure to tell him, anyhow, and
+then he can’t say that women never keep
+secrets.”</p>
+
+<p>“What utter nonsense. Of course women
+can keep secrets! Why, I once knew a
+girl intimately for two whole years and in
+all that time she never told me that her
+curls were false. I wouldn’t have known
+it to this day, if I hadn’t walked into her
+room one day when she had washed them
+and hung them up to dry. I’ve told that
+story to a dozen men, and I’ve never
+yet found one of them magnanimous
+enough to acknowledge that it proved my
+point!”</p>
+
+<p>“You can’t prove anything to a man,
+dear, unless he wants it proved. Well, I
+must go. You’ll not fail me at the first
+meeting of the Teacup club, then?”</p>
+
+<p>“The Teacup club,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, disappointedly,
+“Why I thought it was to be a really intellectual
+club, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“So it is. But, you know, real merit is
+always modest. If a lot of men get up
+such a thing, they give it a six-syllabled
+name; but we wish to evade, rather than
+seek, notoriety and, besides, as I said before,
+once we get it started, the whole town
+will talk of nothing else!”</p>
+
+<p>It fell upon a bright sunshiny day, and
+the meeting for the organization of the Teacup
+club was well attended.</p>
+
+<p>“And all the girls are wearing their newest
+gowns, too,” whispered the blue-eyed
+girl to the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“that shows that they appreciate the importance
+of the undertaking.”</p>
+
+<p>“And what an awfully becoming hat you
+are wearing,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “If I owned such a milliner’s
+dream I should not mind anything that
+could happen to me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which means that you have something
+unpleasant to tell me,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “You need not be uneasy,” she added,
+“I’ll not move a muscle, for Frances is
+looking this way.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Well, then, I heard her tell Nell that
+Jack comes to her almost every day for
+sympathy and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph. When a man says ‘sympathy’
+he means flattery! Is that all?”</p>
+
+<p>“All? Why I thought—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear. You see, I thought perhaps
+you had stronger proof than her own assertion.
+Why, Frances, dear, how well you
+are looking to-day! I have not seen you
+for such an age that I thought you must be
+out of town.”</p>
+
+<p>“Has it seemed so long to you, dear?”
+returned the brown-eyed blonde. “Now, to
+me the days go so swiftly that, as I sometimes
+tell Ja—Mr. Bittersweet, I mean—I
+often forget whether it is Saturday or
+Monday!”</p>
+
+<p>“So you have seen the poor fellow, have
+you?” returned the blue-eyed girl, with an
+angelic smile; “it is so good of you to console
+him. But, indeed, you are always
+good about such things and so modest
+about it, too, that but for the men themselves,
+we should never know how hard you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+work just to induce them to come and be
+comforted!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—why,—I—” stammered the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, indeed, I was defending you only
+the other day. I was quite angry with
+Marion for saying that your house should
+be called ‘An Asylum for the Rejected.’
+I was so indignant that I just told her that,
+for my part, I thought we all ought to be
+grateful to you for consoling the poor fellows
+and helping to keep them out of mischief
+when they are feeling so badly. I reminded
+her, too, that you must do it out
+of pure philanthropy—for you never seem
+to get anything out of it. Really, I never
+saw you looking quite so well; you have
+such a fine color and—oh, here is Evelyn,
+at last, and we can call the meeting to
+order!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Evelyn is wearing her old gown,”
+cried the girl with the classic profile, “I
+call that downright mean! I had thought
+I could get such a good chance to study the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+draping of it while she was on the platform.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps, that is why she didn’t wear
+it,” returned the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Mercy, is it me they are calling to order?
+Why, didn’t you tell me before; I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, girls,” the little woman on
+the platform was saying, “I don’t know
+that I ought to be president. It seems to
+me that we should have an election or
+something.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is not necessary,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “don’t you remember? I asked
+you to be president, in the first place. But
+if you’d rather, I’ll move that you are to
+be the chief officer, and Emily, here, will
+second the motion, won’t you Emily?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes of course,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“That does seem more regular,” said the
+little woman on the platform, in a relieved
+tone. “I wonder if I ought to make a
+speech of acceptance?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not unless you choose;” said the blue-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+girl, “harmony is the chief study of
+this club, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if it is to be a club for the study of
+harmony, I can’t join;” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “I don’t know a thing
+about music and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid you have not been paying
+attention,” said the blue-eyed girl, severely.
+“The club is organized for the advancement
+of woman and I don’t know a girl
+anywhere who would be more benefited by
+it than yourself. By the way, Evelyn, I suppose
+we ought to assess dues, or something.
+I know that Ja—I mean a man I know—is
+always talking about dues at his clubs.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, but this is to be entirely different
+from a man’s club,” said the president,
+“and, then, what is the use of assessing
+dues, anyhow?”</p>
+
+<p>“We might give the money to charity,”
+suggested the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, if we did that, why not let
+each of us give what she wants to charity
+and be done with it?” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, of course,” said the president;
+“dear me, I had no idea that it was so easy
+to organize a club, or I’d have done it long
+ago. It isn’t half as much trouble as giving
+a tea and you don’t run any risk of
+offending people by forgetting to invite
+them and then having to convince them
+that the card was lost in the mails.”</p>
+
+<p>“Talking of teas,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me,” said the president, gently,
+“but if this is a club for the advancement
+of woman, ought we to talk about
+teas?”</p>
+
+<p>“But you began it, yourself,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, “I only—”</p>
+
+<p>“I think I said merely that the club is
+ever so much nicer than a tea,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“And so it is,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“though, by the way, Nell’s last one was
+lovely—there were enough men present to
+amuse us, whereas—”</p>
+
+<p>“There are usually so few that they have
+to be amused, lest they get lonesome,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+broke in the brown-eyed blonde. “Oh,
+girls, have you heard that Clarissa—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oughtn’t we to be attending to business,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“instead of talking about Clarissa? I saw
+her myself only an hour ago and if there
+was anything exciting to tell, she would
+have—”</p>
+
+<p>“But this <i>has</i> a connection with the
+club,” insisted the brown-eyed blonde.
+“She wants to become a member!”</p>
+
+<p>“She just can’t be anything of the
+kind,” said the blue-eyed girl, “the idea!
+A girl whose reputation for intellectuality
+rests upon the careless combing of her hair
+and a habit of wearing hats six months behind
+the mode.”</p>
+
+<p>“But how can we get out of it, if she
+says she wants to join?” said the president,
+with an anxious air.</p>
+
+<p>“Tell her that one of the rules of the club
+is that no person over the age of twenty-two
+years can become a member,” suggested
+the girl with the dimple in her
+chin; “she celebrated her twenty-third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+birthday about a week ago, you remember.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it isn’t one of the rules,” objected
+the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, we can make it a rule, right
+now,” said the blue-eyed girl, calmly. “I
+know just how it would be if we let Clarissa
+into the club—she’d insist upon having
+everything her own way right along. I
+hate such selfishness myself, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“So do I,” said the president; “by the
+way, oughtn’t we to make a note of that
+rule, at once?”</p>
+
+<p>“What would be the use of that?” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “we
+have all heard it. Oh, girls, I already see
+the benefit we are to derive from the influence
+of this club! Not a single soul has
+said a word in regard to Clarissa’s pretentions
+to being only twenty-three!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, that’s true,” cried the president,
+“and very considerate of us it was, too,
+when we all know how ridiculous it is!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls, I must tell you something,”
+cried the girl with the eyeglasses. “I went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+with Clarissa to a reception given by her
+literary club the other evening and it was
+simply awful!”</p>
+
+<p>“Not a decent toilet in the room, of
+course,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I didn’t expect that—I knew it
+was a culture club. It seems that there
+had been an awful time over the programme.
+Some of the members wanted to
+have an Ibsen evening, while others declared
+for Browning. Finally, they decided
+upon a mixed programme, selections from
+them both, you know. I did not know
+that when I went.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose, “otherwise, you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would gladly have accepted the invitation—and
+been suddenly taken ill on the
+appointed day, of course. Well, when the
+papers and selections were being read, I
+studied my programme to keep my eyes
+from those appalling coiffures, and when I
+saw the word ‘Music’ on it, I felt like a
+person who has found an oasis in a desert!”</p>
+
+<p>“And had you?” queried the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+who had left the platform and joined the
+group about the narrator.</p>
+
+<p>“No. They played something from
+Wagner!”</p>
+
+<p>“And you?” said the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I was in a comatose condition by
+that time. Nothing mattered. After the
+interminable programme they served refreshments.”</p>
+
+<p>“You felt better then?” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“No, I didn’t. They had tea and wafers!
+Tea and wafers after Ibsen, Browning and
+Wagner! And then Clarissa vanished and
+I couldn’t get away. The people present
+were all very distinguished; one of the
+members had written an epic poem which
+would have appeared in Harper’s if it had
+not been lost in the mails; one of them had
+invented a rational dress for men and another
+had once been asked to deliver a
+lecture upon ‘Thought Transference’
+before a mothers’ meeting at an orphan
+asylum!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, no wonder you wanted
+to go home!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“I did—badly. By and by, while I was
+wandering about the rooms in search of
+Clarissa, I found a woman who looked as
+unhappy as I felt. I was afraid to speak
+to her, lest she be somebody very remarkable,
+but she asked me, timidly, if I was
+the lady who had actually worn a rainy day
+dress, in public. I assured her that I was
+not, and after that we got on famously.”</p>
+
+<p>“But who was she?” the president asked.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know her name, but after we
+had discussed Ibsen and Browning a little,
+I asked what she had done. She replied,
+modestly: ‘Oh, I am the person who always
+read the Woman’s page in the daily papers!’
+After that, we talked just like ordinary
+people, and I didn’t see Clarissa when
+she came to look for me!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, girls, we really ought not
+to laugh so,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “because this club is devoted to the
+advancement of woman, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“That is entirely different,” said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+president. “Did Ibsen, Browning or Wagner
+ever do anything for the advancement
+of woman, I’d like to know?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+promptly. “How very absurd!”</p>
+
+<p>“Besides, our club is laid out on entirely
+new lines,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, isn’t it?” returned the president;
+“Oh, girls, I quite forgot to tell you that
+we shall have to pay rent for this room if
+we hold our meetings here, and we haven’t
+made any provision for paying it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But what is the use of making provision,
+when it isn’t due yet?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er, that is very true,” said the
+president; “I only wish I was as good a
+business woman as you!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I often feel that I have a great
+deal to learn yet,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+modestly. “By the way, Evelyn, what did
+your husband say when you told him that
+you had decided to join a club?”</p>
+
+<p>“He said—Oh, girls, I’m almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+ashamed to tell you, but then Tom is
+only a man, after all. He said: ‘Then,
+may the Lord have mercy upon my
+wretched digestion!’”</p>
+
+<p>“As if women had nothing to do but
+cook and keep house! when lots of us
+know nothing about either of them,” said
+the girl with the classic profile, indignantly.
+“Girls, I wonder why it is that if a woman
+studies law or anything like that, somebody
+is sure to say that she is going outside of
+her sphere, while nobody thinks anything
+of the kind if a man becomes a chef or invents
+a food for infants?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if you expect logic from a man!”
+said the president, shrugging her shoulders;
+“however, I expected it, too, before I was
+married. I know better now.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear, isn’t the Advancement of
+Woman delightful?” cried the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “After this, when we want to
+know anything, we needn’t go to the
+trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or
+the encyclopædia; we can just discuss it at
+the club, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Why do you bother with those horrid
+books? I never do,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “They are so heavy
+and always dusty, too. Now, I just ask
+the nearest man what I want to know. If
+he happens to be wrong, I can always cite
+my authority and it gives the next man a
+double pleasure in setting me right.”</p>
+
+<p>“What a clever thing you are,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses; “you always make
+me think of what somebody said about er—Juliet,
+I think: ‘To know her is a liberal
+education.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, that is nothing. Why, I know a
+Vassar girl who has studied Greek and all
+that sort of thing and she invariably misspells
+several simple words whenever she
+writes to a man, so he may think himself so
+much cleverer than her and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And I know a girl who asks every man,
+the first time she meets him, to explain
+the Australian ballot system. You see,
+it is a thing they all have to know, so
+they—”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, I should think she would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+get awfully tired of the answer,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“She does. She told me not long ago
+that she really must invent a new stock
+question, for she could hardly keep from
+yawning now, while—”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of yawning,” broke in the
+brown-eyed blonde, “Teddy Crœsus
+doesn’t send Molly flowers or bonbons
+any more!”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see what that has to do with
+yawning,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>“More than you may think, dear. You
+know Molly always asks a man if a premonition
+of danger has ever been the means
+of saving his life. She doesn’t ask it the
+first time they meet, but saves it for some
+special occasion. Well, one evening at a
+reception, Teddy seemed disposed to talk
+to Florence too much, and Molly asked him
+the question then, because she knew—”</p>
+
+<p>“That he would stay with her as long as
+she allowed him to talk about himself! Yes,
+of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Well, he was in the midst of a
+long story about how he once escaped from
+being in a railroad wreck by missing his train.
+Molly was listening with breathless interest
+when she saw Florence stop within two
+feet of her. She couldn’t resist one
+glance of triumph and that glance was her
+ruin.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was? Did he look up just then and
+remember Flo—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. But just as Molly looked at
+her, she gave a mighty yawn. Well, you
+know, yawning is contagious and Molly had
+been at a ball the night before, so she
+yawned, too. Teddy’s eyes were on her
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And now Florence gets his violets and
+bonbons! Well, isn’t that a story without
+a moral?” cried the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“It certainly is,” groaned the president.
+“Well, girls, I fear we must adjourn,
+though it is hard to break up such an intellectual
+talk. For my part, I shall go back
+to the petty cares of life with renewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+energy after a breath of air from a higher
+plane.”</p>
+
+<p>“I, too,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “I feel now as if petty gossip and
+scandal could never interest me again.”</p>
+
+<p>The president and the blue-eyed girl had
+walked four blocks, when the former suddenly
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>“There, I knew I had forgotten something,”
+she cried; “at first, I thought it
+was only to order dinner, but now I remember
+that I did not suggest a topic for discussion
+at our next meeting!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, “nobody would
+have had time to prepare anything for it, if
+you had; there is so much going on in our
+set this week, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” replied the president, “and
+all the members are so much interested in
+intellectual topics, anyhow, that they are
+quite prepared to discuss them extemporaneously
+as we did to-day.”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter II<br />
+
+<small>The Club Discusses Woman in Politics</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Teacup club was called to order fifteen
+minutes before the appointed time at
+its second meeting. “We are all here,
+you know, and there is no use in waiting,”
+observed the president, as she rapped for
+order with a jeweled hatpin.</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, who had been reading up in
+parliamentary usage.</p>
+
+<p>“I am so glad to see you all here,” said
+the president, “I was afraid that Effie’s
+luncheon might—”</p>
+
+<p>“Keep some of us away? Not from this
+club,” said the girl with the classic profile.
+“I believe she chose the day just on purpose
+to break up the meeting, so I declined
+her invitation.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you?” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+nose, “I didn’t. Effie is not popular
+enough to offer her guests badly cooked
+food, so I went and excused myself as soon
+as we rose from the table on the plea that I
+should be late for the club if I remained
+longer.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wish I might have seen Effie when
+you said that,” remarked the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “However, your turn came
+when the door closed after you.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think not, dear,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose, calmly, “Effie is not
+yet distinctly engaged to my cousin
+Clarence, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“She has to be on decent terms with his
+family! I might have thought of that,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“If they had been married, now of course
+I shouldn’t have dared to do it, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not. Oh, girls, speaking
+of what happens after the door closes,
+makes me think of what happened to Effie
+herself once. It was just after the affair
+with Teddy Crœsus, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“The time she thought to make people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+believe she was engaged to him, and took
+him to dine with her grandmother—”</p>
+
+<p>“And her grandmother failed to understand
+the situation and congratulated them!
+Indeed, I do,” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose, “although, on account of
+being her dearest friend, I failed to hear
+it until two days after everybody else
+had.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, you know she went to a breakfast
+at Nell’s a few days after that,” went
+on the girl with the eyeglasses, “and left
+early. As she reached the corner, she remembered
+a message for Nell and went back
+to deliver it. She burst into the room unannounced
+and found all the girls talking at
+once.”</p>
+
+<p>“About her, of course! What did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Any other girl would have known
+that, but Effie said: ‘Oh, girls, do tell me
+all about it; what has happened?’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well?”</p>
+
+<p>“And it was so sudden that not one of
+them could think of a thing to say until she
+had flounced out in a rage!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“The moral is: Never go back after once
+saying good-by,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“by the way, Dorothy, why weren’t you
+at Effie’s to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“I fancy my invitation was lost in the
+mail,” replied the blue-eyed girl. “I shall
+mention it to Effie as soon as I see her, so
+she will not feel that I’ve slighted her intentionally.
+Why, Frances, dear, did those
+mean things let you sit all through luncheon
+with the end of your, ah—detachable hair
+showing and a dab of powder on your nose?
+How mean and envious some people are!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I think it is cooler over on the other
+side,” panted the brown-eyed blonde, “and
+besides I must see Emily a minute.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Dorothy, you must have just
+heard something awfully nice, you look so
+happy and smiling,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “but really this delightful
+club is making us all amiable.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, isn’t it?” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“I couldn’t be really mean to anybody
+now, if I tried.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Excuse me for interrupting you, girls,”
+said the president, “but I want to announce
+our topic for discussion, and if I don’t do
+it at once I may forget it. Suppose we
+choose “Woman as a Political Factor?”
+That is a broad enough field even for us,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“So it is,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Well, I know one thing—whenever
+a woman really knows what she wants
+in a political line, she gets it.”</p>
+
+<p>“She does—and has ever since Eve held
+that first caucus with the serpent in the
+garden,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose, who had been furtively consulting
+her book on parliamentary usage.
+“Oh, girls, have you heard that the man
+Nell expects to marry is a politician?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; but it seems a very suitable
+match,” said the president, “for I don’t
+know a girl anywhere who can shake hands
+as gracefully as she does.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Evelyn, how generous you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+are,” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
+believe you could find something nice to
+say about everybody.”</p>
+
+<p>“I really believe I could,” said the president,
+modestly, “and, after all, it is easy
+enough, for if you don’t like the subject of
+your remarks, you can always say it in such
+a tone that it does more harm than good.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are so just,” sighed the girl with
+the classic profile, “and yet, men always
+declare there is no real fellowship among
+women!”</p>
+
+<p>“They confuse their own wish with the
+true state of affairs,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “They know that one
+woman is often more than a match for the
+whole male sex and when a number of
+women band together they—”</p>
+
+<p>“Usually get more than they want,”
+said the president. “I often wonder,
+though, why it is always so much easier to
+convince other men that you are in the
+right than it is to persuade the men of your
+own family?”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps we put it in a more flattering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+way to strangers,” suggested the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “we just can’t
+help it, though, for we can’t always
+be—”</p>
+
+<p>“Looking up?” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Of course not—if we were
+our necks would grow so stiff that—”</p>
+
+<p>“We could never see our own boots; besides,
+we would be such frights that no man
+would look at us and so—”</p>
+
+<p>“It would do no good in the end,” finished
+the blue-eyed girl. “Still, I sometimes
+fancy, after all, that it might be well
+to be as nice to papa and the boys as I am
+to the men I dance with!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “we must be getting
+into metaphysics now! I’m not quite sure
+as to what metaphysics may be, so I always
+conclude that everything I don’t understand
+must—”</p>
+
+<p>“Be metaphysics? Do you? For my
+part, I always confuse metaphysics with
+hydraulics, though there is some difference
+between them I know,” said the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+blonde. “Let us ask Evelyn to explain
+them right now. She—”</p>
+
+<p>“Some other time, dear;” said the president,
+hastily. “You know we are discussing
+Woman in Politics to-day and—”</p>
+
+<p>“It would be unparliamentary to discuss
+anything else,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>The president looked at her gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>“What a logical mind you have, dear,”
+she said. “I only wish you could be with
+me sometimes when Tom comes home late
+from his club. I know that there are all
+sorts of flaws in the stories he tells me, but
+somehow I never find them until after he
+has given me money and I’ve kissed him
+and made up.”</p>
+
+<p>“What a pity,” sighed the girl with the
+Roman nose, “for if you found out the real
+flimsiness of his stories sooner, you could
+get more money.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear, so I could,” wailed the president,
+“it is an awful thing to have a husband
+and not a logical mind!”</p>
+
+<p>“So it is,” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+nose, “but, Evelyn, don’t tell anybody
+your opinion of me, for if you do, it may
+end in my having a logical mind and no
+husband, which is worse!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, isn’t this beautiful!” cried the girl
+with the eyeglasses, suddenly. “Really,
+girls, I am so stupid—that is not stupid as
+compared to a man, of course, but to the
+rest of you—that I wonder you allow me
+to belong to the club!” and there were
+tears in her eyes as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>The president came down from the platform
+and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>“Stupid! the idea of a girl with such a
+genius for hairdressing being stupid,” she
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>“And that girl a chafing-dish cook whose
+Welsh rarebits are sometimes successful,
+too!” cried the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! speaking of chafing-dish cookery,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“You know that Annie used to be engaged
+to Eustace, don’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But what has that to do with
+chafing-dish cookery?” said the girl with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+the Roman nose. “Girls, I have the loveliest
+recipe for making—”</p>
+
+<p>“It has a great deal to do with it.
+When he married Claire, Annie just smiled
+and selected a chafing-dish as a wedding
+present. She knew that Eustace was a
+confirmed dyspeptic and that Claire’s hands
+are so pretty that she could not possibly
+resist an opportunity to display them, so
+she would cook all sorts of dishes and—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, I hear that they have
+agreed to separate,” said the president. “I
+met Claire on the way to the manicure the
+other day. I wonder where Eustace is?”</p>
+
+<p>“He is in a sanitarium,” replied the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, “the doctor
+thinks he will have to be taken into court
+on a stretcher when the divorce proceedings
+come up!”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet you told me the other day that
+Annie had no originality; I’ve learned this
+since then,” whispered the girl with the
+dimple in her chin to the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I only meant in the matter of gowns,
+dear,” was the apologetic reply. “By the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+way, Frances seems not quite herself, to-day.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve noticed that. I fancied you might
+have said something to her which—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, never; why, I consider Frances
+one of my dearest friends—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know that, dear. But what is the
+use of a friend, if you can’t be disagreeable
+to her sometimes?”</p>
+
+<p>“True. I sometimes think it is one reason
+that married women keep their friends
+longer. They have husbands to—”</p>
+
+<p>“Act as lightning rods and carry off their
+displeasure! Yes; it must really be quite
+a convenience.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very likely. Don’t you feel, after all,
+that Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“Jack? Oh, I suppose you mean Mr.
+Bittersweet! No, I don’t feel any such
+thing, Emily Marshmallow, and you are no
+friend of mine if you champion him after
+the way he has behaved to me!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I was only going to mention that he
+had resigned from that new club. He told
+me so himself.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he has, has he? Well, isn’t that
+just like a man? And after he had paid all
+his dues for a year in advance, too, and
+gotten nothing out of it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he—he did it hoping to please
+you, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“His actions are perfectly indifferent to
+me, I assure you. Besides, if I made up
+with him to-morrow, Frances would always
+think I was jealous. I jealous of her—the
+idea! And, oh, Emily, the way he—he
+flirts with that girl is enough to b—break
+my heart!”</p>
+
+<p>“If you two girls have anything interesting
+to say, I wish you would say it
+aloud,” broke in the president. “Of course
+I am not curious, but some of the others
+may—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing at all interesting,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, promptly; “I—I was just
+telling Emily that this club seems the one
+thing needed to fill my cup of happiness to
+overflowing!”</p>
+
+<p>“And mine!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “By the way, isn’t it too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+provoking that curls are coming in again,
+just as veils are going out!”</p>
+
+<p>“And just at the windiest season of the
+year, too,” wailed the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Really, I often think that the fashions are
+invented by men—they are so contrary!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me,” said the president, “I did
+not quite catch what you were saying, because
+Emily and Marion were both talking
+at the same time. It seems to me that
+since I have been married, I can’t follow
+even two conversations simultaneously, as
+I used.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of that,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “who do you tell your
+secrets to now that you are married?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I’ve hit on a splendid plan,”
+cried the president, “when I feel that I
+must just tell a secret or die—and I often
+feel that way—I wait until Tom is asleep
+and repeat the whole story in his ear. It
+relieves my mind and does no harm.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be too sure of that,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “My sister
+Helen doesn’t agree with you at all. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+mentioned it to her the other day and she
+thought it clever, and resolved to emulate
+your wisdom, so she tried it on her husband,
+and he wasn’t asleep, only pretending.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I always test my husband with a
+question or two, first,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“So did Helen. She asked him if he
+could fail to see how much she needed a
+new bonnet and wanted to know how much
+his share of the alumni banquet amounted
+to. He only snored in reply, and of course
+she thought she was safe and repeated the
+secret.”</p>
+
+<p>“With the result?” queried the blue-eyed
+girl, who was listening, breathless.</p>
+
+<p>“That it was all over his club the next
+day,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “It would not have made any difference,”
+she added, soberly, “only the secret
+was a rather clever trick I had played on
+Dick a few days before—and he belongs to
+the same club!”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet they say a man can keep a
+secret!” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Who says so?” queried the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Other men? Oh! I
+didn’t know but that you had heard some
+woman say so.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not unless a man was listening, dear,
+and that man a person whom—”</p>
+
+<p>“She wished to flatter immensely!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Or who happened to know some
+of her own secrets! Girls, I’ve been wondering
+what on earth Annie sees in that
+horrid Fred Van Stupid? Now, I can understand
+the interest a girl takes in a brainless
+man who has a great deal of money,
+because then—”</p>
+
+<p>“He is exposed to so many temptations
+and her influence is sure to do him good,”
+finished the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “for my part, I always let Ned Goldie
+come to see me oftener than usual during
+Lent. I feel that I am really doing some
+good and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Violets are an absolute necessity then
+and they are so dear that very few men can
+afford to present them in quantities.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, of course I let him bring me flowers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+if he wants to—it is so much better for
+him to spend his money in that way than
+to lose it at poker, that I feel quite a missionary.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; I don’t know about that, dear,
+though it’s very lovely of you to feel so,”
+sighed the president, “the fact is, that you
+are actually encroaching on what is really
+my violet money. Ned will play poker
+with my husband at the club at other seasons
+of the year, when he is not allowed to
+see much of you. He always loses and I
+make Tom divide his winnings with me,
+so—”</p>
+
+<p>There was a look of high resolve upon the
+face of the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“After this, I shall make him bring me
+twice as many, so I can divide with you,”
+she said, sweetly. “Oh, no, don’t thank
+me; I do so love to feel that I am doing
+some good in the world and I do so disapprove
+of games of chance!”</p>
+
+<p>“You haven’t made up your mind as to
+whether you will accept him or not, have
+you?” queried the brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Not yet, dear. His chances and Dick’s
+are about even, at present. Of course he
+doesn’t know that, though; I couldn’t
+exert such a good influence over him, if he
+was sure one way or the other.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” sighed the president. “Oh,
+girls, I don’t know why men are so much
+more willing to be influenced for good before
+they are married than after. You may
+be sure of one thing though, Emily; he
+will say horrid things about you, if you
+finally do refuse him.”</p>
+
+<p>“No doubt,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “but when one tries to do
+good in this world, one can not begin to
+count the cost.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Emily Marshmallow, what an angel
+you are!” cried the blue-eyed girl, kissing
+her. “You are always so busy doing good
+to others, that you never seem to give yourself
+a thought!”</p>
+
+<p>The brown-eyed blonde had by this time
+quite recovered her equanimity and was
+chatting, in low tones, with the girl who
+wore the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Poor, dear Dorothy is looking rather ill,
+isn’t she?” she remarked, after a while.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I hadn’t noticed it before, but
+now that you speak of it, she does. However,
+she can’t expect to look young
+always. By the way, I hear that she has
+quarreled with Jack Bittersweet again.”</p>
+
+<p>“Has she seen him lately? I didn’t
+know that she had,” returned the brown-eyed
+blonde, smiling affectionately into the
+mirror.</p>
+
+<p>“Your hair is looking lovely to-day,” returned
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “Look
+here, Frances, do, like a dear, tell me all
+about the quarrel. You know all about it,
+of course, and I’ll not tell a soul. You
+know how well I can keep a secret and, besides,
+you owe it to me, for you wouldn’t
+have known a thing about Fred and Clarissa
+but for me!”</p>
+
+<p>“But I hadn’t a thing to do about the
+quarrel, oh, really now I hadn’t. Of
+course, people think it was all on my account
+but—why, I was in Omaha when I
+heard of it.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“By the way you came back from Omaha
+earlier than you expected, didn’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—no; that is only a week earlier.
+How well Jack looks, doesn’t he? And
+what a flow of spirits he has.”</p>
+
+<p>“Is it possible? Now, Effie says that he
+is as cross as a bear. But, then, Effie is
+his sister, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“What she says is of no consequence.
+Well, since you know so much already, I
+may as well tell you the rest. I fear that
+it is Dorothy’s insane jealousy of me which
+made the trouble. Of course I have not a
+spark of vanity, but I can’t help seeing—”</p>
+
+<p>“But I heard that the quarrel was over
+Jack’s membership in a new club.”</p>
+
+<p>“That might have been, dear, but people
+that are engaged don’t always quarrel over
+the real bone of contention. Of course, I
+only hope I really had nothing to do with
+it; I have so many such things on my conscience
+already that I don’t want any
+more,” and she sighed softly.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but tell me about the quarrel, do.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well—er—the fact is that Jack hasn’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+said a word to me about it, which makes me
+quite sure that I am the cause of it, unwilling
+as I am to think it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, you really don’t know any of
+the facts?” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Excuse me now, dear, I see Emily
+beckoning me; she wants to ask me about a
+new seamstress I’ve discovered. Frances
+doesn’t know a bit more than we do,” she
+whispered to the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “Jack hasn’t told her a thing, so
+he evidently still cares for Dorothy, and
+she—”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s just it,” wailed the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “I’d have succeeded in
+making it up long ago, if they didn’t care
+quite so much!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear,” said the president, “I am
+afraid that I am awfully stupid to-day, but
+the fact is that—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, I heard that you slept at a
+hotel last night, Evelyn,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose, “how on earth did that
+happen?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was all Tom’s fault,” returned the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+president, in an aggrieved tone, “only he,
+being a man, will not admit the fact. You
+see, he didn’t want to go to the reception
+at all, so he—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, Nell said she met him in the street
+and gave him a verbal invitation, which he
+accepted with effusion.”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, if Nell knew my husband as well
+as I do, she’d be aware that the more
+affably he accepts an invitation, the more
+determined he is to escape by some plausible
+excuse at the last moment. He says
+that people always accept your regrets as
+genuine under such circumstances.”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you for telling me that,” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “My great aunt
+gives whist parties sometimes and, as she
+has a lot of lovely old lace and china and
+nobody in particular to leave it to, I don’t
+like to hurt her feelings by refusing her invitations
+outright. On the other hand, if I
+accept and happen to be placed at the table
+with her, I know I shall not receive so much
+as a cracked saucer in her will!”</p>
+
+<p>“But you and Tom did go to the reception,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+I know, for I saw you there,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, “how did you
+manage it?”</p>
+
+<p>“To make him go? Oh, that was easy
+enough. I merely said that he wasn’t very
+well and as I did not like to go out and
+leave him alone, I would ask mamma to
+come and stay with him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, then he agreed to go, did he?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear—said he had meant to go all
+along. But after that everything went
+wrong: his razor refused to do its work and
+he actually pretended that it was all because
+I had sharpened a lead pencil with it
+the other day, as if that could have—”</p>
+
+<p>“But why did you tell him that you had
+sharpened your pencil with it?” asked the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Because I cut my finger on the old
+thing and thoughtfully warned him that it
+was too sharp. Then, I—well my own
+wardrobe was full and I had hung up a few
+things in his, and the skirt of my new tailor-made
+gown was hanging over his dress coat.
+He pretended that it was all wrinkled and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+creased by that. Then, I had borrowed his
+box of neckties and neglected to return
+them, and he made such a fuss over my forgetfulness
+that I determined to give him a
+lesson. I saw him lay his latch key on the
+chiffonier ready to put in his other pocket
+and I didn’t say a word when he turned
+out the gas and went off without it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But how did you expect to get into the
+house when you returned?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I slipped back into the room in the
+dark after he had gone down, and put it in
+my own pocket.”</p>
+
+<p>“As an object lesson in remembering.
+Good, I’m glad you did it,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. I told the maid not to sit up
+for us, and I saw for myself that every door
+and window was fastened tight—for once
+Tom climbed in at the pantry window when
+he had forgotten his key and didn’t want
+me to know how late he stayed at the
+club.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he complained next day because
+the window was open, too,” murmured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+“men are so illogical!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no, dear; but he would have
+done so, only the clock happened to strike
+three as he came upstairs, and I counted the
+strokes aloud. Well Tom was cross at being
+kept waiting, but my gown fits so well
+that I felt at peace with all mankind.”</p>
+
+<p>“Even your own husband!” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “It must indeed fit well.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And I enjoyed the evening immensely,
+for I knew I had such a good joke
+on Tom when we got home.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and what happened then?” asked
+the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it was great fun. He searched in
+all his pockets twice, rang the bell until he
+was tired, though the maids asleep in the
+third story might as well have been in
+Greenland for all the good that did. Then,
+he tried to force each door and window before
+he came back to the carriage to tell me
+that we were locked out!”</p>
+
+<p>“And then you—”</p>
+
+<p>“I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me before,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+dear? Luckily, there is one of us who
+remembers things.’ If you could only have
+seen his face as he took the key I gave
+him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then why on earth did you sleep at the
+hotel?” queried the girl with the Roman
+nose, in a bewildered tone.</p>
+
+<p>“I—well, the fact is that I—in the dark,
+I had mistaken the key to his desk for the
+latch-key! And, oh, girls, if you had seen
+me driving home from the hotel at ten
+o’clock in the morning, in the gown I had
+worn at the reception!”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor, dear thing!” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, “no wonder you chose ‘Woman
+in Politics’ for to-day’s discussion! If men
+are such tyrants as that, our only refuge
+will be equality in suffrage and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Latchkeys,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“though to be sure, we’d need
+pockets to keep them in, if we carried
+them. Sometimes, I suspect that the
+dressmakers are in league with the men to
+keep us from gaining our rights,” she
+added.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps they are,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, with a startled air, “the men pay the
+bills and so the dressmakers may be in
+league with them!”</p>
+
+<p>“You forget one thing, dear,” said the
+president, with a superior air. “It is the
+women who make the bills. You never
+heard of a man who ordered a dress for his
+wife did you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope not,” replied the girl with the
+Roman nose, “at least, if she was obliged
+to wear it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, dears,” said the president, “we
+really must adjourn, it is awfully late, but
+of course such a serious discussion could
+not be hurried. I think I must go and
+have a cup of bouillon to refresh me after
+making such serious demands upon the gray
+matter of my brain.”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter III<br />
+
+<small>Man’s Real Attitude Toward the
+Progress of Woman</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Teacup club came to order with
+more than its usual reluctance at its next
+meeting and the president looked severe.
+“I wish you girls would stop talking about
+Helena and her affairs,” she said. “I detest
+gossip, and, besides, I want to hear all
+about her, too, and we can talk better after
+the meeting is over. The topic for to-day’s
+discussion will be, ‘Man’s Real Attitude
+Toward the Progress of Woman.’”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m glad to hear it,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “Men are such queer
+creatures that by the time a girl gets to
+understand them really she is too old to
+attract their attention. Now, if we all put
+our heads together—”</p>
+
+<p>“We may attain wisdom without its accompanying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+wrinkles,” broke in the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “that is a
+good idea, for—”</p>
+
+<p>“It is no real gain to know how to make
+them bring the proper kind of flowers and
+confectionery, if you have to spend the
+money thus saved on the beauty doctor;
+yes, that is true,” sighed the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Widowers, or men who have been engaged
+several times, are often nice,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “I like to do my own
+training, if it is troublesome. You can’t
+persuade a widower that his late wife was
+not a type of all womanhood, and that is
+horrid, especially if she happens to have
+had a taste for domestic magazines and
+molasses candy! That is why a widower is so
+much less attractive than a widow; she—”</p>
+
+<p>“Has learned that men, save for a few
+leading traits, are all different,” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “Yes, matrimony
+always widens a woman’s views of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+opposite sex, while it narrows those of a
+man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose; “I do wish men would not do one
+thing and say another. Now, they are
+always praising domesticity in women, as
+well as shrinking modesty, and yet—”</p>
+
+<p>“They always overlook the domestic
+kind of a girl when she does venture among
+people,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I know it, and as for shyness and modesty,
+it is only the girl who is bold enough to call
+attention to those qualities in herself who
+receives a social reward for them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well,” said the president, “a man
+with a couple of sisters learns a great deal
+about the sex.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I don’t know why it is, but the
+more sisters a man has, the slower he is to
+enter into matrimony.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve noticed that myself,” said the girl
+with the classic profile; “while girls who
+have plenty of brothers usually marry before
+they are twenty.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw! That is because the friends of
+their brothers get a chance to see them sew
+on buttons and make caramels,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No, it isn’t,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “it is because such a girl has
+more than one person to oppose the man
+who wants to marry her. But talk about
+masculine inconsistency! It sets me wild
+to hear men talk about domesticity and
+modesty and all that, and then hang about
+Kate, a girl who doesn’t know a frying pan
+from a—a camera, and who had as lief ask
+for a thing she wants as to hint for it—so
+unfeminine!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know it,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Why, she never has to buy a
+flower, and as for candy, she has so much
+that she actually shares it with the other
+girls! I go to see her more frequently in
+Lent, because my conscience will not allow
+me to buy any then, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And Kate has been engaged six times;
+she told me so herself,” said the girl with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+the eyeglasses. “I declare, it is enough to
+make a girl—”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m!” said the president. “Don’t
+forget, my dears, that while she has been
+engaged six times, she has not been married
+once!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er—that is true,” cried the blue-eyed
+girl. “You dear, delightful, clever
+thing! I am so glad that I just made you
+be our president.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, of course I like it dear; still,
+as somebody once said, I’d rather be right
+than president.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear!” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But, oh, girls, Tom says that all
+the men in our set are talking about this
+club. He says that Jack Bittersweet asked
+him confidentially the other day if being
+intellectual made a woman less loveable.
+Luckily, I had just agreed to let him have
+a masculine dinner party and he assured
+Jack that it did not.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl arose softly from her
+seat and going over to where the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+blonde was sitting, kissed her. “You
+dear thing,” she said. “Come over any
+day you like and you shall see the
+new sleeve design I got from Paris yesterday.”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin exchanged
+glances with the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“What time in the year do you prefer
+for a wedding?” asked the latter, apropos
+of nothing.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, speaking of weddings, that reminds
+me,” said the girl with the Roman nose.
+“I’d have prepared a paper on to-day’s
+topic, as you suggested, Evelyn, but Elizabeth
+asked me to help select her wedding
+dress and—well, you know, Elizabeth.
+It has taken her two days already and I
+don’t see any prospect yet of her making
+up her mind.”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet she required only five minutes
+in which to decide to accept Fred, when
+he asked her to marry him,” said the president,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“I know, dear, but then in this matter of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+selecting her dress, she had a choice,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“And I’m sure that Elizabeth’s father is
+delighted to buy her a wedding dress,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “Oh, Emily,
+pardon me—I quite forgot that Elizabeth is
+your cousin!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, dear, though I rather like
+her, in spite of the relationship. Oh, girls,
+you have no idea of what an effect this club
+is having upon me. Why, I’ve turned my
+den into a library, cut all the leaves of my
+Carlisle and coaxed papa to buy me a handsome
+writing desk and do up the walls in
+forest greens because pink and blue seemed
+so frivolous. Now, I can sit in that room
+and write papers for the club in real comfort.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t know how pleased I am to
+hear it,” cried the president, warmly. “It
+is quite worth all the labor of selecting
+topics and leading the discussion, I assure
+you. Why, Marion, how late you are!
+Don’t you know that the really advanced
+woman is even ahead of the clock?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I do,” panted the girl with the
+classic profile, “but, really, I’ve had the
+most awful time getting here at all! You
+know I’m always in trouble, but really this
+is the worst that—I’ll never go anywhere
+with Nell again, unless it’s to my own
+funeral, and I can’t help myself, then.”</p>
+
+<p>“What on earth has Nell done now?”
+queried the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “don’t you know that you must not
+expect absolute sanity from an engaged
+girl? You said you were going with her to
+the south side to call upon some of the
+relatives of her affianced. Did she take
+you over there, and then discover that she
+didn’t know their exact address? Or
+did—”</p>
+
+<p>“The address was not forgotten. We
+hadn’t meant to do any shopping to-day,
+but we stopped in to buy some thread, and
+really the new silks were so cheap that—”</p>
+
+<p>“You arrived an hour late, and penniless!
+I know,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“N—ot quite. I had ten cents left when
+we started for home, and we had to take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+two lines of cars. Nell and I couldn’t get
+seats together—in fact, we were at opposite
+ends of the car. However, I paid her fare
+and signaled the fact to her, receiving a nod
+in reply.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well?” said the president, “didn’t she
+want to pay your fare on the other line?”</p>
+
+<p>“She—well, the fact is that she had misunderstood
+the signal, and paid our fare
+again with her own last dime. And there
+we were three miles from home, without a
+penny in our pockets—and the street car
+company had a dime it hadn’t earned.
+But then Nell never had a grain of sense—I
+should think by this time she knew that
+herself.”</p>
+
+<p>“If she doesn’t, I’m sure you are not to
+blame, dear,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “However, for my part, I shall not
+blame you, even if you are as cross as a man
+who is wearing a frayed collar, for the rest
+of the afternoon.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, don’t let us interrupt the proceedings,”
+said the girl with the classic profile,
+“just tell me what to-day’s topic is, and I—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it is a perfectly delightful one!”
+said the blue-eyed girl. “Man’s real attitude
+toward the Progress of Woman,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“His real attitude is that of flight,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose, “he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be flippant, dear, whatever you
+are,” said the president, gravely, “we have
+enough of that to endure from our masculine
+acquaintances. It seems to me that a
+man laughs at whatever he fails to understand,
+and then feels that he has replied to
+the argument.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps that is the reason that men
+laugh at so many jokes in which I can see
+nothing funny,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“No doubt of it,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “but, girls, never attempt to imitate
+them. I did once, and Annie—you
+know how obtuse she is—kept asking loudly
+what I was laughing at, and I couldn’t tell
+her. When a man had just made the remark
+that he was glad to find a girl with a
+keen sense of the ridiculous, too!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Just like Annie,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “I sometimes wonder whether she is
+really obtuse or only malicious. You know
+how devoted Tommy Bonds is to music,
+don’t you? Well, Annie and I once accompanied
+him to a Thomas concert, and I
+wanted to make myself agreeable—”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope you didn’t do it by conversing
+while the orchestra was playing,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not, goosie. But I remembered
+that he always says a woman should
+be two things—sincere and fond of music.
+The soloist was a pianist, I can’t remember
+his name, but his hair was not at all remarkable.
+When he played an encore, Tommy
+leaned over to me, and said: ‘Isn’t it
+charming?’ and I replied, ‘Yes, I like it
+better every time I hear it; in fact, I often
+ask people to play it for me.’ I wish now
+that I hadn’t said that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why so?” asked the president, “it
+seems to me just the right thing to say.”</p>
+
+<p>“But Annie leaned over asking, loudly,
+‘What is the name of it?’ and, to my horror,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+Mr. Bonds said he didn’t know, and it
+was all so sudden that, to save my life, I
+couldn’t make up a name! In the silence
+which followed, some one in front of us was
+heard remarking that the encore was a composition
+by the pianist himself, and now
+played for the first time in public!”</p>
+
+<p>“And it was all Annie’s fault, too,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “By
+the way, did I ever tell you how it happened
+that Mr. Bonds gave up calling me a
+delightful conversationalist? No? Well,
+you see, he lived almost opposite to us,
+and he practiced on the ’cello until papa,
+who is very fond of De Quincey, said he no
+longer dared to read “Murder considered as
+one of the Fine Arts.” Suddenly he
+stopped practicing, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy on us, had anything happened
+to him?” gasped the president, turning
+pale.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing ever happens to people who
+deserve it. As it happened, however, we
+were no better off, for some one, a new
+resident of the street, we supposed, began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+to practice on the violin seven hours a
+day!”</p>
+
+<p>“It may not have been a newcomer,”
+observed the girl with the eyeglasses. “It
+is a fact that one vigorous soprano is enough
+to demoralize a whole neighborhood, and I
+suppose—”</p>
+
+<p>“The ’cello is quite as bad? Possibly so,
+at any rate rents went down in the neighborhood
+and placards went up. One day I
+happened to meet Mr. Bonds, and as long
+as my father was not within hearing distance,
+I said: ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you
+have given up your delightful ’cello.’ If
+you could have seen the rapture on his
+face.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’d rather have seen his face than that
+of your guardian angel,” remarked the girl
+with the classic profile; “but go on; don’t
+stop.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wish I had stopped then, but I didn’t.
+I said, ‘By the way, who is it that scrapes
+the violin all day long? I never heard
+anything so awful in my life!’ Oh, girls,
+I—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But I don’t see anything wrong in
+that,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“He did. You see, he had given up the
+’cello and taken to the violin with the idea
+of astonishing the world with his genius!”</p>
+
+<p>“And you live to tell it,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“M—yes—you see, everything has its
+compensation. When papa heard what I
+had done, he gave me a hundred dollars and
+his blessing.”</p>
+
+<p>“What luck some people have,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, “while others—oh,
+girls, I know something perfectly lovely,
+but I don’t know whether I ought to tell
+it to you or not. My conscience—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Frances,” said the president, “I
+shall be awfully hurt if you don’t tell us
+now. When a girl speaks of her conscience
+in that way, it simply means that she distrusts
+her audience. You might know by
+this time, that we never tell anything which
+transpires at a meeting of this club.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “Why, Dick teased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+me vainly a whole evening to find out the
+line of argument advanced in favor of equal
+suffrage when we discussed ‘Woman in
+Politics’ the other day. The janitor must
+have told him the topic under discussion,”
+she added hastily.</p>
+
+<p>“Very likely,” said the president.
+“What was that you wished to tell us,
+Frances, dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was something that happened to
+Nell,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Her
+fiancé had told her a great deal of his
+friend, Mr. Thynker, of Boston, who is to
+be his best man, and whom she had never
+seen. He appeared suddenly at Mr. Dickenharry’s
+office the other day, just as the latter
+was starting for Milwaukee, and there was
+barely time for him to make arrangements
+with Mr. Thynker to call on Nell the following
+afternoon. As it happened, he knew
+the Vansmiths, and was asked to the
+luncheon they gave that day, and seated
+immediately opposite to Nell. Of course
+he didn’t catch her name when they were
+introduced, and there was no chance for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+explanations. Oh, girls, I wonder if I
+really ought to finish this?”</p>
+
+<p>“If you don’t, I shall ask Nell why you
+didn’t,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, during a lull in the conversation,
+he leaned forward and, in loud, clear tones,
+asked Nell what kind of a girl his friend
+Tom Dickenharry had got himself engaged
+to <i>this</i> time!”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm,” said the president, after the
+laughter had subsided a little, “that settles
+one matter in advance, anyhow. It is easy
+to know upon whose side the victory will
+rest when they have their first quarrel after
+marriage.”</p>
+
+<p>“There is one question I would like to
+ask the members of this club,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses, “and it is one which
+nearly disrupted our little Shakespeare club:
+If you really want to please a man—any
+man—what is the best way to go about
+it?”</p>
+
+<p>“That is really such a simple question
+that there is only one answer possible,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And that is—”</p>
+
+<p>“Be born rich.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, suppose you have neglected that
+qualification,” persisted the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Learn to cook; but never let him taste
+the result of your cookery,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes—or wear his college colors,” said
+the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Let him do all the talking,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Praise the shape of his head—no matter
+what it may be,” said the president. “I
+wouldn’t tell anybody that,” she added,
+reflectively, “only that two fortune tellers
+and a palmist have assured me that my husband
+will outlive me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Bonds has a very well-shaped
+head,” observed the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“a little long perhaps, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“The rotundity of his pocketbook over-balances
+that,” broke in the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Clarissa says he is generous, too—a rare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+quality in a really wealthy man,” said the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“M—I don’t know about his generosity,”
+said the president. “A marriage
+license is about as inexpensive a thing as a
+man can buy, and yet he has displayed no
+desire to invest in one.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw, that makes no difference,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “lots of
+girls nowadays don’t intend to marry, anyhow,
+so—”</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder why they never think to mention
+the fact publicly until after they are
+thirty,” mused the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “oh, girls, shouldn’t you like
+really to do something wonderful?”</p>
+
+<p>“I once wore a pair of common-sense
+shoes a whole month,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, modestly.</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; who was the Englishman?”
+asked the brown-eyed blonde, “the one
+with whom you used to walk at that time,
+I mean,” she added, pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>“It was the spring that Mr. Penny-Lesse
+was here, but I don’t see what that had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+do with it,” said the blue-eyed girl, with
+great dignity.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing at all of course,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, “I only—”</p>
+
+<p>“You did not meet him, I believe; he
+was very particular about the people to
+whom he was introduced,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, sweetly. “I did
+rather an unusual thing myself once—I had
+five dollars in my pocketbook when my
+allowance came due!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but you had left the pocketbook
+at my house ten days before, and thought it
+was lost,” said the girl with the classic profile,
+“don’t you remember, I only brought
+it over after the shops were closed the evening
+before?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, “I’ve
+recently met a woman who has traveled all
+through Asia, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose she did it in bloomers and
+one of those horrid, unbecoming, stiff caps,
+too,” broke in the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Well, all I’ve got to say is that a woman
+who has the courage to make such a guy of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+herself, is brave enough to face all the
+tigers and mountain lions, and—er—boa
+constrictors in Asia.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t believe there are any boa constrictors
+and mountain lions in Asia,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose. “As for
+tigers—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, how literal you are!” pettishly
+replied the brown-eyed blonde. “Well,
+buffalos then; how will that suit you?
+I’m equally afraid of all of them, myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “Marion and I have just
+had such fun. We have been telling each
+other the most awful things that ever happened
+to us in our lives.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps that is what made you late,
+too,” remarked the president, in a severe
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>“N-not exactly. You see, I knew there
+was something wrong about my watch, and
+I could not remember whether it was thirteen
+minutes fast or thirteen minutes slow,
+so—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But do tell us what was the most awful
+thing that ever happened to you, Evelyn,”
+cried the girl with the classic profile. “The
+very worst thing that ever befell me was connected
+with a timepiece. It was last summer,
+and a man who—who had been very
+nice to me was going away early the next
+morning. Men were scarce at the seashore,
+as you know, and when a lot of the
+girls saw us sitting on the porch they came
+over and spent the evening with us. We
+just could not get a chance for a word
+alone.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know—I know,” groaned the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Well, his train was to go at 5:16
+<small>A.M.</small>, and he asked me in the most meaning
+tone if I cared sufficiently to hear something
+he had to say to get up early enough to see
+him off. I—I said I did.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well?” said the girl with the Roman
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I set my watch by the hall clock in
+order to be sure of getting up in time; then
+I lay awake nearly all night so I would not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+oversleep myself. When I reached the station
+it was five minutes past six.”</p>
+
+<p>“Watch stopped?” asked the girl with
+the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“No; Harry had run down to spend that
+evening with Kate, and she had set the
+clock back. The man was married in October
+to one of the girls who had risen in time
+to see him off.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the president. “Speaking
+of awful things—you all know how afraid
+I am of fire.”</p>
+
+<p>“We do,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “I believe you could smell a burning
+match a block away.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, the other day our fire insurance
+ran out, and Tom handed me the money
+and asked me to go down and renew it, as
+he was very busy. I forgot all about it
+until night; then I lay awake sniffing smoke
+until Tom thought I had influenza again.
+Next morning I got ready to go and attend
+to it at once. I wanted to look nice, too,
+because one of the men in that office once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+told Tom that he had an awfully pretty
+wife.”</p>
+
+<p>“How much money did he borrow from
+Tom that time?” asked the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“I was curling my hair,” went on the
+president, unheeding, “when I smelled fire.
+I ran wildly all through the house, with a
+curl still wrapped about the iron, trying to
+locate it!”</p>
+
+<p>“And did you find any?” asked the
+brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; my own hair was burning,” said
+the president, with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>“How awful!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“That reminds me of what once
+happened to me. It was when I was wearing
+a single curl in the middle of my forehead.
+One day Frank was there, and he—he
+would twist it over his finger and quote
+poetry about it until he took all the curl
+out of it. Of course I discovered that I
+had no handkerchief and went up to get
+one.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see anything so awful in that,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear; but while I was curling it I
+dropped the hot iron down my back, and
+dared not even scream lest he find out what
+I was doing.”</p>
+
+<p>“The worst thing that ever happened to
+me,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “was in connection with Lewis. As
+soon as it was settled, I went to tell Emmeline,
+so she would give up trying to get
+him. I said I was his first love, and she
+couldn’t imagine how jealous he was. ‘Oh,
+yes, dear, I can,’ said she; ‘he was always
+so when he was engaged to me!’”</p>
+
+<p>“I wondered why you broke with him,”
+said the president. “Well, we must adjourn
+now, and I must say that I have
+never heard a subject more logically discussed
+than the one to-day!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter IV<br />
+
+<small>Concerning the Heroine of To-day</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Are you ready to go to the meeting of
+the club?” asked the blue-eyed girl, as she
+bounced into the room. “Why, Dorothy,
+dear, what is the matter? has your father
+gotten himself a new bicycle instead of one
+for you, or—”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl sat up on the couch.
+“I don’t care if I never ride a bicycle again
+as long as I live,” she replied, deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin
+turned pale. “I knew it was something
+awful when I saw you crying with the
+blinds all rolled up; but I hardly thought it
+was so bad as that. You—you haven’t
+any fever or queer feelings in your head,
+have you?”</p>
+
+<p>“If I had, it would not make any difference,”
+she sobbed. “I—oh, I’ll get even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+with Effie Bittersweet if it ruins my complexion
+and takes me all the rest of my natural
+life to do it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oho, it’s Effie, is it? Well, you’ll
+have plenty of chances to get even with
+her, once you are her sister-in-law!”</p>
+
+<p>“I wouldn’t marry Jack now, to—to
+spite Effie, and I—I doubt if I shall have
+the chance, anyhow. And as for Frances,
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, dear; I know she has behaved
+abominably, but she is punished
+already. Her aunt has brought her a new
+hat from Paris, and it is geranium pink—fancy
+Frances in geranium, can you? She
+promised it to Frances when she went
+abroad last fall, and Frances has been talking
+about it ever since. She will have to
+wear it, too, because her aunt is to make
+them a long visit, and she is too wealthy
+to have her feelings hurt.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl shook her head, sadly.
+“It is very kind of you to try to cheer me,”
+she said, “but I am beyond rejoicing. I
+only hope it is a very deep geranium pink,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+that’s all. Oh, Emily, what a desert waste
+this life is! No, don’t put another cushion
+back of me—I want to be just as uncomfortable
+as possible. You know Effie was
+here this morning, don’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose so—I noticed that you have
+two portraits of Edwin on the table.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Well, she asked me to go shopping
+with her, and I must say I was
+pleased, because she hasn’t been here since—since—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not since you quar—pardon me, I
+mean since her brother quarreled with
+you.”</p>
+
+<p>“She said she’d ask me to lunch with
+her down-town, but she had spent almost
+all her allowance.”</p>
+
+<p>“The idea of hinting to you in that bare-faced
+way! Now, if you had been a man
+it—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would have been all right, of course.
+However, I know how confidential Effie
+always grows over a cup of tea, so I
+promptly invited her to lunch with me.
+After she had accepted, I found that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+I had only fifty cents to my name. Papa
+had gone down-town and, mamma had just
+borrowed a quarter from me!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, did you tell Effie that
+your head ached so badly that you couldn’t
+go?”</p>
+
+<p>“And have her say that I was fretting
+myself ill over Jack? No, thank you. I
+excused myself a moment and went downstairs,
+for I had just remembered a habit
+Papa has of leaving money lying about on
+his desk. To my joy, I found a five-dollar
+bill in one of the drawers, and I took
+that, because I—”</p>
+
+<p>“But weren’t you afraid to take it?”</p>
+
+<p>“M—yes, but then one’s own people
+have to make up with one sometime or
+other. Well, we had a lovely time shopping,
+and I took Effie off to luncheon before
+she had had time to get cross matching
+samples. It was a lovely luncheon, and
+before we had finished Effie said she hoped
+I would visit her at Delavan in August!”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; I suppose she didn’t mention
+the fact that Jack expects to be in Canada<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+from the last week in July to the first one
+in September, did she?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; she didn’t. Oh, what a cat she
+is—and I asked her to take another ice on
+the strength of it! Well I paid the bill,
+tipped the waiter, and was just going out
+when the cashier came running after me,
+and oh, Emily, what do you think?”</p>
+
+<p>“You had left your umbrella, of course.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I hadn’t. I—I, that five-dollar
+bill was a counterfeit which papa was keeping
+as an object lesson to mamma, who had
+gotten it in change!”</p>
+
+<p>“You might have known that no man
+with a wife and grown daughter would leave
+five good dollars in an unlocked drawer,
+dear. Did Effie—”</p>
+
+<p>“Loan it to me? She hadn’t quite
+enough, and I don’t know what I should
+have done if Frances had not happened to
+come in. Effie said that she did not mind
+borrowing from Frances, because she—she
+was quite like a sister to her! And now I
+shall have to make Papa angry by coaxing
+for money to pay for all those ices Effie ate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+on false pretenses, and w—worse yet, she
+and Frances will have the pleasure of laughing
+over it together!”</p>
+
+<p>“And telling Jack about it, too,” gasped
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I know they will do that,”
+sobbed the victim. “But I hardly thought
+that even an intimate friend would be unpleasant
+enough to remind me of it!” And
+she buried her face in the cushions and
+wept.</p>
+
+<p>“Then you are not going to the club
+this afternoon? Shall I tell them that you
+are busy with the dressmaker, or the
+dentist? They know that you can make
+everybody else wait.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tell them nothing. I shall go—and
+complain of a cold in the head, which will
+explain the pinkness of my nose and eyes.”</p>
+
+<p>“But will any of them believe you?”</p>
+
+<p>“All of them. You know those horrid
+quinine tablets Evelyn is always wanting
+people to try—well, I shall take one of
+them publicly. You don’t suppose that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+any one will suspect me of doing it unnecessarily,
+do you?”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin shuddered.
+“Impossible,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl suddenly stopped curling
+her hair, and, facing her friend, remarked:
+“I can tell you one thing though—Jack
+Bittersweet shall pay dearly for this!”</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The president of the Teacup club rapped
+for order with the handle of her umbrella.
+“I am glad to see you all here to-day, in
+spite of the weather,” she remarked. “We
+have a very interesting topic for discussion. It
+is, ‘Woman in Her Character of Heroine.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed, it is interesting,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “I only wish you
+had thought to mention it to me and I
+should have prepared a paper on it. No,
+I couldn’t have done it, either, for my
+aunt from New Jersey was in town, and I
+had to take her sight-seeing. Oh, dear,
+aren’t people who live in the country painfully
+active? And what ideas they have!
+They seem to think Lincoln Park is in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+back yard and the Statue of Columbus
+across the street.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know a girl who has had a much worse
+time than that,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “She had to take her future
+mother-in-law to see the sights. The old
+lady had read up in preparation for her
+visit, and knew more about the city than
+Marie herself. Now, while the poor girl is
+being massaged with arnica and things to
+get over the effects of her exertion, the old
+lady is busy telling her son that such an
+ignorant girl can never make a good wife!”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of the bravery of women,”
+said the girl with the classic profile, “I
+know a girl who early one morning heard a
+noise in a large closet next her room, in
+which she kept her furs and cloth gowns.
+She slipped out of bed and into the hall, and
+turned the key, which was fortunately on
+the outside, and there she had the burglar
+safe in that stifling atmosphere. Then she
+fainted.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “I should have fainted first.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“It took them three-quarters of an hour
+to restore her and find out what was the
+matter, then they sent for the police, and
+what do you think they found?”</p>
+
+<p>“That the burglar was dead,” breathed
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No. It wasn’t a burglar at all; it was
+her own father, who had risen early and
+gone into the closet to look for a file of papers
+which had been kept in the attic for
+twenty years. Oh, he said perfectly awful
+things when he got breath enough to speak!
+Unluckily, too, it happened just at the
+time when she needed a lot of new things.
+She said that nobody appreciated her
+bravery except a man who was paying her
+attention at the time, and he didn’t dare
+say a word before her father for fear of losing
+his good-will.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “it only goes to show that
+women are really more courageous than
+men.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course they are,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Why, only the other day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+I read of a girl who had a hole bored in one
+of her front teeth and a diamond inserted.
+Did you ever hear of a man who was brave
+enough to go to the dentist unless he really
+had to?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said the president. “Oh, girls, I
+once had my pocketbook snatched from me
+by a boy, and I just ran after him until he
+dropped it. I don’t know that I should
+have been so brave,” she added, “but for
+the fact that, beside my card, it contained
+several unpaid bills of which my husband
+knew nothing. If the police had caught
+the boy with it, they would have communicated
+the fact to him, and I never should
+have heard the last of those bills.</p>
+
+<p>“I hope he appreciated your bravery,
+anyhow,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the president; “his
+only comment was that it served me right
+for carrying my pocketbook in my hand.
+Oh, you can’t make a man understand that
+a woman fears nothing. By the way, I wish
+several of you would come home to dinner
+with me. I broke Tom’s lovely bit of old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+Venetian glass to-day, and I had rather not
+be alone with him when he finds it out.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll go with pleasure,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose, “is anybody else
+coming?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nobody but Mr. Troolygood,” said the
+president. “I always ask him in such an
+emergency, because he prophesied that Tom
+would break my heart within two years of
+our marriage. Tom knows that, and—well,
+I could dance on the graves of his ancestors
+if Mr. Troolygood was present, and
+Tom would encourage my efforts.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I don’t see why you ask us to-day,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose,
+“he ought to be—”</p>
+
+<p>“Sufficient? Yes, I suppose so; but—well,
+the truth is that he is rather hard to
+entertain, and Tom is so busy in his presence,
+being nice to me, that he is no help
+at all.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should be delighted to dine with you,
+also,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but really
+I have such a cold that I don’t dare to be
+out at all after nightfall.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Have you a cold?” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “why, I didn’t notice it when I
+met you in the restaurant this morning.”</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t you, dear? But then you are
+not very observant. You had not even
+noticed that there was a wrinkle in the waist
+of your new gown, until I pointed it out to
+you. Evelyn, dear, mightn’t I take another
+of your quinine tablets now? I really
+think that I am feeling better already.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do not take too much of it, dear, if
+you value your peace of mind,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses. “I’ve had such an
+awful cold this week. I don’t know how I
+ever caught it, unless it was sitting in that
+hot church on Sunday. Mamma would have
+me go, and I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps you caught it standing on your
+front steps Monday evening,” suggested
+the girl with the classic profile. “I saw you,
+as I passed, and wondered how long—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it was only a moment. The parlor
+was full of people, and I just stepped out
+with Frank a moment to—to ask him how
+he expects to vote at the coming election.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I thought you both looked as if you
+were discussing politics. Of course, he had
+to think well on the merits of the opposing
+candidates before he gave an opinion
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw, it is impossible to know
+how one catches cold, and it does one no
+good to know, anyhow,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Unless it is some one else’s fault,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+have a cold myself, and I don’t dare to
+mention the fact to my family. They are
+so unsympathetic that they—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would want you to wrap up and wear
+overshoes if it was July,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“They would, they would,” wailed the
+girl with the eyeglasses, “well, I just knew
+that I had to be well in time to go to Mrs.
+Brownsmith’s card party. The way that
+Marie tries to attract Frank’s attention is too
+dreadful, and I knew she would be there.”</p>
+
+<p>“If she had to unscrew her coffin lid to
+get out,” said the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. They wanted me to take all
+sorts of horrid remedies at home. I
+wouldn’t do it, though; the very idea
+made me cross. Finally, on Wednesday,
+Frank dropped in to see if I was better and
+said I must take some quinine. Of course,
+I couldn’t refuse and hurt his feelings,
+especially as he remained all the afternoon
+and watched me take it. By his advice, I
+took a large dose of it that night, and when
+I woke up in the morning my cold was
+almost gone, but oh, I had the queerest
+buzzing in my ears!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, nobody could see that,” said
+the president, “so you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Kept on taking it all day, and was able
+to go to the card party, after all; though
+the quinine had made me as deaf as a
+statue. It made little difference at first,
+because Marie kept close at my elbow, and
+Frank and I were not alone a moment. I
+couldn’t get rid of her at all until, just as
+mamma said she would not wait another second
+Mrs. Brownsmith called Marie to her,
+and Frank—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Improved the moment,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “What did
+he say?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I don’t know,” sobbed the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “He whispered, and I
+couldn’t hear. And before I could ask
+him to repeat, Marie was at my side. As
+he put me into the carriage, he said: ‘You
+will let me have my answer by messenger
+to-morrow, won’t you?’ And I—I don’t
+know w-whether he ask-asked me to marry
+him, or only to go to the m-matinee!”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor, dear martyr,” cried the
+president. “Dorothy, dear, you had better
+not take any more of those tablets, because—”</p>
+
+<p>“But dear, Dorothy is in no danger of
+having to answer such an important question,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear; I have answered it
+already—in the negative,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “Ah, you can never know,
+Frances, how painful it is to be obliged to
+tell a man who loves you that there is no
+hope.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear,” said the president, hurriedly,
+“I’m afraid that, in spite of all my
+efforts, we have not discussed to-day’s
+topic as consistently as usual. It does
+seem to me sometimes that you girls talk
+as much as men. Of course you do not expect
+to be listened to as they do, still—”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose; “did I ever tell you of
+the time I went to make a round of calls
+with Ethel, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Found she was leaving her sister’s cards
+by mistake?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Indeed you did. And wasn’t it
+funny that she left one for Maria, to whom
+her sister hadn’t spoken for a year? Just
+like Ethel, too.”</p>
+
+<p>“This was another time,” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “You know how
+much Ethel talks? Well, we called on one
+woman I had never met before, and she
+asked Ethel subsequently if I was not deaf
+and dumb!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, she knew better when she
+met you next time,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+eyeglasses; “but what is the topic for discussion
+to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘The Heroine of To-day,’” said the
+president, “and I think—”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose that is the bachelor girl,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Or the one who marries a foreigner,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Talk about bravery! Why, I knew a girl
+who became engaged to a Russian before
+she could pronounce his name.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of that,” said the girl with
+the classic profile, “isn’t it horrid of Elizabeth
+to send out her wedding cards so long
+ahead. No chance this time to say that we
+didn’t know it in time to select a present.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall pretend that I never received my
+invitation at all,” said the president; “one
+must protect one’s self somehow.”</p>
+
+<p>“I do hate to go shopping with her nowadays,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin, “if I don’t buy a lot of things myself
+I am miserable, and if I do her reproachful
+gaze seems to say, ‘I know the cost of this
+will come out of my present.’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“As if you wouldn’t ask your father for
+the money for that, anyhow!” said the girl
+with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“I shall do nothing of the kind, dear; it
+would make too much trouble. I don’t
+know why a man will cheerfully give a wedding
+present himself, but let—”</p>
+
+<p>“One of the women of the family ask for
+money for the same purpose and he feels
+that he is being robbed,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose it is on the same principle
+that makes a man insist upon treating every
+other man he meets and then grumble because
+his wife wants oysters after the play,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Just as he feeds a girl on candy before
+he marries her and then complains of dentists’
+bills afterward,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “men are so illogical!”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed they are,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “one of them will keep on
+telling a girl that she has a swan-like carriage,
+and then think her vain if he catches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+her watching her own movements in the
+glass.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why does she let him catch her at it?”
+queried the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Oh, girls, you know that awful, dark green
+necktie that Dick has been wearing! Well,
+I endured it until I felt as if I should scream
+if I saw him wear it again, so I begged it
+from him; told him that I wanted it as a
+souvenir to hang beside his college cap and
+his football colors. As soon as he sent it
+to me I threw it into the fire.”</p>
+
+<p>“And he came in before it was reduced
+to ashes?” asked the president, in sympathetic
+tones.</p>
+
+<p>“No. He appeared with another just
+like it, the very next day—said he didn’t
+like it himself, but since I had admired it
+and he wanted to please me, he had matched
+it before he sent it to me!”</p>
+
+<p>“And that was your only reward for trying
+to save his feelings,” sighed the blue-eyed
+girl. “Really, Emily, I often think
+you are too good for this world.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, I shall soon be out of it if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+so many sorrows are heaped upon my head.
+By the way, girls, I’ve been learning to
+ride my bicycle, and talking of heroism, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“How many times have you fallen?” exclaimed
+the girl with the classic profile. “I
+heard the other day of a girl who learned to
+ride in a single lesson, without falling once,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph. I’ve often heard of that girl
+myself—but I’ve never seen her. I’ve
+fallen nineteen times; that is, not counting
+the time mamma called after me to be careful,
+and the time that Dick said I had ridden
+almost a half block since he let go of
+my belt—because you know, it was not my
+fault that I fell upon either of those occasions!”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the president,
+“but, girls, we really must not talk about
+bicycling, because if we do we shall drift
+away from our discussion, and I can’t bear
+to depart, even momentarily, from the high
+standard of the club. We were speaking
+of Elizabeth a moment ago; has any one
+seen her lately?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl. “I
+make a point of avoiding the girl who is
+about to be married, the mother of the
+cleverest baby in the world, and the woman
+who is designing her own house. Really,
+you know, I don’t mind letting someone
+else do all the talking, but I <i>do</i> like a change
+of topic once in a while.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know I was just as sensible as any one
+could be while Tom and I were engaged,”
+said the president, “and yet, people did act
+so oddly. Why, they would go right away
+if I began to talk of him at all; they didn’t
+even stay long enough to see how sensible I
+was.”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, I believe that Jane and
+Mr. Sooter are engaged,” said the girl with
+the classic profile; “Jane denies it but—”</p>
+
+<p>“Then I think you are mistaken,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “I know
+Jane, and she seldom understates a case.
+Why do you think they are engaged?”</p>
+
+<p>“He has given up sending her flowers
+and candy, and begun presenting bric-a-brac
+instead.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, that is nothing; he may once
+have been engaged to a girl who was a
+china maniac, and these may be the presents
+she returned.”</p>
+
+<p>“Possibly. By the way, Kate has grown
+so wary now that she only gives the man to
+whom she happens to be engaged presents
+which she can use after she breaks with
+him; never pipes and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, by the way, I know how her last
+engagement came to be broken in so many
+pieces that it could never be mended,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Do tell us all about it; we are all so
+intimate with Kate that we wouldn’t dare
+to tell anybody, because it would seem that
+we were betraying a confidence,” said the
+girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, when she was engaged to Mr.
+Yaleblue, she gave him a lovely meerchaum
+pipe, which of course came back with her
+other presents when the engagement was
+broken. By the next Christmas she was
+engaged to Dan, and it seemed such a waste
+to let it lie in the case, and she gave it to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+him, telling him a pretty little story of how
+she bought it when she was in Paris, and
+kept it hanging in her den ready for Prince
+Charming when he appeared. You wouldn’t
+think a little thing like that would have
+broken the engagement, would you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, of course not,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “how on earth did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he just asked how it came that it
+was so strong of tobacco!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, girls,” said the president, “I
+am afraid that we really must adjourn,
+though there is still a great deal more to
+say on both sides of the discussion. But I
+have just remembered that I have invited a
+whole party of you to dinner, and neglected
+to mention the fact to the cook!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter V<br />
+
+<small>The Club Settles Some Currency
+Problems</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“The topic for to-day’s discussion will
+be ‘Currency Problems of the Present
+Day,’” observed the president, after the
+club had come to order, “and I hope you
+are all prepared—”</p>
+
+<p>“There is only one currency problem in
+the present day—to my knowledge, at
+least,” broke in the girl with the classic
+profile, “and that is: how to make two
+dollars do the work of ten.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, there is something actually
+masculine in your flippancy,” said the president,
+with ferocious gentleness. “The question
+before us is one of the deepest gravity,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nobody knows that better than myself,”
+said the girl with the classic profile,
+“don’t I lie awake night after night, wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+how to get my new things out of the
+money my father has allowed me for the
+purpose, or, better yet, how to coax more
+out of him without letting him realize the
+fact.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t talk about money, please; it
+makes me blue,” wailed the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “What with never
+having enough for myself and constantly
+seeing other people with more than I like
+them to have, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“What I want to know is—and you
+ought to be able to tell me, girls—why a
+woman who looks all sweetness and gentleness
+should suddenly develop into a raging
+lioness, just because her own son wants to
+marry some nice girl,” sighed the girl with
+the eyeglasses, waking suddenly out of a
+reverie.</p>
+
+<p>“Humph,” returned the blue-eyed girl,
+“there are some things I don’t quite understand
+myself—such as the banking system,
+and the reason why your dressmaker tells
+you calmly that she must have two yards
+and a half more of your dress material,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+when you have plainly informed her that
+you bought a remnant. But as for your
+question, it is so simple that a man could
+answer it. No woman ever did, or ever
+will, like to play second fiddle to another
+one, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, nonsense,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “it is just a question of tact.
+Let a man make his mother believe that she
+has chosen his wife and she—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and wouldn’t it be pleasant to
+have your mother-in-law tell you, every
+time she wanted you to discharge the cook
+or do without a new gown, that her son
+would never have married you but for her!”
+cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of mothers-in-law,” said the
+girl with the classic profile, “Nell is to have
+a new woman in that capacity. I found
+her crying the other day because she had
+heard that Madame considered her too
+domestic to make her son a good wife!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I know,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“and did you hear of Alice’s woes? No?
+Well, you know, she and Morton fell in love<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+at first sight, and became engaged two
+weeks later. After the engagement was
+announced, she was invited to visit his people
+in Iowa, and went in fear and trembling,
+for she did not know much about
+them, and Morton could not be there at the
+time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hadn’t the courage, you mean,” murmured
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Very likely, dear. Well, his mother
+was as bad as Alice had feared. Her ideas
+were all in direct opposition to Morton’s,
+and the poor girl almost fretted herself into
+nervous prostration trying to please them
+both. After all, when she got home, she
+found—”</p>
+
+<p>“That she had been mistaken in her feelings
+for Morton, and it didn’t make any
+difference whether they were pleased or
+not!” said the girl with the eyeglasses. “I
+knew how it would end when you began.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. She discovered that Madame was
+only his stepmother, after all! Imagine
+trying to please a mother-in-law and a stepmother
+combined!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I’d rather not fancy it,” said the president,
+with a shudder. “Girls, I only hope
+you will be as lucky when you are married
+as I am, for—”</p>
+
+<p>“You aren’t going to tell us all of Tom’s
+virtues again, are you?” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>“When my mother-in-law becomes unpleasant,
+I just ask her to go with me to
+spend the day with Tom’s grandmother,”
+went on the president, affecting not to hear
+the last remark, “she doesn’t dare to refuse,
+because the old lady has some china
+which we both want, and she’s afraid I
+may succeed in wheedling it out of her! It
+is great fun to hear my own mother-in-law
+lectured by <i>her</i> mother-in-law on the sins
+which the former thinks I have appropriated
+entirely to my own use.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, ah—doesn’t Tom’s mother take it
+out of you on the way back?” queried the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. You see, I am careful not
+to sit with her in the train, and Tom always
+meets us at the station; besides, she’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+hardly in her usual form, and I could be a
+match for her,” she added, modestly.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“speaking of mothers-in-law makes me
+think of wedding presents. Did you—oh,
+did you hear about the plates I gave Elizabeth?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I did,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “and a girl who gives away
+old Crown Derby like that is either an angel,
+or not quite sane—I don’t know which!”</p>
+
+<p>“Say anything you like; I haven’t the
+spirit to reply. And after you’ve heard
+the story—well, it was this way: I ran
+across the dozen of them in a little second-hand
+shop, and the proprietor didn’t seem
+to know their value and asked a very moderate
+price.”</p>
+
+<p>“I beg your pardon, dear,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, “I take back
+all that I said before!”</p>
+
+<p>“You needn’t. I saw that I could beat
+him down, so I didn’t take them then, but
+went in a day or two later, taking Elizabeth
+along to make sure they were genuine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+Really, she does know something about
+china, though—”</p>
+
+<p>“She doesn’t know anything else,” finished
+the president. “Well, they were genuine,
+weren’t they?”</p>
+
+<p>“They were, Elizabeth became so affectionate
+on the spot that I saw she knew
+what I wanted them for. I didn’t take
+them then, but went back the next day to
+find that the man had raised his price; he
+said another person wanted them—as if I’d
+believe that. Well, it went on for a week,
+until the price demanded was so outrageous
+that I should never have paid it, but
+for the fact that Elizabeth had told everybody
+what lovely Crown Derby plates she
+was to have, and I wasn’t going to have
+her say that I couldn’t afford them!”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think not,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses; “besides, it is necessary to
+give Elizabeth a handsome present, since
+she is marrying a wealthy man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course; if he was poor, a very simple
+thing would—ah, be in better taste, so
+that the contrast would not be so great.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Well, I bought the plates, and
+took them to her myself, because I wanted to
+see her face when she opened the package.”</p>
+
+<p>“But she wasn’t surprised, was she?”
+asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, she was. She—well, she was the
+other person who wanted to buy them, and
+whose inquiries had trebled the price I had
+to pay for them!”</p>
+
+<p>“In the face of a tragedy like that, it
+seems hopeless to offer consolation,” said
+the girl with the classic profile. “Still, Elizabeth
+will be obliged to give you a handsome
+present when you are married.”</p>
+
+<p>“Let us hope that she will not have had
+time to forget her obligations,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, sweetly. “Of course, she
+has a good memory, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“I only hope somebody will give her two
+chafing-dishes,” broke in the president. “I
+only have one, and if I was not the sweetest
+tempered mortal in the world Tom and
+I would quarrel seriously over it. Perhaps,
+I ought not to speak of myself in that
+way, but—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“You surely ought to know your good
+points better than anybody else does,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear. You see, Tom thinks
+he is a chafing-dish cook, and really he <i>can</i>
+cook; but the last time he made a rarebit
+my waitress gave warning, because of the
+state in which she found the dining-room—which
+was very mean of her, because we
+had waited on ourselves to save trouble.”</p>
+
+<p>“Partly for that, and partly because you
+wanted to talk about Coralie, and her sister
+is her cook, I remember—I was there,”
+said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but she didn’t know that we
+wanted to talk about Coralie, and I told her
+that it was to save her trouble.”</p>
+
+<p>“Wasn’t that the time that the rarebit
+made you ill, and the doctor couldn’t come
+because he, too, had eaten some of it?”
+asked the girl with the dimple in her
+chin.</p>
+
+<p>“It was. I told Tom, then, that he
+must leave out either the doctor or me
+when he made rarebit again!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“With the result?” queried the girl with
+the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“That we didn’t speak for three days,
+dear. It was during that time, that I went
+to Annie’s chafing-dish party. She wanted
+me to make a cheese omelette, and I sent
+over for the dish. My messenger found
+Tom in the dining-room with a whole party
+of men—”</p>
+
+<p>“Cooking on your chafing-dish?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. Trying to entertain them while
+the new waitress hunted for it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, where was it? You hadn’t taken
+it?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. The cook had borrowed it
+for a chafing-dish party of her own, and
+neglected to mention the fact to either Tom
+or me!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I suppose really that each family
+should possess two chafing-dishes,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes—or none at all,” said the president,
+sighing.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I am very much interested in
+this discussion,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+Roman nose; “but I wonder if a thorough
+knowledge of currency problems will do us
+any practical good. None of us are earning
+our own living, and when papa talks
+about currency problems at home it is only
+to point the moral that times are hard, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“There is where your knowledge will be
+most useful,” broke in the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “you can bring it out
+to prove that times are <i>not</i> hard, and run
+off a lot of statistics to prove your point.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I don’t know any statistics,”
+wailed the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid you have not been paying
+strict attention to-day,” said the president,
+gravely. “However, if you are in danger
+of losing in an argument, be sure to say,
+with a smile of superiority, ‘I suppose you
+know what the statistics are?’ Now, people
+are not in the habit of carrying statistics
+around, like cough-drops, and they will
+simply give up the battle on the spot. If
+they don’t, rattle off a lot of figures; they
+can’t refute them immediately, and if they
+attempt to do it afterward, you can just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+say, in a supercilious tone, ‘I thought we
+settled that matter yesterday.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I declare,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “that is just my own father’s
+line of argument, and yet it never occurred
+to me that I could imitate it. I do hope
+you will take very good care of your health,
+Evelyn,” she added. “People who are
+very intellectual are <i>so</i> apt to die young.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall,” said the president. “I’ve no
+notion of dying and having Tom a widower
+while he is still young enough to be attractive.
+It would not make so much difference
+after that, for I shall take care that he does
+not accumulate enough money to make him
+fascinating at seventy-five!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear,” sighed the blue-eyed girl,
+“I wonder why so few men have money
+until their hair is only a memory!”</p>
+
+<p>“Case of the wind being tempered to the
+shorn lamb,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “after all, a man must sacrifice
+something on the altar of success.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph; isn’t it usually his wife?” said
+the girl with the classic profile.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Not if she is clever,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Girls, I once knew a
+woman whose husband made a fortune in
+two years, and he wouldn’t give her more
+than the merest pittance for dress and entertaining.
+In fact, the only bills he would
+pay, without grumbling, were those of the
+doctor. And what do you think she did?
+She selected the doctor whose bills were the
+most outrageous, and settled herself to be
+a chronic invalid. She said she was determined
+to get something out of her husband’s
+fortune.”</p>
+
+<p>“Good,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “I do hope she really enjoyed
+herself after that.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid not. You see, the doctor
+seemed anxious to earn his money, and insisted
+that she had some desperate disease.
+I doubt if she really enjoyed his subsequent
+visits.”</p>
+
+<p>“All her husband’s fault, too,” sighed
+the brown-eyed blonde, “and yet, I doubt
+if she reproached him for it. It seems to
+be a woman’s province to suffer in silence.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I’ve often heard my mother make
+that very remark to my father,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “I had
+rather not quote his reply. Girls, I heard
+the funniest story yesterday; Annie
+wouldn’t tell me who was the heroine of
+it, really, sometimes she is as provoking as
+a man. I’ll be even with her, however,
+for I’ll never rest until I find out who it
+was, then I shall tell everybody, and Annie
+will never be able to convince her that she
+didn’t tell the whole. It seems that this
+girl had quarreled with the man to whom
+she was engaged, and a week later she received
+a letter addressed in his handwriting.
+She did think of taking it to a mind reader,
+but it was near the end of the month, and
+she hadn’t the money, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, Emily, dear, when can you
+come to lunch with me?” broke in the girl
+with the eyeglasses. “I don’t see half as
+much of you as I’d like to, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Any day you like, dear. Where was I?
+Oh! She hadn’t the money, and the tea
+kettle happened to be handy, so she—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But, why not open it with a hair-pin,
+like any other letter?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“She wanted to return it unopened if she
+didn’t like its contents. It proved to be
+perfectly horrid; he not only didn’t acknowledge
+that he was in the wrong, but he
+actually brought forward facts to prove that
+she was! Of course, no girl would endure
+that, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you mean to say that Annie told
+you that?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I didn’t think it possible that any
+girl—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I don’t see any harm in that; of
+course every girl wants her own way.
+Well, she sealed up the letter again, wrote
+on it, ‘Returned unopened’ and sent it
+back.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, “I was thinking that might have been
+Clarissa, but she is too intellectual to do
+anything so clever. Anyhow, I’m glad
+she got the better of him.”</p>
+
+<p>“But she didn’t, dear. She discovered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+after the messenger had been gone an hour,
+that she had sealed up the envelope without
+replacing the letter in it! Can any of you
+guess who it was that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not I,” said the blue-eyed girl, “but if
+I had done such a thing, I should never
+have trusted Annie with it. Why, are you
+going, dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m going over to Annie’s this very
+minute,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I—I have something to say to her that
+will touch even <i>her</i> hardened conscience!”</p>
+
+<p>“So it was Marion, after all,” mused the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, after the
+door had closed behind her friend; “well, at
+any rate, after this Annie will tell me the
+whole of a story when she begins it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I must say, though, that if I was in her
+place it would be a long time before I began
+one,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“So you, too, have been confiding in
+Annie?” said the blue-eyed girl, sweetly.
+“By the way, I am to stay over night with
+her, but I promise you that whatever she
+may repeat will be safe with me.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“While we are discussing currency problems,
+I want to say what a nuisance the
+check system is,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I always did hate to get
+my money in that way, and I had an experience
+the other day which surely ought
+to cure my father of giving them to me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, you weren’t suspected of being
+a forger, were you?” asked the president,
+turning pale.</p>
+
+<p>“N—no, I believe not, but—it happened
+that my father gave me a check when I was
+going shopping, and I found before I cashed
+it that I must have five dollars more. Father
+had gone to Indianapolis, and mother,
+well—the fact is, that she will not loan me
+money any more, because I sometimes forget
+to return it. I didn’t know what to do
+until I suddenly remembered that Ned
+Goldie was the person who had to cash the
+check for me at the bank; then I knew I
+was safe. Pshaw, it just shows that you
+can never depend on a man!”</p>
+
+<p>“He surely did not refuse to cash it?”
+asked the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“N—no, but he—girls, I’ll tell you just
+what I did. I said, ‘By the way, Mr.
+Goldie, just give me five dollars more, will
+you? Father can make it right next time
+he comes in.’ And, if you will credit the
+fact, he actually said he couldn’t do it. A
+man with whom I had danced the german
+the evening before!”</p>
+
+<p>“I never believed Ned Goldie would be
+so stingy,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “What excuse did he make?”</p>
+
+<p>“Said it was against the rules of the
+bank, but he would be delighted to <i>lend</i> me
+the extra five dollars. Did you ever hear
+of such impertinence in your life? As soon
+as my father comes home, I shall tell
+him that he must transfer his account to
+another bank, for after this I feel that Mr.
+Goldie is not a person to be trusted with
+money!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear, dear,” said the president,
+gravely, “that is very bad. Don’t mention
+it outside of the club, girls; for if the
+bank directors found that he was being rude
+to the daughter of one of their customers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+he would lose his position at once. And
+there may be some apology or explanation
+he can make to your father, too, dear;
+though I confess I don’t see what it can
+be. Well, girls, I’m afraid we must adjourn,
+and I must say frankly that I am
+pleased with the work we have done to-day.
+The only reason that I suggested
+such a weighty topic for discussion was,
+that Tom had declared that the club was
+unable to grapple with it. After that, of
+course the only thing possible was to show
+him that he was wrong.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which you can now do conclusively,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “and I
+am quite sure he will be surprised at the
+novelty of some of the arguments advanced
+this afternoon!”</p>
+
+<p>“What is it, dear?” asked the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, as she and the blue-eyed
+girl turned the corner. “You have
+been so bright and cheerful to-day, that I
+am sure something is seriously wrong.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed there is. Jack has behaved
+abominably! It was enough when he told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+Effie that Frances is the most amiable girl
+he ever knew; but—”</p>
+
+<p>“That proves conclusively that he is not
+engaged to her, dear. No man ever knows
+anything about a girl’s temper until he <i>is</i>
+engaged to her.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if you want to defend him, I shall
+say no more; but I did think—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, I don’t want to defend him. I
+only—”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, all I’ve got to say, Emily Marshmallow,
+is that you are prejudiced against
+the poor fellow. I might have known that
+from the start. I only wish I had not taken
+your advice and broken my engagement.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, you didn’t do it on my advice,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“it was all done before you said a word to
+me about it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, anyhow, I knew you would advise
+me to do it; and now you are not satisfied
+with what I’ve done. But go on,
+don’t spare me—I am too miserable to care
+to defend myself! I—I don’t believe I
+shall live very long, anyhow. I shall tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+them to give you my marquise ring, as a
+token of forgiveness, when I’m gone. I
+hope you will remember me when you look
+at it—and be sure to notice if the stones
+are quite secure in their setting.”</p>
+
+<p>“I w—will; I promise you,” sobbed the
+girl with the dimple in her chin; “but don’t
+you think a trip—well a trip to Old Point
+Comfort might save your life. They tell
+me it is very gay there now!”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl shook her head.
+“Nothing can save me now, dear; why I
+can hook all my gowns now without holding
+my breath, and yesterday I ate no
+luncheon at all—took nothing between
+breakfast and dinner but a couple of cream
+sodas, a box of caramels, and a cup or two
+of afternoon tea. You know nobody can
+live long at that rate. Well, I am sorry for
+Jack Bittersweet when I am gone; a lifetime
+of remorse and—and Frances is not a
+pleasant thing to look forward to!”</p>
+
+<p>“You haven’t told me yet about Jack,
+dear, so—”</p>
+
+<p>“True; and some one should know the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+true story when I am no more. Here is
+the place where they make such nice chocolate;
+let us stop in and drink a cup while I
+tell you. You take the chair facing the
+mirror, dear,” she said, as they selected a
+table, “my personal appearance is no longer
+a matter of importance to me.”</p>
+
+<p>“You said that Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“Has behaved abominably. It is a long
+story, but I—I shall probably never tell
+you another long story, so you can
+afford to listen to this one. You know the
+little beggar boy with the beautiful brown
+eyes that I told you about a week or two
+ago?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; but about Jack. I—”</p>
+
+<p>“This is about Jack. I told you how I
+sympathized with that boy’s sad story, and
+went with him to investigate it, didn’t I?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but you never told me whether his
+home was—”</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t get there. He led me through
+the most awful slums, telling me all the
+time how his father would beat him, when
+he failed to bring money home, and how he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+knew I was the beautiful lady he had
+dreamed of, as soon as he saw me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well? Go on, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, nothing; only the horrid little
+wretch suddenly dived down an alley and
+disappeared; and, oh, Emily, I—I believe
+he made a face at me as he went! Worse
+yet, when I felt for my pocketbook it was
+gone, and I had to walk all the way home!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, had he taken it?”</p>
+
+<p>“I surely had not given it to him. I had
+almost forgotten the affair, when the cook
+came up yesterday to tell me that he was
+in the kitchen, and had brought my pocketbook
+back, with a long story about having
+seen another boy take it. Said he had followed
+him, when he left me, and taken it
+away from him, in turn.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I declare; and there was all your
+money intact after you had doubted his
+honesty!”</p>
+
+<p>“Not a cent of it, dear; and the cook
+said he was wearing a nice new suit. I told
+her she had better go back to the kitchen,
+and count the spoons, and I called loudly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+after her, ‘Tell him I never want to see his
+deceitful face again!’ The housemaid had
+come to the door of my room, too, and was
+trying to put in a word, but I wouldn’t
+listen to her.”</p>
+
+<p>“Trying to excuse the little wretch; the
+idea!”</p>
+
+<p>“That was what I thought. But, oh,
+Emily, just then the front door closed with
+a bang which shook the house to its foundations,
+and then I noticed for the first time
+that the housemaid was trying to give me a
+card!”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, Dorothy, you never
+mean to say—”</p>
+
+<p>“That it was Jack’s! Indeed I do. He
+had heard me scream over the bannister
+‘Tell him to go away; I never want to see
+his deceitful face again.’ And he—he must
+have thought I meant it for him. Oh,
+Emily, was there ever such a miserable girl
+as I!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VI<br />
+
+<small>The Pioneer New Woman</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“I think the topic for to-day’s discussion
+should be ‘The Pioneer New Woman,’”
+observed the president of the Teacup Club.
+“Have you all got that down in your note-books?
+You don’t know how it pleases
+me to see your methodical ways; it shows
+the real intellectual advancement of our
+club. Why, for my part, I have gained so
+much that I am not afraid to discuss any
+subject with any one.”</p>
+
+<p>“We have advanced,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “I feel it, too. By the way,
+has any one seen my note-book? I haven’t
+had it for three weeks—are you sure that
+none of you have gotten it by mistake? I
+forgot to put my name in it, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know where it is,” said the girl with
+the classic profile. “You loaned it to Kate—she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+told me so herself,—in order that she
+might read up on some of the topics we
+have already discussed, and so qualify for
+admission to the club.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall blackball her, for my part,”
+spoke up the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “She is so frivolous that she would
+drag down our high standard. Besides, she
+once left me out when she gave a luncheon,
+and told people that it was because she had
+all the decorations in yellow, and feared
+they would not shade with my complexion.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, Kate is color blind, any
+way,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and she is a little deaf, too,” remarked
+the president, “and really does not
+know just how sharp her own speeches
+sound.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps not,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “but I shall blackball
+her just the same. By the way, Alice is
+giving a birthday dinner party next week—twenty-six
+covers, one for each year. Clever
+idea, isn’t it?”</p>
+
+<p>“For whose birthday?” asked the girl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+with the classic profile. “Her own? Ah,
+really, I knew she was forgetful, but this is
+carrying it too far.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder why otherwise sensible people
+will tell such stories about their ages,” said
+the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t know,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Neither do I,” said the girl with the
+classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, it doesn’t matter who knows
+my age, as yet,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Nor mine,” remarked the girl with the
+classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Nor mine, either,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“No, indeed,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde; “I got twenty-two birthday gifts
+the other day on my twenty-second birthday.”</p>
+
+<p>“Are you twenty-two? Why, so am I!”
+cried the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Just my own age, too,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And mine; how odd!” cried the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“That is one of the advantages of the
+new womanhood,” said the president; “its
+beautiful candor. Now, I tell everybody
+that I am twenty-two years old.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wish you would tell Mrs. Van Tompkins,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.
+“She wouldn’t take my word for it the
+other day, though I told her that I couldn’t
+be mistaken, as you had told me so at least
+six times in the last eighteen months.”</p>
+
+<p>“Cora asked me the other day if there
+was any age qualification for membership in
+this club,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses,
+during the slight pause which followed
+the last speech. “She says she has
+not yet celebrated her twenty-first birthday.”</p>
+
+<p>“Born on the 29th of February, then,
+wasn’t she?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Yes, it is true that the new womanhood is
+breaking down old traditions. We are not
+at all jealous of each other now.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+dimple in her chin; “we have learned to
+value our own attractions properly. Why,
+the other day I stopped Amy and Fred to
+tell her there was a dab of powder on her
+nose. Formerly another girl would have
+been jealous of her dazzling complexion,
+and let her go on as she was.”</p>
+
+<p>“How sweet of you,” murmured the girl
+with the eyeglasses; “and yet, I doubt if
+she was really grateful.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was not the question, dear; I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear,” broke in the president, “if
+my watch is right it is time to adjourn, and
+yet. Why, here is Elise! What has made
+you late to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“A discussion with a stupid man,” cried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “Only
+think, he actually said that no woman was
+mathematician enough to count up her own
+birthdays correctly. I was so enraged—why,
+he said that ‘I am twenty-two’ is the
+same thing to a girl as ‘Polly wants a
+cracker’ is to a parrot, or the Spanish fandango
+to a guitar player—but what on earth
+is wrong? You all look so queer.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“It’s nothing at all, dear,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “We were just looking at your
+new hat, that is all. I think your watch
+must have stopped, Evelyn dear, for mine
+is only—”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it has,” said the president.
+“Tom talks so much, sometimes, that I
+quite forget to wind it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, it needs a rest sometimes,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“I know that mine—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear!” said the president, “I know
+I am a fright to-day, and nothing but a
+sense of duty has brought me here. Why,
+I actually have not had a chance to curl my
+hair properly for six days, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Been getting ready your new gown,
+have you?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “I only wish I had mine off my
+mind.”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t my new gown,” said the
+president. “It was Tom. He has had a
+heavy cold, and the house smells so strong
+of camphor that there will not be a moth
+within a block of it this year. I don’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+mind being bidden a tragic farewell at mid-day,
+but I do mind being waked up at midnight
+for that purpose.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it was nothing serious, was it?”
+asked the brown-eyed blonde. “I thought
+the other day, when he came to the top of
+the stairs and called to you that he was
+dying, that a man who was breathing his
+last would manage to do it with less noise.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw!” said the president. “That
+was nothing to the time he waked me up at
+one o’clock in the morning to tell me that
+he was dying, but if I let that mug-faced
+young preacher who used to come to see me,
+officiate at his funeral he would come back
+and haunt me. It took a hot-water bottle,
+a mustard plaster, two hot toddies, and the
+camphor to quiet him that time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “I wonder why a man always
+thinks a cold or a boil fatal—when he has it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he doesn’t himself,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose; “but he always
+wants the women of the family to act as if
+they did.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses;
+“but do you know what Dolly
+does? As soon as her husband complains
+of being ill she begins to weep and tear her
+hair and lament that he will die, she knows
+he will. That frightens him, and when she
+insists upon putting him to bed, and giving
+him a bowl of hot ginger tea (which he detests),
+he pretends that he was only joking,
+and flees to the office, when she calls him
+up every half-hour to ask how he is. She
+says he seldom complains of his health nowadays.”</p>
+
+<p>“You know my sister Amelia, don’t
+you?” said the girl with the classic profile.
+“Well, her husband had a heavy cold last
+week. He waked her up at two o’clock to
+tell her that he was dying, and that he knew
+he had not been a good husband to her, and
+could not go without her forgiveness. She
+wept, and said that he had not been very nice
+to her, and had never given her half enough
+money. Upon this, the dying man sat up,
+and began to argue the case. From argument
+they passed to something warmer.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+He went down to the office next day, and
+hasn’t said a word about dying since.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wouldn’t mind Tom thinking he was
+dying once in awhile,” said the president,
+“if he’d only allow me the same privilege
+occasionally. He won’t, though; he comes
+in and says, cheerfully, ‘Oh, you’ll soon
+be all right. You should have seen how
+much worse I was once when I had it, and
+never missed a day at the office, either!’
+The last time he did that my throat was too
+sore for me to reply properly, and I really
+thought I should die of rage.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “As if a woman
+couldn’t always stand more than a man,
+anyhow! For instance, I wonder how
+many of them could go out in thin shoes,
+and without overshoes, as we do. And yet
+you never hear a girl say that she has
+caught cold in that way.”</p>
+
+<p>“Never,” said the blue-eyed girl; “we
+have too much fortitude. My cousin
+Edith’s husband used to be always complaining
+of his health, until this last winter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+I wondered what had caused his miraculous
+recovery, until she told me a few days ago.
+She was away from home, and received a
+telegram, saying that she must come at
+once if she wanted to see him alive. The
+message was delayed, being improperly addressed,
+and when she reached home, expecting
+to find him dead, he met her at the
+door. It seems that he had called in a new
+doctor, who was the cause of his miraculous
+recovery. He said he would never have
+another physician to prescribe for him as
+long as he lived.”</p>
+
+<p>“Completely cured, eh?” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Not that time. Next time he was ill,
+and the new doctor appeared, he turned out
+to be an old admirer of Edith’s. Her husband
+is frightfully jealous, and Edith’s
+potential second husband is a very real person
+to him. Edith, as nurse, always went
+out into the hall to talk with the doctor
+after his call. She says she is sure that she
+did not remain away so <i>very</i> long; but when
+she came back, after the first visit, her husband<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+sulked; after the second, he raved;
+and after the third, he got up, declaring
+he’d live, if only to spite them both. And
+now, the doctor points to him as an example
+of his remarkable healing powers,”
+she added.</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of old sweethearts,” said the
+president, “what do you think happened to
+me the other day? I was calling on Mrs.
+Vansmith and her guest, as she had requested.
+Both of them happened to be
+out, and, to my annoyance, I found I had
+no cards with me. At last I found one of
+Tom’s in my card-case, and I left that,
+knowing that Mrs. Vansmith would understand.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, and didn’t she?” asked the girl
+with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps. But the visitors didn’t. It
+turned out that she used to be engaged to
+Tom; while I was in the kindergarten, I
+suppose. It seems that his card was handed
+to her; and you should have seen the unbelieving
+smile with which she listened to
+my explanation of the matter!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“You poor, dear,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “you must have been as angry as if
+somebody had trodden on your gown. A
+rather unpleasant thing happened to Florence
+the other day, too; Molly was calling
+on her, and a note was handed in. She
+thought it was from Teddy Crœsus, and
+pretending that she had ink on her fingers,
+asked Molly to open it for her, which she did.”</p>
+
+<p>“How stupid of Molly; she might have
+known that it was some trick of Florence’s,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “Was it
+a proposal from Teddy?”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t from Teddy at all; handwritings
+are so much alike nowadays. It was a
+bill from the hairdresser, of whom Florence
+had bought those lovely little curls which
+cluster around her brow—and Molly read it
+aloud, as she had requested.”</p>
+
+<p>“But who told you about it?” said the
+girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Molly. You didn’t suppose it was
+Florence, did you? I declare, it made me
+feel like trying to persuade both of them to
+join our club. There isn’t a girl in it that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+would do such a mean thing, and the example
+might—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, it wouldn’t; they are too frivolous,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh, girls, I sometimes wish that the men
+who dance with us could hear the serious
+discussions which go on in this club,—so harmoniously,
+too.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the president, “not one unkind
+word has been spoken, even of the
+absent, since we organized. I wonder if as
+much can be said of any other club.”</p>
+
+<p>“I doubt it,” said the blue-eyed girl;
+“and it isn’t as if we couldn’t think of
+clever things to say about people, either.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” returned the girl with
+the Roman nose; “why, I know some
+things, even about the other members,
+which—”</p>
+
+<p>“So do I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Why, I heard the other day that
+you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I wouldn’t mention, for the
+world,” finished the girl with the Roman
+nose, in some agitation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I thought not, dear; it would hardly be
+wise,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“for you, especially.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure, I don’t see why I, es—”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t you, dear? But, then, you
+never were clever,” said the president.
+“Yes, I am very proud of the amiability we
+have all displayed since joining the club. I
+must say that I didn’t expect—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see why not,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “As for me, I can get along with
+anybody, so I was not at all afraid.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“your tongue would be a protection, even
+if—”</p>
+
+<p>“Other people were even <i>more</i> envious of
+me? That is hardly possible, dear; but
+I thank you for your good opinion of
+me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t overwhelm me with gratitude,
+dearest; I really do not deserve it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, luckily for you, love, people seldom
+get their deserts.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls, don’t quarrel,” said the
+president, wringing her hands; “I’ve always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+wanted this to be different from a man’s
+club, and now—”</p>
+
+<p>“Really, Evelyn, you seem to be the one
+who is doing the quarreling,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, tartly. “As for me, I
+am naturally amiable, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“It is not your fault if your temper <i>is</i> a
+bit soured by repeated disappointments,”
+broke in the blue-eyed girl; “of course not.
+Everybody says it is no wonder.”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I resign from this club,” sobbed the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I’ll not stay here another
+minute to be insulted!”</p>
+
+<p>“Girls, girls,” said the president, “do be
+reasonable. I—”</p>
+
+<p>“This is the first time <i>I</i> was ever accused
+of being unreasonable,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose; “and all I’ve got to say
+is, that I pity Tom from the bottom of my
+heart, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t doubt but that you’d be glad
+to comfort him—if I was dead,” sobbed the
+president. “If this is all I am to get for
+keeping you at peace during the meetings,
+I’ll just resign, and let you run the club to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+suit yourselves. And a p-pretty mess you-you’ll
+make of it!” And she retired behind
+her handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll resign, too, this very minute,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I knew
+just how it would be when Dorothy asked
+me to join the club, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“You were afraid to refuse, lest something
+happen, and you didn’t know all
+about it,” finished the blue-eyed girl.
+“Well, I wish to tender <i>my</i> resignation
+from the club, to take effect at once.”</p>
+
+<p>“And so do I,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“And I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“I, too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“W—why, then, there’s nobody left!”
+exclaimed the blue-eyed girl, gazing about
+the room in astonishment. “Oh, w—what
+will all the men of our set say when they
+hear of this!” she wailed.</p>
+
+<p>“I never thought of that!” said the girl
+with the Roman nose. “I know well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+enough, though, without thinking,” she
+added.</p>
+
+<p>“They will say that women never <i>can</i>
+agree among themselves,” sobbed the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, “and they will
+keep on saying it, in spite of the fact that
+it is a baseless libel!”</p>
+
+<p>“Of—of course, I am not an—angry,
+only hurt,” sobbed the president.</p>
+
+<p>“I am not angry at all,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “only distressed that the
+others—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I—I haven’t a hard feeling
+against any—anybody,” wailed the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, no,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“If anybody is sorry for having hurt my
+feelings, I am quite ready to forgive it,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“And so am I,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I don’t see that any of us need<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+resign,” said the president. “Does anybody
+remember the topic under discussion?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘The Pioneer New Woman,’” said the
+blue-eyed girl, “and a very interesting topic
+it is, I’m sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear, hear,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, as she tucked her handkerchief
+into her belt.</p>
+
+<p>“One thing is always a mystery to me,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“why does no female creature ever acknowledge
+that she is a new woman until
+she is quite an old one?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, by that time her years will
+entitle her to a seat in a street car, even if
+she wears bloomers,” thoughtfully replied
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Who really <i>was</i> the pioneer new
+woman?” asked the girl with the classic
+profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Eve; although, she did not call herself
+by that name, I believe,” returned the
+blue-eyed girl. “So far as I can see, the
+new woman is just like all the rest of us—she
+wants to get everything she can out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+the world, and give as little as possible in
+return.”</p>
+
+<p>“And it is perfectly natural that she
+should,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“The only way we can make the men give
+us what we really want, is by asking for a
+great deal more, so that they will think
+themselves lucky if we compromise on what
+we originally decided to have.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, making an entry into her
+note-book, “I’ve been acting on that
+theory all my life, but I never thought to
+formulate it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me for the suggestion,” said the
+president, “but I hope you are not in the
+habit of leaving that note-book around
+where any man can see it.”</p>
+
+<p>“It wouldn’t make any difference if I
+did, dear. I went to such a fashionable
+school that no one but myself can ever read
+my chirography—I can’t myself, if it was
+written long enough ago for me to have
+quite forgotten what I said.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, you needn’t be uneasy about any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+old love letters which have not been returned,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Not at all. Nobody could tell whether
+I had written a promise of undying affection
+or a recipe for hair tonic.”</p>
+
+<p>“I do wish my father had sent me to the
+same school,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+sorrowfully.</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, old letters don’t tell half as
+many tales as old photographs,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses, sighing. “I know a
+girl who had been engaged to a man who
+returned everything she had given him except
+one photograph. She couldn’t refuse
+to let him keep it when he begged so hard.”</p>
+
+<p>“He had probably lost it, and didn’t
+know how to account for its absence,” said
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No, he hadn’t. Well, six years later,
+she became engaged to another man. I
+fancy she must have told him some stories
+about her age.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s always better to understate rather
+than overstate a case,” said the blue-eyed
+girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“So my old nurse used to say. Well,
+when she was about to be married, her old
+lover sent her a beautiful present, and with
+it an envelope addressed to her fiancé.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which she should have opened herself,”
+said the president, promptly.</p>
+
+<p>“He happened to be present when the
+box was opened, dear. The envelope contained
+the photograph taken seven years
+before—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why didn’t she say that—”</p>
+
+<p>“It was a picture of her elder sister?
+She did, dear. What really caused the
+trouble was her own name, and the date on
+the back of it, coupled with the statement
+that it was taken on her twenty-second
+birthday!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, how sly men are?”
+said the president. “And to think that
+never, as long as she lived, could that girl
+tell him what she really thought of him!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know. She used to say that she
+sometimes regretted that she <i>hadn’t</i> married
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, he is probably married to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+somebody else, by this time, anyhow,” said
+the president, “though I doubt if his wife
+would fully appreciate the enormity of his behavior,
+since it was toward another woman.”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “people are sure to be punished in
+some way or another. I wouldn’t get up
+early on Sunday morning, and go to church
+if I did not firmly believe that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me,” said the president, “it
+must be awfully late, girls, and I promised
+Tom to adjourn early and meet him down
+town. I do wonder if he has been waiting
+for me all this time!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve seen Jack,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, as the friends went
+down the stairs; “met him on the street
+this morning.”</p>
+
+<p>“And, I suppose you hurried right on,
+and never said a civil word to him,” returned
+the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed I didn’t. I called after him to
+wait for me, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“And I suppose he thought that I had
+told you to talk to him, since you were so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+eager. You needn’t tell me a word that
+you said—I don’t want to hear anything
+about it. Did—did he look sort of hollow-eyed
+and worn?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘M—I can’t say that he did. But he
+said that he thought he must give up chafing-dish
+suppers.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think he must have bad
+dreams,” said the blue-eyed girl, viciously.</p>
+
+<p>“He—he told me that he had called at
+your house the other day, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose you let him go on thinking
+that I meant that message for him. A
+nice friend you are, Emily Marshmallow!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Dorothy, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t surely mean that you explained
+it all, and actually let him think
+that I wanted to apologize! Well, if anybody
+had told me such a thing of you, I
+never would have believed it.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I didn’t,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “I didn’t say a word,
+for just then Frances joined us; and if <i>you</i>
+are clever enough to get a private word with
+any man, after Frances sees him, I am not!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VII<br />
+
+<small>Woman in Legislation</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Let us discuss ‘Woman in Legislation,’
+to-day,” said the president. “I had written
+you a note, Marion, to prepare a paper
+on it, but I found it in my desk this morning.”</p>
+
+<p>“Too bad,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I should have been delighted to
+do it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Marion,” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose, “have you forgotten? You
+said you were too busy painting dinner
+cards to touch it. That was when I told
+you that Evelyn wanted you to do it, you
+remember.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I don’t,” snapped the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Of course I shan’t have a
+minute to prepare a paper for next week;
+but I should have been delighted to—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Girls,” said the president, “only think!
+Tom says this club is actually making me
+masculine.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, you must have convinced him
+that you had the better of him in an argument,”
+cried the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No—but I forgot to mail some letters
+he intrusted to me the other day when he
+was going out of town. By the way, it
+seems to me that when legislation is in the
+hands of women. What are you girls whispering
+about over there in the corner?”</p>
+
+<p>“We are only comparing samples of bicycle
+suitings,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “Dorothy has a larger selection
+than I, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I have a lot of them, myself,”
+said the president. “Has anybody seen my
+hand-bag since I came in?”</p>
+
+<p>“Here it is,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “I’ve just been comparing
+your samples with mine, and I find—”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, I’m late,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde, as she bounced into
+the room. “I just stopped on my way here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+to look at a new design for bicycle suits,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been trying for half a block to
+catch you, Frances,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, as she opened the door, in
+turn; “I’ve been looking at the new bicycles,
+and was detained longer than I expected.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, shall you get a new wheel this
+year?” asked the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear,” returned the girl with the
+classic profile; “but, of course, I wanted to
+see what they are like.”</p>
+
+<p>“Naturally,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “My dears, you never heard
+of such luck as mine. You know papa said
+I shouldn’t have a new bicycle this year, if
+I had to walk—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if you call that luck,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, “my father said the same
+thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“So did mine,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Wait until you hear the rest,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, “I had my old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+machine set in order, and expected to have
+to do with it all this season. The other
+day, I went into the store-room to have a
+look at it, and, to my surprise, found it all
+splashed with mud, the enamel scratched,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“The cook had been riding it, of
+course,” broke in the president.</p>
+
+<p>“I knew that at once, and I went to tell
+mamma she must discharge her on the spot.
+However, mamma was lying down with a
+headache, and as I had some shopping, a
+luncheon, two teas and a dinner on hand
+that day, I had no chance to speak to her.
+Two days later, I remembered it, and went
+in to look at it—I knew that mamma was
+so prejudiced against bicycling that I must
+make the case very bad to excite her sympathy.
+It was bad enough, by this time,
+too; one pedal was all bent, the handle-bar
+was broken, and the enamel was a sight!”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope you made your mother discharge
+that cook on the spot!” said the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I rushed right up to mamma’s room to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+do it. I opened the door, and a familiar
+odor greeted me—a combination of arnica
+and witch hazel, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“You forgot all about the cook. Had
+your mother fallen downstairs?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; she hadn’t. The cook had been
+trying to teach her to ride my bicycle; she
+had a black eye, a sprained shoulder, and a
+skinned face. The cook had gone home
+with a dislocated collar-bone, and I had to
+wait on mamma, and do all the cooking for
+two days!”</p>
+
+<p>“And you call that luck!” groaned the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“Not that, dear. But mamma gave me
+a beautiful new wheel for keeping the whole
+thing from papa’s ears. And I sold the
+old one for enough to buy me a lovely new
+suit,” she added, triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>“I am glad <i>somebody</i> has had a stroke
+of luck,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“As for me, I’ve just had an object-lesson
+in the selfishness of this world, which is
+enough to make a misanthrope of me for
+life.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, has your grandmother decided
+to buy a wheel for herself instead of for
+you?” asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“No. But you see it scratches the
+enamel to learn on a wheel—not to mention
+the other accidents which may befall it.
+Now, Nell’s bicycle is old, and I sent to
+borrow it to ride while I was taking my lessons.
+She actually refused it, unless I
+would lend her my new one while I had
+hers. Did you ever hear of such selfishness
+in your life?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “By the way, I suppose Jack
+Bittersweet will teach you to ride?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes; but how did you guess it?”
+There was a note of triumph in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, that was easy enough. He is
+always teaching somebody, you know. I
+told him the other day that I was afraid
+people would soon think him a professional.”</p>
+
+<p>“B—but he told me that he only teaches
+people whom he—likes,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, faintly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Why, of course, dear. But, Jack
+hasn’t a bit of discretion; he likes everything
+that wears petticoats, I verily believe.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—I— By the way, Evelyn, dear,
+what is to-day’s topic? You had started
+the discussion when I came, and I didn’t
+like to interrupt you to ask.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is ‘Woman in Legislation,’” said
+the president, after a peep at her note-book,
+“By the way, Frances, I know the cheapest
+place in town for arnica, if you want—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mine doesn’t cost anything, dear.
+Papa always has a bill at the drug store. I
+know the clerk, and he has promised if I
+use a very large quantity to put it down as
+toilet soap and postage stamps. Papa has
+never ridden you know, and he might not
+understand.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“What a comfort bicycling is,
+anyhow. For instance, if you meet a
+strange man, and the conversation lags—”</p>
+
+<p>“Get it on bicycles, and it runs smoothly
+enough,” said the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I wish <i>I</i> could do the same,” wailed the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Well it is lucky for
+me that the dancing season is over, for my
+arms are a perfect sight.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, if it is only your arms!” said the
+girl with the Roman nose, cheerfully. “<i>I</i>
+always fell on my face when I was learning.
+The only comforting thing about that was,
+that I soon became unrecognizable, and
+could fall right up and down my own street
+without a soul knowing who I was. It was
+very convenient, too, for they hadn’t far
+to take me when I had a really bad accident.”</p>
+
+<p>“How long did you have to wait to sit
+for your photograph?” asked the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Six weeks, dear—and then it had to be
+a profile.”</p>
+
+<p>“Elizabeth had rather a hard time of it,
+too,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin; “she would learn in her lovely new
+suit, and by the time she could ride, she
+hadn’t enough of it left to make a bathing
+costume.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Tom tells a rather good bicycle story,”
+observed the president. “He met a member
+of his club, who is a noted scorcher, the
+other day. He was wheeling along a very
+disreputable specimen of a woman’s machine.
+‘Hello,’ said Tom, ‘got yourself
+into trouble?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply, ‘I ran
+into a woman up yonder, and I’m afraid
+it will be cheaper to buy her a new wheel
+than to have the old one repaired.’
+‘Humph,’ said Tom, who knows him pretty
+well, ‘it’s a wonder you didn’t just ride
+away and leave her, when you found what
+you had done.’ ‘I did,’ said the scorcher,
+‘but it didn’t do me any good.’ ‘Policeman
+saw you, eh?’ ‘No. The woman
+turned out to be my wife!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Good!” said the blue-eyed girl. “I
+came very near not getting my bicycle last
+year. Papa said I should have one if I
+learned to make a good pie. I agreed to
+do it, but I had reckoned without the cook.
+She said flatly that she wouldn’t have me
+messing up her kitchen. Finally, I compromised
+by agreeing to trim her a hat, if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+she would make the pie. It was really
+quite the same you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Quite,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“And did it turn out all right?” asked
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“The hat did; but the pie—well, the
+cook had lived with us for three years, and
+that was the first time she had turned out
+an uneatable pie!”</p>
+
+<p>“But, why didn’t you ask your father
+to let you try again?” asked the girl with
+the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“I did, dear; but I took no chances that
+time; I bought the pie from the Woman’s
+Exchange. And I must say that I think I
+quite deserved the bicycle after all I had
+been through to earn it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed you did,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “By the way, Emily, I hear
+that you and Dick had an almost fatal quarrel
+while you were both learning.”</p>
+
+<p>“We did,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “It happened this way: I was
+able to ride at least two blocks without assistance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+so I got up very early, and went
+to the park alone to practice. I was getting
+along very well until I heard somebody
+coming up behind me at a terrible pace.
+That made me so nervous that I fell right
+off. The cyclist who had frightened me
+was Dick, and he actually kept right on
+without offering to help me!”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he didn’t know it was you,”
+suggested the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, he did; but he kept right on, and
+a perfect stranger had to take me and my
+bicycle home. Two hours later he appeared
+with his arm in a sling, and explained.
+He said it was first time he had
+ridden outside of the riding school, and he
+had gotten a terrific pace which he couldn’t
+have stopped if a rich uncle had been in his
+way. He said that if something in his machine
+hadn’t broken, he verily believed
+he’d have circled the globe without stopping!”</p>
+
+<p>“So you forgave him, didn’t you? You
+always were amiable,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Ye—es. Especially as he offered to
+have my bicycle repaired; papa having
+declared the last time that he wouldn’t pay
+another cent for repairs, if it stood in the
+attic all summer!”</p>
+
+<p>“That was good of you. Some girls
+would not have been so just,” said the
+president.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, don’t praise me too much,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, modestly.
+“Nobody who knew me happened
+to be in sight when it occurred—else I
+might not have let him off so easily.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, how modest you are,” said
+the blue-eyed girl. “I never knew a human
+being with so little vanity in my life.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nor I,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Did I tell you about Florence’s
+latest trouble? No? Well, you know that
+horrid Mr. Brownsmith, who rides beautifully,
+begged to be allowed to teach her.
+She accepted, and as soon as she had
+learned to ride well, she wondered how to
+get rid of him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why didn’t she ask her father to—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Forbid him to the house? That’s just
+what she did. I believe you have heard
+this story before.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And her father?” queried the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Absolutely refused to do it. Said he
+was the finest young man he knew, and only
+wondered that he cared for her society.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I declare! And Florence?”</p>
+
+<p>“Would have had to treat him just like
+anybody else, if he hadn’t heard all about
+it, and stopped calling of his own accord.
+Now, every time her father sees him, he
+asks why he hasn’t been to the house for
+so long!”</p>
+
+<p>“How unreasonable men are to be sure—Florence’s
+father, in particular. Why,
+he actually refuses to speak to Dickey Doolittle,
+whose third cousin married a British
+baronet, and who has all his garments made
+in London!” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“I know—he says it makes no difference
+to him <i>where</i> Dickey gets his clothes; so
+long as he pays for them promptly,” said
+the blue-eyed girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Which is the last thing Dickey would
+even think of doing,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, he may <i>think</i> of it,” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “I suppose
+that even Dickey thinks sometimes.”</p>
+
+<p>“You have been reading the comic papers
+again,” said the president, severely. “Whenever
+I hear old jokes I—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, sweetly, “but I had a long talk with
+your husband only yesterday.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, rousing herself from a
+reverie, “I’m afraid I’ve not been paying
+attention to the discussion. I can’t even
+remember whether we decided that women
+should be legislators or not.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sorry to hear that,” said the president.
+“I fear it is too late to go over the
+discussion again for your benefit. I thought
+you were taking notes of it as we went
+along—I saw you jotting something down
+in your note-book.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was only my calculations for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+bicycle suit. There must be something
+wrong about them, too, for I make it
+twenty-seven dollars, and I only have
+twenty-one dollars and thirty-eight cents to
+my name, even if somebody pays my car-fare
+home.”</p>
+
+<p>“I only make it twenty-six dollars and
+two cents,” said the blue-eyed girl, “and I
+have allowed for everything just the same
+as you have.”</p>
+
+<p>“But then you are so economical that
+your sums in addition always come out less
+than mine, dear. I think you had better
+go over it again; or let Evelyn do it for
+you.”</p>
+
+<p>“I make it twenty-eight dollars and sixty
+cents,” said the president. “Try it Frances,
+and see if I am right.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, don’t,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+“if anybody else adds it up, it may come
+out thirty dollars, and then I can’t afford
+it at all. Well, I do hope one thing,—that
+when women are legislators they will arrange
+that we all have more money to spend.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course they will,” said the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+“else why should they bother to be legislators
+at all?”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear! hear!” said the girl with the
+Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“What a comfort you are with your
+knowledge of parliamentary usage,” said
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I have gained that by joining this
+club, if I have gained nothing else,” replied
+the girl with the Roman nose. “I
+observe, too, that papa and the boys are
+less inclined to engage in argument with
+me than they were before they knew the
+kind of topics we discuss here. Not that
+I give myself any airs over it, of course,”
+she added.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, none of us do that,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “But there is another
+benefit which I derive from the club.
+Mamma allows me to spend a good deal
+more money on my wardrobe, now that
+she is afraid that I may begin to look intellectual
+if I’m not well dressed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, speaking of bicycle suits; did you
+ever hear what happened to Molly’s old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+one?” asked the blue-eyed girl. “No?
+Well, she was determined to have a new
+one this year, so she put the old one away
+without any moth-balls, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“It was completely ruined by the moths,
+so that she had to get a new one?” asked
+the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No, it was comparatively uninjured;
+but the moths from it had got into all her
+brother’s spring garments, which were
+hanging up near it. Molly is thinking of
+going away on a nice long visit about the
+time that he discovers it.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m; if I know anything about men,
+she had better,” said the president. “Poor
+Molly, I suppose she had meant to coax
+him for another suit. How unlucky that
+girl is, and she doesn’t in the least deserve
+her ill-luck, either.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. She often says it would be easier
+to bear if she did. Now, last year that
+very same brother was always coaxing her
+to ask Ida to pay her a visit. Finally, he
+said he’d give her fifty dollars if she would
+do it, and she thought she might as well be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+good-natured and oblige him. However,
+she was busy, and put it off a week or two,
+and when Ida’s letter of acceptance actually
+came he had fallen in love with another
+girl, and let Molly do all the entertaining!”</p>
+
+<p>“Just like a man. Did he give her the
+money?” asked the president.</p>
+
+<p>“No. He compromised on half, because
+Molly had put off asking her. And
+Ida stayed two weeks longer than she had
+been asked for, and made eyes all the time
+at the man Molly really liked herself.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, poor Molly,” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “she says the next
+time her brother offers to pay her for having
+a girl to visit her, she will send the invitation
+by telegraph!”</p>
+
+<p>“And demand payment in advance,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde; “of course he would
+be willing to pay for the telegram, anyhow.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and take it to the office, too,”
+said the president, with a sigh. “Tom used
+to send off all my telegrams before we were
+married—he always said it was too far to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+the office for me to go myself. Now, he
+says that the exercise will do me good.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he doesn’t want to pay for
+the message,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I never pay for my telegrams, I
+always send them at receiver’s cost. People
+are so curious to know what is in a telegram
+that they pay without a murmur.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m, I shall have to try that,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“But not on me,” cried the president.
+“I’ll never forgive you if you do. Oh,
+girls, did you hear the awful thing that
+happened to Milly when she sold her bicycle?
+No? Well, she only got ten dollars
+for it, because the man said it was in
+such an awful condition that he only took
+it to oblige her, and it would be a dead loss
+on his hands. He told her to come in in
+about ten days, and he’d have some second
+hand ones in such good condition that they
+would be the best bargains in town.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was very nice of him, since he
+made nothing on the transaction,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“So Milly thought. At the end of that
+time she went back, and found one that
+she liked very much, it being the same
+make as her old one. He wanted sixty
+dollars for it, but she beat him down to
+fifty, and took it home with her at once for
+fear he would change his mind. What do
+you think she found when she got home?
+That she had bought her own old machine
+back again!”</p>
+
+<p>“But how did she know that?” asked
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“By the number on the plate, goosie.
+He had put on new pedals, raised the seat a
+bit and given it a new coat of enamel—making
+forty dollars on the transaction!
+And when Milly wanted her husband to
+punish him for his rascality, he only laughed
+until she actually thought seriously of applying
+for a divorce!”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “One man will do a mean thing and
+another will uphold him. You don’t find
+women doing such things for each other!”</p>
+
+<p>“No, indeed,” said the girl with the dimple<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+in her chin; “our own standard of
+feminine behavior is so high, that we hardly
+even give each other credit for the good
+things we do!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve often noticed that,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses, “and I regret to see
+that men are unable to appreciate our lofty
+motives, and often set it down to envy.”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness,” cried the president,
+with a guilty start, “it must be long past
+time to adjourn, and I don’t want the
+janitor to look at me as he did last time we
+were late. Why, he couldn’t have been
+more unpleasant if I had been his own wife!
+And the look which always reduces Tom to
+instant submission hadn’t the least effect
+upon him!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been dying for an opportunity to
+speak to you all afternoon,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, to the blue-eyed
+girl, as they turned the corner, “I met
+Effie Bittersweet to-day, and she spoke so
+nicely of you that I am sure she thinks you
+and her brother are about to become reconciled.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“It isn’t Jack this time, dear,” was the
+calm reply. “The fact is, that Clarence
+Lighthed has been paying me a good deal
+of attention lately, and she was afraid you
+would think her jealous.”</p>
+
+<p>“Clarence! Well, I never—how on earth
+did you manage it, Dorothy?”</p>
+
+<p>“Strange as it may appear, I didn’t
+manage it at all; he did it entirely of his
+own accord. But though that is the honest
+truth, there isn’t another girl of my acquaintance
+who would even <i>pretend</i> to believe
+it if I told her.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose not, dear; and yet men must
+sometimes admire girls of their own free
+will. Well, Effie must be feeling very
+badly, then, for she said that of course she
+knew I would laugh at her for saying it,
+but for her part, she considered Dorothy
+Darling the prettiest girl in our set.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, I’ll remember that when
+Clarence calls to-morrow afternoon. You
+couldn’t persuade Effie to drop in with
+you for a cup of tea, could you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Ye—es, I suppose I could, if you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+promise to put enough rum in my cup to
+fortify me for the walk home. And I have
+always wanted to own a hand mirror like
+that silver one of yours. Do you suppose
+anybody will ever give me one?”</p>
+
+<p>“You may have mine, if you will promise
+to bring Effie in at precisely half-past
+four; Clarence will be reading poetry aloud
+by that time.”</p>
+
+<p>“I promise; and I might just as well
+stop in and get the hand mirror now. You
+won’t want me to leave you a moment to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed, I shall not. By the way, of
+course I told you that I cracked the mirror
+breaking taffy the other afternoon! No?
+Why, I wonder how I could have overlooked
+the fact.”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, dear, Ned Crœsus will
+have it mended for me—and thank me for
+letting him do it, instead of Dick. By the
+way, how can you endure so much of Clarence’s
+society? You always said he was so
+stupid.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was when he used to talk of nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+but Effie. Any man would be stupid,
+if his only theme was another girl. You—you
+couldn’t let Jack know about Clarence,
+could you? If it was any one else
+Effie would tell him the first time she was
+provoked with him. Frances will be careful
+not to let him know, and men have such
+silly ideas about interfering with other peoples’
+affairs, that I doubt if any of them
+say a word to him about the matter.”</p>
+
+<p>“I might. Yes, I know I could, if only
+I was sure that you would not blame me
+if it turned out badly.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, to think of
+refusing to do a little thing like that for me—when
+I’ve just given you that lovely
+hand mirror, which I like better than
+anything I own. I just believe you
+want Jack Bittersweet yourself, and I’m
+sure you are welcome to him, for aught I
+care!”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here, Dorothy, I think you forget
+that Jack is two whole inches shorter than
+I; and if you think I am capable of caring
+enough for <i>any</i> man to make myself look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+like a—a bean pole for the rest of my natural
+life, you are very much mistaken!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, if you are sorry to have hurt
+my feelings, of course I shall overlook it.
+I only hope, however, that you will not
+rely too much on my natural amiability and
+push me too far. If you should see Jack
+in the near future you might, as you suggested,—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, I didn’t suggest at all. You must
+just tell me what you want me to say to
+Jack and, if I get a chance, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“You are entirely mistaken. I don’t
+want you to say anything to Jack; after the
+way he has treated me, I have too much
+pride to raise a finger to bring him back.
+I only thought that, as you are a friend of
+his, you might like to warn him that there
+are others who appreciate me, if he does
+not.”</p>
+
+<p>“B—but I rather fancy that he will expect—er
+some kind of an explanation of
+the—the occurrence at your house last
+week. Suppose I just say—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, then, all I’ve got to say is, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+if Jack Bittersweet is too stupid to understand
+a simple accident, I don’t care if he
+never speaks to me again. Clarence Lighthed
+is one of the very nicest fellows I ever
+knew, and I am one of the hap—happiest
+girls in the world. Don’t look at me as if
+you thought I was crying! I am not—and
+if I was, it would be out of p—pure joy!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VIII<br />
+
+<small>An Executive Meeting</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Why, Frances, is that you? And on
+your way to the Club, too,” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, as she caught up with the brown-eyed
+blonde, “how lucky I am; I shall
+have a nice long talk with you as we go
+along! How well you are looking to-day,
+quite fresh, I declare! Dear me, I should
+have put on my gloves before I left home,
+but I was in such haste that—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, Dorothy, it seems to me
+that you are not wearing as many rings as
+usual this winter. Surely, I miss the diamond
+you used to wear!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no I’m not; so much jewelry is
+always vulgar, and rings are <i>so</i> hard on one’s
+gloves. Mercy, we have walked a whole
+block, and you haven’t told me a bit of
+news!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Haven’t I? By the way, I heard Ja—a
+man I know, say something about you
+yesterday which was quite a surprise. I
+don’t really know whether I ought to repeat
+it, or not.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he wouldn’t have said it before
+you unless he expected you to repeat it,
+dear. You must tell me what it is, or I
+shall fancy it was not really unpleasant,
+and, really I’ve had so many compliments
+of late that it will be quite a change. I am
+actually afraid that Cla—a friend who thinks
+too well of me—will make me vain, and
+that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Impossible, dear. By the way, I hear
+that Clarence Lighthed comes to see you
+occasionally now, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not oftener than once in twenty-four
+hours, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And really he has been so devoted
+to so many girls that—”</p>
+
+<p>“It is a wonder that he has never thought
+of <i>you!</i> Why so it is, now that I think of
+it. But never mind, there may be a chance
+for you yet. Pardon me, you were about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+to repeat something you had heard about
+me, and I’m afraid I interrupted you.”</p>
+
+<p>“Was I? Dear me, I have quite forgotten
+what it was; nothing very important,
+I’m sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true. By the way, I heard something
+about <i>you</i> the other day, too. It was
+extremely complimentary—so much so indeed,
+that you will think I am trying to
+flatter you, if I repeat it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed? Oh, I remember now what I
+was about to tell you. It was—so you
+really heard something nice about poor little
+me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I really did. I’ll tell you after
+you have finished your story. I really
+must not interrupt you again.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Ja—I mean the man I know—said
+the other day that he thought you—now
+you mustn’t mind this, at all, Dorothy; I
+told him at once that nobody else had ever
+said such a thing of you.”</p>
+
+<p>“How kind of you to champion me, dear;
+I really did not expect it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes; I often do it. He said—I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+wouldn’t repeat it to you, but the absurdity
+of the charge takes all the sting out of
+it. He said, ‘I consider Dorothy Darling
+the most heartless flirt I ever knew!’ Isn’t
+it too funny!” and she burst into a peal of
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl paused to pat a little
+dog before she replied: “How well you do
+tell a story, Frances, dear. Look at that
+poor, old blind man over yonder; let us
+cross over and give him some pennies,”
+and she was almost dancing as she crossed
+the street.</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he is an impostor, after all,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde. “By the way,
+you said somebody paid me a nice compliment
+the other day. Do tell me what it
+was, and if I ever get the chance—be it
+twenty years from now—I’ll do the same
+for you.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes, indeed. Old Miss Lucy
+Brownsmith said to me, only the other day,
+‘Really, Frances is quite a nice-looking
+girl now that she has given up lacing so
+tightly.’ I knew you would be so pleased.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+Well, here we are at the Club; I am afraid
+that I must have walked too fast for you,
+dear; you look quite flushed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Emily, dear,” she whispered, as
+she embraced her friend in the cloak room,
+“Jack is wild with jealousy! He told
+Frances the other day that I was the most
+heartless flirt he ever knew!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, he is ready to go half-way toward
+making up! Oh, I am so glad that
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Half-way? Do you suppose, Emily
+Marshmallow, that after allowing Clarence
+Lighthed to bore me almost to death for
+two weeks, I shall be willing to go half-way
+to make up with Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“But you said the other day that unless
+you <i>did</i> make up with him, you would
+learn to be a trained nurse and devote
+your life to others, and I thought—”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind what I said the other day—that
+was before I knew how jealous Jack
+was. And all I’ve got to say, is this: if
+you expect me to make a fright of myself
+in a gray cloak and bonnet and cotton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+gown just to please <i>you</i>, you are very
+much mistaken!”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the eyeglasses put her head
+in at the door, “Come into the club-room
+right away, girls,” she said. “Evelyn is
+here, and she has something of the greatest
+importance to tell us.”</p>
+
+<p>The president was evidently excited as
+she called the meeting to order. “I am
+just as angry as I can be,” she said.
+“What do you think I found in my mail
+to-day? A letter from a man who is old
+enough to know better, suggesting a topic
+for discussion by this club. That topic
+was, ‘The Best Method of Keeping the Hat
+on Straight.’”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t say so!” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “Well, it only shows
+that our mental advancement has made him
+uneasy.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the president. “Then,
+as if that was not enough, he suggests a
+small mirror fastened to the inside of an
+umbrella or parasol as—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw!” said the brown-eyed blonde,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+“a highly polished silver handle answers the
+same purpose and attracts less attention.”</p>
+
+<p>“Talk about hats,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “men are just as fussy about
+their own. Did you ever see anybody put
+on a man’s hat to suit him?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never,” said the president. “I had an
+awful time when Tom’s arm was broken.
+I would put on his hat as carefully as I
+could—he always would tip it too far back
+himself—and yet, each time he would remove
+it, look suspiciously into the crown,
+and put it on again himself.”</p>
+
+<p>“As if it makes any difference how a
+man looks, anyhow,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “So long as they are nice and
+generous, no girl cares—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” broke in the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “and it is frequently
+the pocket of a last year’s overcoat which
+harbors the largest box of candy.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should like to know how a man manages
+to keep his hat on without veil or
+pins,” said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“He doesn’t always do it in a high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+wind,” said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“And yet he always wonders why a
+woman holds her hat on when she is driving,”
+remarked the girl with the dimple in
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“You know what a fuss men always make
+about big theater hats,” said the president.
+“Well, thinking to please Tom, I got a tiny
+bonnet, which was so becoming that it attracted
+as much attention as a regular
+mountain of feathers and velvet.”</p>
+
+<p>“And wasn’t he pleased?” asked the
+girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Not when the bill came in, and he
+found that it cost rather more than a large
+hat. I said that he ought to be content to
+pay for the principle of a thing. He replied
+that it looked as if the interest was all about
+all he could afford. I suppose he thought
+that was sarcastic.”</p>
+
+<p>“Men have such queer ideas of humor,
+anyhow,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin; “why, I know a man who once
+laughed heartily at a joke on himself.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps he owed money to the man
+who made it, or wanted his vote for something,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I’d like to know who first invented
+hat-pins,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “I am sure it was not a woman,
+because—”</p>
+
+<p>“It was a man, and he was either an old
+bachelor or a bigamist,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I had two pins running
+straight into my scalp all during service on
+Sunday. Dick was with me, too, and it
+was so hard to look saintly when—”</p>
+
+<p>“Men always ask why we don’t tie our
+hats on, when we complain of pins,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“Wouldn’t we look nice with our jaws tied
+up like those of a small boy with the toothache?”</p>
+
+<p>“To say nothing of having our hearing so
+impaired that we couldn’t be sure whether
+compliments whispered into our ears were
+intended for us or were merely remarks
+made about other girls,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Well, girls,” said the president, “I see
+you all resent it, as I do; and I’m just going
+to write that horrid man a letter telling
+him that the Teacup Club has too many
+serious topics to discuss to waste time upon
+anything relating to millinery.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of millinery,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, “did you ever see anything as
+sweet as the new hats! I went with Elizabeth
+to select the ones for her trousseau the
+other day, and it did seem hard to me that
+a girl only has a chance <i>once</i> in her life
+to buy as many hats as she really wants,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Not to mention the fact that it is just
+at the time when she is so much interested
+in her future husband that she can’t give
+her whole mind to the subject,” broke in
+the girl with the eyeglasses. “Now, if she
+could only choose her trousseau a year after
+her marriage, instead of before.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; or even six months,” said the
+president. “Well, my new hat must cost
+five dollars less than I had hoped. I borrowed
+that amount from Tom last month;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+and—will you believe it?—he took it out of
+my allowance for this month, in spite of
+the fact that I told him I had spent it for
+his birthday present.”</p>
+
+<p>“But why didn’t you take it out of your
+housekeeping allowance? You usually do,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Because I had already taken enough for
+a half-dozen pairs of gloves out of that. It
+happened that he had not given a single
+stag dinner during the month, so I could
+not filch too much without discovery.
+When he gives a dinner, I can always pay
+myself well for the trouble of it. If he
+complains of the bills, I just say, ‘Yes,
+dear, I see that we cannot afford any more
+stag dinners,’ and that settles it at once,”
+she added.</p>
+
+<p>“I should think it would,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, thoughtfully. “Did you tell Tom
+how mean you thought it of him to expect
+you to pay back money that you had borrowed?”</p>
+
+<p>“I did. I said, ‘I wouldn’t be as selfish
+as you are for anything!’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And did that make him feel badly? I
+should think so.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not a bit. You don’t know Tom; he
+just laughed as if it was funny. Luckily,
+I had given him a silk umbrella for his
+birthday, and as he has two already, and
+this one is—er rather small, I shall get a
+good deal of use out of it myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you hadn’t one at all, had you?”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+remember the day you lost yours.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Wasn’t it nice of me to buy one
+for him when I really needed it for myself?
+But one can’t expect a man to appreciate
+generosity.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “what do you think I heard
+to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know what <i>you</i> heard,” said
+the girl with the Roman nose, “but I heard
+that Clarence Lighthed has just inherited a
+fortune from an uncle whom he had never
+seen! You know he is my cousin, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Have you just heard that,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, “He told <i>me</i> about it a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+week ago—the day you said he was
+stupid, Emily. I knew at the time that
+you would feel badly when you discovered
+that it was only—er—grief for the death of
+his uncle, which made him so quiet and
+thoughtful. Poor fellow, it must have been
+<i>such</i> a shock to him!”</p>
+
+<p>“How kind of you to comfort him in his
+sorrow,” said the brown-eyed blonde, in
+sarcastic tones.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear—especially as he could have
+his choice of comforters. I think you said
+that you, too, have a piece of news,
+Emily.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er—yes, I heard that Effie Bittersweet
+is on the verge of nervous prostration.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl said never a word;
+she looked out of the window opposite her,
+and there was a soft, sweet smile on her
+face. Perhaps she failed to see the glances
+that were exchanged by the others.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls, have you heard the awful
+thing that happened to me yesterday?”
+asked the girl with the eyeglasses. “No?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+Then, I had better tell you all about it myself.
+I had an engagement with Harry;
+we were to call on his aunt who lives in
+Rogers Park—nothing very exciting, you
+know. Well, Mr. Doolittle came in early
+to ask me if I wouldn’t go to the matinée
+with him. Now, I knew Harry would take
+me to see his aunt any day, and Mr. Doolittle
+might never ask me to go to the
+matinée again, so I accepted his invitation
+at once.”</p>
+
+<p>“You would have been very stupid if
+you hadn’t,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“So I thought. Then, I told him that
+I must stop in at the drug store and send
+off a telephone message. You see, I
+didn’t want to give Harry all the trouble
+of coming up in vain.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are always so thoughtful,” said the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I try to be. I called Harry up, but he
+was not in, and I told the office-boy to tell
+him that I was ill, and could not go with
+him to Rogers Park, but hoped to be out
+in a day or two. The boy was as stupid as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+he could be; I had to repeat the message
+twice, and even spell my name. Oh, it was
+awful!”</p>
+
+<p>“What? his stupidity?” asked the girl
+with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No; my own. As I was going out, the
+clerk stopped me, and said, ‘You needn’t
+have taken all that trouble, Miss Marion;
+you were telephoning to Mr. Vansmith,
+weren’t you? Well, that was he that just
+went out; he was standing about three feet
+away from you all the time you were trying
+to make the person at the other end of the
+line understand!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I hope your father is satisfied
+<i>now</i>,” said the president. “You have been
+trying to get him to put in a telephone all
+winter.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph; you don’t know my father
+very well, dear. When I told him about
+it, he only said that he was more fully satisfied
+than ever that women were not to be
+trusted with telephones!”</p>
+
+<p>“Then there was that horrid drug clerk,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+“why didn’t he stop you when Harry came
+in, instead of letting you—”</p>
+
+<p>“The fact is, that I knew he was trying
+to attract my attention all the time, but I
+thought that it was only somebody else who
+wanted to use the telephone in a hurry, and
+I took my own good time.”</p>
+
+<p>“He might have known you would have
+done that,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Girls, I often wonder why drug
+clerks are such gloomy, misanthropic creatures?”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear knows,” said the president; “I’ve
+often noticed it, though. And how cross a
+clerk in a shoe store always is! Strange,
+too, when they have such light, easy work.
+I tried on seventeen pairs of boots only
+yesterday, and I never was so tired in all
+my life; yet I was as amiable as possible,
+and the clerk, who had nothing to do but
+wait on me, was so rude that I thought seriously
+of having the proprietor in to hear
+of it. However, I compromised by going
+out without buying anything.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was very good of you, I’m sure,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+said the blue-eyed girl. “You know Marie
+sends to Paris for all her shoes. I never
+saw such beauties in all my life as she
+wears.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m. I know she <i>says</i> so,” returned
+the girl with the Roman nose, “but—look
+here, if I tell you something, will you promise
+never to tell it as long as you live?
+Well, then, I spent the day with Marie last
+week. She had a lovely new pair of shoes,
+and I tried my best, without asking
+directly, you know, to find the name of
+the Parisian boot-maker, and how much
+she paid for them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course you didn’t find out,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Marie
+can be as impervious to a hint as a man.”</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Well, she got ready to go out
+with me, and just as we were ready to start
+she was called out of the room. Her boots
+were all in the closet, and I—well, somehow
+I just happened to be near the door, it
+was ajar, and I stooped down to look at the
+maker’s name on them, when—oh, girls,
+the door behind me suddenly flew open!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, it was Marie herself!
+What did—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, it was the maid. She said: ‘Will
+you please tell Miss Marie, when she comes
+in, that Cashly has sent up for the pair of
+boots she didn’t take. The boy is waiting
+in the hall.’”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I never,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+“But I’ve always said that if I sent to Paris
+for my boots I’d have better looking ones
+than <i>she</i> gets!”</p>
+
+<p>“But then Marie gets a great deal for her
+money, dear, even if the boots themselves
+are not of a superior quality,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Very true. By the way, who went to
+Marie’s tea yesterday?” said the girl with
+the dimple in her chin; “I did not. Since
+the founding of this club I have cared less
+and less for gossip and society, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Then you didn’t mind not receiving an
+invitation to Marie’s after all!” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “I must tell her that.
+She said yesterday that she didn’t expect
+you to speak to her for a month.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“By the way,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, hastily, “Dick made rather a
+good suggestion yesterday. He said why not
+have a phonograph, or even a stenographer,
+in the room while we are discussing a topic;
+then we could have copies made, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“That reminds me,” said the president,
+and she rapped loudly for order. “Girls,
+do be quiet. We have a very important
+question to decide to-day. A number of
+men have expressed a desire to become
+members of this club, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“I vote against it,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “We can all express our
+real opinions now, knowing they will go no
+further, whereas—”</p>
+
+<p>“No club man can ever keep a secret,”
+broke in the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “As for us, we would die rather than
+divulge—”</p>
+
+<p>“They are so curious, too,” broke in the
+girl with the classic profile. “We have all
+talked so much about our meetings that
+they want to know how they are conducted,
+that is all.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, that is just it,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “and once in they would spoil
+all the originality of it by having rules and
+all that. Then they’d go away and say
+that we couldn’t get along without them.”</p>
+
+<p>“The idea!” said the president, “when
+that’s the very reason I set our time of
+meeting in the afternoon!”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here,” said the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“of course we don’t want to offend
+them. Why not have a ‘man’s day’ once
+in a while?”</p>
+
+<p>“So we might,” said the president; “but
+we had better wait until we get all our new
+things. Well, I suppose, since we are all
+agreed, that we had better not waste time
+in voting on it. I’m awfully glad to see
+you here, Elise; I was afraid you would
+not be able to come.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I was determined not to miss it,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “I left
+word for them to tell the doctor I was
+asleep if he called in my absence. I have
+been troubled with insomnia, you know,
+and he would tell them not to disturb me.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+Of course, he gave me strict orders not to
+go out, but he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Will never know that,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Oh, such a time as I had
+last fall when I was ill! You see, papa
+was going to make me go to Philadelphia
+to stay with old Aunt Borely. I—I was
+not very well, anyhow, so I took to my
+bed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and you had that nice young doctor,
+too,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh, why am I so brutally healthy!”</p>
+
+<p>“I did, and he cured me of my particular
+ailment,” went on the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I had a most becoming light in the room
+the first time he called, and what do you
+think he did? Pulled every window-shade
+up to the top, until I looked a perfect fright—and
+he young enough to know better!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw!” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “All doctors are horrid. Why, I
+once had such a handsome one that he sent
+my pulse away up every time he felt it. I
+did look so horrid that one day I—I put on
+a little rouge just before he came. In consequence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+he said I had a high fever, and
+put me on a milk-and-water diet for three
+days, besides giving me—”</p>
+
+<p>“Like the mean thing I had last year,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin.
+“I had a cough, and wanted a trip to
+Florida; instead, I got a pair of overshoes,
+a lot of flannels, and a mackintosh.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Well, I don’t believe my
+doctor is a good one; he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Is too ugly to be a really good one,
+anyhow,” broke in the blue-eyed girl.
+“Fancy being delirious, and seeing that
+creature enter the room!”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, “I wonder why ugly
+men are always having their photographs
+taken and expecting one to keep them
+hanging up where one can see them constantly!”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“they hope it may be a case of</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">“But seen too oft, familiar with its face,</div>
+<div class="verse"><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">We first endure, then pity, then”——</span><br /></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="unindent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>No, I don’t mean that,” she broke off,
+blushing.</p>
+
+<p>“I should hope not,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, in shocked tones. “I should be sorry
+to think that any member of this club—”</p>
+
+<p>“The very queen of clubs,” broke in the
+president; “that is what Tom calls it—when
+he is in a particularly good humor, I
+mean. I think we had better adjourn
+now,” she added; “Elise really ought not
+to be out late, and I am wild to tell Tom
+that men will not be admitted to membership.
+Doesn’t the doctor do that pain in
+your chest any good, Elise?”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t suppose that I told him anything
+about that, do you?” cried the girl
+with the Roman nose. “I hope I am not
+so silly as that—with Elizabeth’s wedding
+coming off in a week, and my lovely low-cut
+gown all ready to wear to it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Just wait one moment,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “I haven’t
+got to-day’s topic down in my note-book.
+What did you say it was, Evelyn?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness!” cried the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+turning pale, “here we have had a
+meeting, and I have forgotten to suggest
+any topic—and not one of you thought to
+remind me of it! Oh, I am afraid that all
+my efforts to advance you intellectually are
+wasted, after all!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses, “this has been an executive
+meeting, anyhow.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, so it has,” said the president,
+kissing her; “what a comfort you are,
+Marion dear. Tom’s handsome cousin is
+coming home from Montana next week
+with a lot of money, and you shall be the
+very first girl to have an introduction to him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Have you seen Jack Bittersweet lately?”
+asked the girl with the eyeglasses, as she
+linked her arm in that of the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, after the meeting had
+dissolved.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, he came to see me yesterday. I
+was in agony all the time he was there, lest
+Dorothy come in. I knew she would never
+believe that it was the first time he had
+done it since they quarreled!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Of course she wouldn’t. Did he ask
+your advice?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. So does she—but neither of them
+take it.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t expect that, I hope. Well,
+did you find out if he still cares for her?”</p>
+
+<p>“He does. I sat on the sofa, in my
+prettiest house-gown, and he took a chair
+six feet away. He didn’t even tell me
+that fewer men would go to the dogs if
+there were more women like me in the
+world!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I only hope that they will soon
+come to their senses, that’s all. Dorothy
+looks like a ghost, and as for Jack—”</p>
+
+<p>“If they don’t,” cried the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, savagely, “I shall just
+have to spend a month or two in a sanatarium.
+And I’m not sure that that will
+save my life,” she added.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter IX<br />
+
+<small>On the Use and Abuse of Political
+Power</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“The absurdity of some people!” said
+the president, pausing as she was about to
+call the meeting to order. “What excuse
+do you suppose Elizabeth gave for not asking
+me to look at her pretty things? She
+said she fancied I had grown too intellectual
+to care for gowns and hats!”</p>
+
+<p>“How ridiculous! She had probably
+heard that you do not intend to send her a
+wedding present,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“I haven’t told a soul but the members
+of this club that I shouldn’t give her
+one,” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Then she couldn’t possibly know it,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, hastily.</p>
+
+<p>“What enrages <i>me</i>, is the insinuation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+that I have ceased to care for pretty things,
+just because I study politics, and—er—other
+things. I don’t see why intellectuality
+has anything to do with doing up
+one’s hair with three hairpins, or—”</p>
+
+<p>“Wearing gowns which are frayed around
+the bottom,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “neither do I. And, yet they
+seem to be somehow connected in people’s
+minds.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the president. “Girls,
+the editor of a literary journal has asked for
+some of the papers which have been read
+before this club. He says—”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, what answer shall you make?”
+cried the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“I told him that I could not think of such
+a thing. I always disliked notoriety. It
+was very kind of him, though, and he even
+offered to let the authors of the papers have
+copies of their effusions at reduced rates,
+provided they took over a hundred.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which, of course, they would,” said
+the blue-eyed girl. “Well, you were quite
+right to refuse, Evelyn. I, for one, have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+such a horror of publicity, and, besides, it
+would be quite expensive sending copies to
+all one’s acquaintances.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the president; “we are all
+in accord, as usual. Let us discuss, ‘The
+Use and Abuse of Political Power,’ to-day.
+It is a subject which is of the greatest importance
+to all of us, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“How do you spell ‘political?’ With
+one <i>t</i> or two?” asked the girl with the eyeglasses,
+as she opened her note-book.</p>
+
+<p>“With one—no, two. Pshaw, I can’t
+remember. Just write it indistinctly.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy,” whispered the girl with
+the dimple in her chin, “I saw Dick this
+morning, and he says Jack told him yesterday
+that he didn’t really know what your
+quarrel was about, but he meant to go and
+see you to-day, and ask you to forgive
+him!”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall,” said the blue-eyed girl; “and
+I don’t mind confessing to you, Emily,
+that I, too, may have been just the merest
+possible bit in the wrong. I’ve felt it right
+along, but I couldn’t admit it, until he— What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+shall I wear when he comes to see
+me?”</p>
+
+<p>“You might wear the blue gown he
+always admires so much.”</p>
+
+<p>“So I might. You know I wore a blue
+gown the day he asked me to marry him,
+and he said I must keep it always. Of
+course, this isn’t the same one, but I am
+careful to have each succeeding one the
+same color, and he doesn’t know the
+difference. Perhaps I have told you this
+before.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think you have, dear—once or twice,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin,
+demurely.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. I don’t mind letting you know,
+Emily, that I have missed him a good deal.
+Why, I had his photograph—the one I pretended
+to have lost, so I needn’t send it
+back—out when you knocked at my door
+to-day. You couldn’t have helped seeing
+me thrust it under Clover’s cushion, if you
+hadn’t thought something was wrong with
+your boot heel, and stooped down to
+see.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“You don’t say so. Well, all I’ve got
+to say is, I wish I might see Frances’ face
+at the wedding!”</p>
+
+<p>“You shall, dear. I’ll ask her to be
+bridesmaid, and you, as maid of honor, can
+have a good chance to watch her. You
+have been such a faithful friend to both
+Jack and myself that you deserve at least
+that much satisfaction.”</p>
+
+<p>“Look here, Emily and Dorothy, I am
+afraid you are not attending strictly to the
+discussion,” said the president. “The
+topic is— Frances, what on earth has made
+you so late?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was all an accident,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde; “I stopped for you, Dorothy,
+on my way to the club. The maid said
+you had gone already, and I was just coming
+away when I noticed that your little
+dog—what is his name? Rover? Ah,
+Clover! I knew it was something like
+that—was chewing something at the back
+of the hall! I went to see what it was,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness gracious! Not my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+new sixteen-button gloves,” wailed the
+blue-eyed girl. “I’ll give that dog away to-morrow!”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear, not your gloves. It was a
+photograph. Just as I was trying to get
+the pieces away from him, Ja—I mean Mr.
+Bittersweet—came up the steps with a huge
+bunch of violets. He must have seen me
+standing in the hall; you know the door
+was open.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “that checked gown of
+yours speaks for itself!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—ah, where was I? Oh—he succeeded
+in getting the fragments away and—really,
+it was too funny! It turned out to be a
+photograph of himself! I told him that
+I was almost sure that you didn’t give
+it to the dog purposely, Dorothy; but I
+am afraid I didn’t quite convince him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed; and where are the violets?”
+asked the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“you don’t seem to be wearing them!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—no. Ja—I mean Mr. Bittersweet—threw
+them at the dog. You will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+find them right by the stairway, Dorothy,
+dear; but I’m afraid they are not in very
+good condition. What is to-day’s topic,
+Evelyn?”</p>
+
+<p>“‘The Use and Abuse of Political
+Power,’” said the president, in a faint
+voice. “Will somebody open the window,
+please; I need air!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Evelyn,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, after the president had announced
+that she felt better, “I do hope
+you are not sitting up at night studying,
+and that sort of thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—no, I believe not. The fact
+is I’ve been going to a good many dances
+of late on Tom’s account.”</p>
+
+<p>“But Tom doesn’t go, does he?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. B—but everybody knows how
+fond of dancing I am; and if I didn’t go
+they would say he kept me at home. I
+don’t want Tom to pose as a tyrant, you
+know!”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not. You—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. The only thing which makes me
+feel uncomfortable is the angelic way in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+which he bears my absence. It isn’t like
+Tom, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Clarence—my cousin you know—was
+saying only the other day, that he thought
+you an angel to allow Tom and his friends
+to smoke in the drawing-room, just because
+you happened to be out,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I wonder if that—”</p>
+
+<p>“To smoke in the drawing-room!”
+shrieked the president, turning pale. “I’ll
+go home this minute, and tell him what I
+think of such a proceeding. No, I won’t,
+either; he is at the office, and it would not
+do any good! I never suspected such a
+thing and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, then the smoke couldn’t
+have done the rugs and curtains much harm,
+after all, if you never noticed the odor.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s the principle of the thing, my
+dear. What hurts me, is the fact that my
+husband respects my wishes so little, when
+I only go to dances to keep people from
+thinking ill of him, too! Well, one thing
+sure, I’ll have all new curtains and carpets—since
+mine are ruined with smoke—if he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+keeps on talking about hard times until he
+is black in the face!”</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder why men are always talking
+about hard times,” said the girl with the
+classic profile; “women never say anything
+about them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Unless they are driven to it,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “My sister’s
+husband wanted to have his mother
+come for a nice, long visit, but she told him
+that she hardly thought they could afford it
+in such hard times. You see he had just
+made that excuse for not doing up the
+house.”</p>
+
+<p>“With the result?” queried the girl with
+the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“That he decided to have the house done
+up at once! And, after all, the old lady
+only stayed about a week. Helen says she
+can’t imagine why she went, unless, she
+was offended at her suggestion that she
+might like to take a course at the cooking-school
+while she was here.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I don’t blame Helen, at all,”
+said the blue-eyed girl. “No man has a right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+to be dyspeptic before he is married, and
+her husband was. Everybody ought to
+have a fair chance, and Helen’s cooking
+might not have given it to him for years.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, he can’t blame <i>her</i> for his
+dyspepsia—and that is something,” said
+the president. “Girls, does any one know
+why Josephine has given up her lessons at
+the cooking school?”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose she has made one really good
+loaf of bread, and doesn’t want to tempt
+fate again,” said the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“That is not the reason,” said the girl
+with the eyeglasses, “she is engaged to a
+man who knows how to cook, so there is
+no use for her to waste any more time
+over it. She is studying political economy
+now.”</p>
+
+<p>“And a very good thing, too,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, “for the
+way money is wasted on elections, is really
+shocking!”</p>
+
+<p>“Hear! hear!” cried the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Of course I don’t want to
+have men as members of this club, but I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+can’t help wishing sometimes that a few of
+them might hear Emily and Evelyn when
+they are attacking political abuses and
+monopolies.”</p>
+
+<p>“For my part, I don’t see why they
+haven’t thrust the privilege of suffrage
+upon us long ago,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses. “Then they would have somebody
+to blame, when civic and national
+affairs go wrong!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw,” said the president, “that isn’t
+necessary at all. They can come home and
+scold because dinner is late, or the hall gas
+is unlit, and so relieve their feelings just
+the same.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t want to vote,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “It
+is ever so much nicer to do as the men do
+with our housekeeping—just criticise that
+which we can never display our ignorance
+by attempting to do ourselves.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is only your sweet modesty, dear,”
+said the girl with the classic profile.
+“What do you think Mr. Bonds said the
+other day! Ah, I was so indignant! He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+said it was a mistake to say that women
+could not throw stones.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see why you were indignant at
+that,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “It
+seems to me—”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t that. It was what came
+afterward. He said he knew it was a libel
+for they could—at each other! And every
+man in the room laughed as if he had said
+something clever!”</p>
+
+<p>“I declare,” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+“it is enough to make a man-hater of me.
+If only people would not say that it was because
+of some particular man who failed to
+admire me—”</p>
+
+<p>“There is no danger of it being laid to
+the door of any <i>one</i> man in your case,
+dear,” said the blue-eyed girl. “Is that
+your new gown that you are wearing to-day,
+Frances, dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes. Quite a novelty, isn’t it.
+How do you like it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Very much indeed, dear. I stopped
+and looked at it hanging in the cleaner’s
+window the other day, and thought how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+well it looked. You remember, don’t
+you, Dorothy, my calling your attention to
+it?” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Quite well. I thought at the time that
+it was well she had not attempted to clean
+it herself. By the way, Helen’s little boy
+said such a clever thing the other day. We
+were speaking of favorite perfumes, and
+how nice it was to always use the same one,
+and he said: ‘I know what is Miss Frances’
+favorite perfume. Her gloves always smell
+of it.’ ‘And what is it?’ Helen asked.
+‘Gasoline,’ said the dear little fellow. Did
+you ever hear anything so clever in your
+life?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily,
+“speaking of gloves: I had a letter from
+Pauline the other day, and such a heart-rending
+thing had occurred to her. A nice
+man was buttoning her gloves one day, and
+he said she had the hand of a fairy—Pauline
+seemed to think that an original remark.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it was the first time she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+ever had it said to her,” replied the blue-eyed
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Um—perhaps it was. She said carelessly,
+‘Do you think so? Why, I consider
+it quite large. I wear a number six.’ She
+was sorry for that afterward.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he looked in the other glove,
+and—saw that she had made a mistake,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. But, shortly after that, they
+made a bet of a dozen pairs of gloves, and
+Pauline won. Oddly enough, she didn’t
+know it until the gloves arrived. They
+were number six, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, she could exchange them for a
+larger size; he would never know the difference,”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Not in this case, dear. He had had
+her monogram embroidered on the top of
+each pair. And now he is offended that
+she does not wear them!”</p>
+
+<p>“How exactly like a man,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “Now, I
+have too high a regard for truth to—”</p>
+
+<p>“Waste it on such a little thing as that?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+I know,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Well, I hope Pauline’s mishap will be a
+warning to you.”</p>
+
+<p>“She might say that she could not accept
+such a gift from a masculine friend,”
+thoughtfully suggested the girl with the
+classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“But she had thanked him very prettily,
+and said they were just her size, and how
+did he know it? before she discovered that
+she could not exchange them! Oh, I just
+don’t see any way out of it. I told Tom
+about it, and he said, ‘Pshaw, let her tell
+him the truth, and be done with it.’ And
+yet Tom is very clever—for a man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed he is,” said the blue-eyed girl,
+warmly, “he is one of the few people who
+always understands a joke when I tell it.
+Just because I leave out a little bit of it,
+some people—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the
+classic profile, “I’ve been waiting for a
+good chance to tell you that Eunice is
+married!”</p>
+
+<p>“Is it possible?” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+eyeglasses. “I remember that she always
+said people ought to know each other very
+well before they <i>were</i> married. That was
+why she went for a long visit to that Kansas
+girl whose brother was so much in love
+with her. She married <i>him</i>, I suppose.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er—no. You see, he asked her,
+and she said she could not give him an answer
+until she concluded her visit. They
+would know each other much better then.”</p>
+
+<p>“And she refused him, after all?” said
+the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no. For some reason he failed
+to renew his offer, after her visit was over.
+She had known the man she married exactly
+three weeks when they became engaged.”</p>
+
+<p>“And the engagement lasted?”</p>
+
+<p>“Just a month, dear. And she was so
+busy all the time with the trousseau that
+she hardly had time for a word with him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it was just as well,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Has the man she
+married any money?”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose so. He was thirty-four, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+a bachelor. A very poor man would have
+married long before he was as old as that.
+By the way, speaking of the abuse of political
+power, Mr. Dickenharry tells Nell that
+if he is really elected to the office he hopes
+for, she will have to ask all sorts of people
+to her receptions, in order that—”</p>
+
+<p>“And what did Nell reply to that?”
+asked the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, she just smiled and let it go. It
+will be much easier to manage all that after
+they are married. She says he is so busy
+now that she doesn’t like to thwart him
+unnecessarily. Nell is always so thoughtful
+of the feelings of others.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed she is,” said the president.
+“Anyhow if she is obliged to ask all those
+awful people to her receptions, she can snub
+them thoroughly if they accept. Oh, she
+is just the ideal wife for a politician; how
+she will help him!”</p>
+
+<p>“That is just what she says herself,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin, “and
+she also says that she wants to join this
+club as soon as her trousseau is off her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+mind. She thinks our debates on political
+subjects will be of great benefit to her. In
+the meantime, she wants me to make
+notes of the discussions, and let her have
+them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and let Mr. Dickenharry make use
+of all our original ideas in his speeches!”
+cried the president, hotly. “I am surprised
+at you, Emily, for—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I didn’t say I meant to do it, dear;
+I only said she wanted me to. It is so
+much easier to promise a thing, and then
+forget it, you know. Girls, I went to see
+dear old Mrs. Pepperly yesterday, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“What, that cross, disagreeable woman!”
+cried the brown-eyed blonde. “What on
+earth made you do such a thing?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I always liked her, dear. When I
+got there, I was <i>so</i> surprised. Her son is
+home from Mexico on a visit, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, don’t you remember, Emily, I
+told you that on Sunday?” said the president.
+“I mentioned that he had made a
+lot of money there, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“How strange of me to forget it; I believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+I do remember it now. We used to
+be quite friends before he went away, too;
+which makes it all the stranger. Do you
+know, I’m afraid I shall have to accept one
+of those lovely Mexican opals he brought
+with him, or hurt his feelings! I’d hate
+to do that, too, when I haven’t seen him
+for so long.”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, what is Mrs. Pepperly’s
+number?” asked the brown-eyed blonde.
+“I—I have been meaning to call on her for
+ever so long. What a clever, original
+woman she is!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, do go. She said she expected you
+would come to see her now. I’m afraid
+you will not have an opportunity to see the
+opals though. Her son has given all the rest
+of them to her, and they are at the jeweler’s
+being set. And, by the way, he insisted
+so that I had to let him have mine set
+for me. I don’t know what Dick will say,
+but really I could not hurt the feelings of
+such an old friend by refusing—and of
+course he knows nothing of Dick!”</p>
+
+<p>“For my part, I consider opals unlucky,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+said the brown-eyed blonde. “I wouldn’t
+wear one for anything!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve heard others say the same thing,
+dear,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin; “but luckily they were people who
+were not likely to have the chance! So
+far as I am concerned, the good luck of
+receiving such a handsome present will
+quite overbalance anything unpleasant
+which might follow!”</p>
+
+<p>“Nobody ever had such ill luck as I
+have, and I never owned an opal in my
+life,” wailed the girl with the classic profile.
+“You know how unpleasant my Aunt
+Clara is, don’t you? Well, the poor old
+soul seemed so lonely in that great big
+house that I asked her to make me a nice
+long visit, knowing that she intended to go
+abroad soon, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“She might take you along. Good!”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “Did
+she accept?”</p>
+
+<p>“She did. Said she would stay three
+whole months. At the end of that time,
+she expects to marry a delicate clergyman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+with three grown daughters, and take the
+whole party to Europe.”</p>
+
+<p>“And that is all the compensation you
+receive for thinking of others!” cried the
+girl with the Roman nose. “Shall you let
+her come?”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall not. I shall tell her that unless
+she hears from me within two weeks, she
+may know that I am down with a threatened
+attack of scarlet fever. She has a horror
+of illness, and wild horses couldn’t drag
+her here after that. But I shall have an
+exciting time with my sire, if he ever finds
+it out!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, your father may never find it
+out,” said the girl with the eyeglasses;
+“and if he did, you could simply say that
+you really thought you were getting scarlet
+fever, and only concealed the fact from him
+to save him anxiety.”</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon me, but you forget that I am a
+younger daughter. Papa has already had
+so much experience with my sisters that I
+have to be very careful in my explanations.
+This thing of being the third daughter is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+as bad as marrying a widower—worse, for
+that is voluntary.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not always—on the part of the widower,”
+said the blue-eyed girl. “Dear,
+dear, how queer some things are! I know
+a pair of twins, and one of them is called an
+old maid, the other a young widow. If
+anybody can explain—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, I know a brother and sister who
+have hair of the same identical shade. He
+is called red-headed while she is a Titian
+blonde,” said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“And I went to school with a girl who
+was always called snub-nosed by everybody
+but the man she married,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “he said her
+nose was ‘tip-tilted, like the petal of a
+flower.’ Can you explain that?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said the president, shortly, “she
+has money. Oh, girls, I went to the photographer’s
+last week, and I haven’t had
+the courage even to snub my sister-in-law
+since I got the proofs. Indeed, sometimes
+I almost feel grateful to Tom for marrying
+me—though of course I don’t let him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+know that. You have no idea how I felt
+when—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes, I have,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, with a shudder. “I once knew an
+awfully nice man, who turned out to be an
+amateur photographer. He took two hundred
+and seventy-five pictures of me one
+summer, and I used to know just who my
+enemies were. They would pretend that
+they recognized me in them all!”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s nothing,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “I once appeared as
+Cinderella at a charity entertainment, and
+an amateur photographer took a picture of
+me in costume. My foot was thrust forward,
+and oh, girls, it looked the size of a
+pumpkin. And the photographer actually
+took credit to himself because the face was
+an excellent likeness!”</p>
+
+<p>“I was once photographed by an amateur,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde; “he
+said my picture was his masterpiece. I
+always keep it on my dressing table during
+Lent,” she added.</p>
+
+<p>“I once knew an amateur photographer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+quite well,” said the girl with classic profile,
+“but for each photograph he took of
+me I made one of him!”</p>
+
+<p>“With the result—” said the president.</p>
+
+<p>“That he gladly bartered his collection
+for mine. Somehow, we haven’t been
+very good friends since. I often think
+things might have turned out very differently
+if he hadn’t bought that camera;”
+and she sighed, softly.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, girls,” said the president, “I am
+afraid that we must adjourn, though I had
+hoped we might find time for a social session
+after the day’s work was concluded.
+However, I promised both Tom and the
+dressmaker that I’d meet them at five
+o’clock. She won’t wait, and he will; so
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“But why not make him go to the dressmaker’s
+with you,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Because I want to tell him just what I
+think of his behavior—smoking in the drawing-room,
+just because I happened to be
+out. If he once heard Madame contradict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+me in the way she does, I could never hope
+to produce any impression on him again.”</p>
+
+<p>Emily and Dorothy walked home in
+silence, and the former noticed, with alarm,
+that Dorothy did not attempt to protect
+her skirts from the mud. When they
+reached her door, she turned and said:</p>
+
+<p>“If I am not here when you come to-morrow,
+you may know that I have gone to
+take up social settlement work, and devote
+my time to the poor. If you never see me
+again, you may know that I forgive all my
+enemies. It may make Frances feel better,
+though I must say that she does not
+deserve it.”</p>
+
+<p>“And Jack, dear; what shall I say to
+him?”</p>
+
+<p>“If it is any comfort to him, you might
+say that I do not regret my fruitless efforts
+to make peace with him. I hope you will
+think of me sometimes at work among the
+poor and the afflicted. And now, good-bye—perhaps
+forever!”</p>
+
+<p>Emily had walked perhaps a block, when
+she heard her name called once more.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes, what is it,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>“If you know any one who wants a nice
+little dog, send him to me. I—”</p>
+
+<p>“What! You surely don’t mean
+Clover?”</p>
+
+<p>“I just do. After what has happened
+to-day, I never want to see the little beast
+again! And, Emily—!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“If you were in my place, would you
+wear the blue or the geranium pink gown
+at the dance to-night?”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter X<br />
+
+<small>Woman as a Parliamentarian</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“Oh, dear me,” said the president, “I
+don’t see why men can never understand
+things.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m,” said the brown-eyed blonde.
+“Are we to understand that you have just
+discovered that fact?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” said the president,
+“but I’ve just had an argument with my
+husband—that’s why I am late to-day,
+girls. He will insist that this club ought to
+have a constitution and by-laws, and a lot
+of other unnecessary things, in spite of the
+fact that we get along nicely just as well
+without them.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose he would like to draft them
+for us,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “That is always the way with men.
+When they see women doing anything well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+they always want to come in, and take the
+credit of it.”</p>
+
+<p>“So they do,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “I suppose he would want
+us to have parliamentary rules, too—as if
+anybody would obey them! Anyhow, it is
+only a man who can do but one thing at a
+time. I suppose it is necessary in a club of
+men that only one person have the floor at
+a time, and all that sort of thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose it is,” said the president, “no
+man that ever lived could tell what anybody
+else was saying while he was talking himself.
+Well, I only wish they could see how
+orderly our meetings are, and how well we
+keep to the subject in hand, without any
+rules or regulations. By the way, let us
+discuss ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ to-day.
+What do you say?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, pshaw,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “you said the subject was to
+be ‘Woman as a Factor in the Business
+World,’ and I was to speak on it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, you can use the same line of
+argument, anyhow; I forgot to tell you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+that I had changed my mind. Girls, do be
+quiet while she reads her paper on—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, but I am not prepared, anyhow,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “I was
+obliged to stop in the midst of it to write
+the invitations for my five o’clock tea. A
+nice job it was, too, for I just couldn’t get
+all I wanted to say on a card!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I heard a man saying only the
+other day, that you write the most charming
+notes he ever read,” said the girl with
+the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you for telling me, dear. I shall
+use the telephone exclusively after this—the
+idea of living to know that everybody
+says when you are spoken of, ‘Yes, what
+charming notes she does write.’ Think of
+knowing that you are expected to be brilliant
+when you write to say you can’t come
+to dinner because your face is swollen, or
+to ask how to take coffee stains out of your
+new evening gown.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know all about that,” groaned the
+brown-eyed blonde; “once in an evil hour
+somebody called me ‘vivacious,’ and I’ve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+cultivated three wrinkles in trying to live
+up to it. Think of having to be vivacious
+at a church sociable, or when the man to
+whom you have just been revealing your
+views on the subject of friendship turns out
+to be engaged!”</p>
+
+<p>“Awful!” shuddered the girl with the eyeglasses,
+“but pity me, all of you. People
+who like me always say that I am a delightful
+conversationalist; those who do not,
+simply remark that I talk all the time.
+Sometimes, when I am low-spirited, it seems
+to me that there is not much difference between
+the two.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but think of me!” moaned the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “Somebody
+once discovered that I had a ‘little
+head running over with curls,’ I calculate
+that I have spent a fortune in patent curlers
+and alcohol lamps since then!”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose that is why you wouldn’t go
+to the seashore with me last summer,” remarked
+the president. “Well, for my part,
+I only wish I knew who it was that first
+called me a ‘nice little woman’—it’s as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+bad as being named Smith or living in a
+row!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, I wouldn’t mind that a bit,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose, “there’s
+nothing like a reputation for amiability—you
+can be as ill-natured as you please,
+once it is gained.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, you seem to forget that I have
+a husband to remind me of things,” said
+the president. “Well, there is one person
+I don’t envy, and that is Barbara.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph, I don’t think she is so beautiful,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose;
+“for my part, I think her nose might be
+called a snub.”</p>
+
+<p>“Neither do I,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin; “the lower part of her
+face is actually coarse.”</p>
+
+<p>“Say what you please,” said the president,
+“she has the reputation of being a
+beauty, and if she doesn’t look as well as
+usual she just has to stay at home. She
+has a cold now, and her complexion is
+awful.”</p>
+
+<p>“Is it?” said the girl with the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+nose, “I must certainly stop in to see her
+to-day. I never saw her when she had a
+really bad cold.”</p>
+
+<p>“And so shall I,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “she really ought not to be
+neglected when she is ill.”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall go, too,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin. “And by the way, Dick
+has been teasing for an introduction to her
+for ever so long. This will be the very
+time to take him to call on her—when she
+is certain to be at home, I mean.”</p>
+
+<p>“I understand,” said the president; “it
+is very thoughtful of you to want to cheer
+up the poor thing. Girls, shouldn’t you
+love to see her face when she finds that
+Emily has brought a strange man to call
+when her complexion is in such a condition.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I don’t suppose that she will mind
+Dick,” said the brown-eyed blonde; “nobody
+else does, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, sweetly. “Of course he
+has eyes for nobody else when I am in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+room; but I did not expect you, Frances,
+to acknowledge as much.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Dorothy,” cried the president,
+“here you are, at last! It isn’t like you
+to keep anybody waiting—that is, of course,
+except a man; they are accustomed to it,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, does Dorothy ever keep a man
+waiting?” said the brown-eyed blonde,
+elevating her eyebrows. “I had understood
+that she usually met them in the
+front hall when—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear, but then I am always dressed
+to see masculine callers. I have so many,
+you know. Why, Evelyn, I would not
+have been late for the world, but my new
+gown—”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t blame you for it,
+dear. I couldn’t have helped making a
+dramatic entry in such a poem myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it wasn’t that which made me late,
+dear. I fancied there was a tiny wrinkle in
+the back of the waist. After examining it
+in every mirror in the house, I discovered
+that it was only the way I twisted my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+shoulders to look at it, which made the
+wrinkle.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I am glad that your mind is at
+rest about it, anyhow,” said the girl with
+the eyeglasses, “one’s back is so defenseless.
+Annie once sat behind me at the theater,
+and I endured agonies lest the bow at
+the back of my collar was crooked. When
+we came away, I found that she had actually
+been so absorbed in the people on the
+stage that she didn’t know I was there. I
+had been wanting to see that play for
+months, and, to save my life, I couldn’t
+have told you a thing in it after I saw it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know just how you felt,” said the
+president, “I once went to a matinée with
+Eustace just before Tom and I were married,
+and I expected to have great fun, because
+there was so much danger of being
+found out. Toward the end of the first
+act, I heard that horrid Miss Blanque in the
+seat back of me, saying, ‘Oh, Tom, what
+would she say if she knew!’ I can tell you
+that my blood boiled when I thought of
+such duplicity, and I was tempted to turn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+and wither them on the spot with a single
+glance!”</p>
+
+<p>“And did you?” eagerly asked the girl
+with the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—er, no. I thought Tom might
+ask why I had come with Eustace, though
+that was very different.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very different, indeed,” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “And did you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I didn’t enjoy that play a bit. I
+told Eustace I had a headache at the end
+of the second act, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“No doubt by that time it was true
+enough. Such duplicity in one whom you
+trusted was—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. And he had always said he did
+not admire Miss Blanque at all. Well, I
+went home and wrote him a scorching note.
+I said that but for Eustace, I should never
+have discovered that he was flirting with
+another girl while pretending to think of
+nobody but me!”</p>
+
+<p>“That was quite right. I hope he was
+ashamed of himself!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no; he wasn’t. He had been at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+a stockholder’s meeting all that afternoon.
+My own father was there, and he called
+him as a witness! And I actually had to
+explain why I had gone to the matinée with
+Eustace!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my goodness, how awful!” cried
+the girl with the Roman nose. “But you
+said you heard Miss Blanque call him
+Tom!”</p>
+
+<p>“So I did. It was Tom Dashaway who
+was engaged to Elaine. And wasn’t it a
+joke? She never found him out at all!”</p>
+
+<p>“It is awfully hard to get ahead of a
+man,” sighed the girl with the classic profile;
+“and it is the irony of fate that when
+one <i>does</i> succeed in doing it, the victory is
+usually of such a character that, in order to
+retain it, one must say nothing at all about
+it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh, I am so enraged with Harold
+that I feel ready to die! I had an engagement
+with him on Saturday afternoon,
+and I forgot all about it and went out with
+Marie. I never thought of him at all until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+I saw him coming up the street, and then I
+dragged Marie into a shop. I was so excited
+that she thought a mad dog was coming,
+and almost created a scene!”</p>
+
+<p>“And did he recognize you?” asked the
+blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid so. He didn’t come, as
+usual, on Sunday; and I took the dilemma
+by the horns, and wrote him a note, saying
+that I remained at home all Saturday afternoon
+expecting him; and why didn’t he
+come, as he had promised?”</p>
+
+<p>“Good idea!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin; “then, he would think he
+had mistaken some one else for you. You
+could pretend to be very much offended at
+that, and so snatch victory from the very
+jaws of defeat.”</p>
+
+<p>“So I thought. But his reply—oh, I
+knew I should die of rage! It said: ‘My
+dear Miss Marion: Pray pardon me for
+quite overlooking my engagement with you
+on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I know you
+were at home—for I saw you at the window
+as I passed!’ And as long as I live, I shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+never be able to tell that man what I really
+think of him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, you can tell everybody else—and
+that is almost as satisfying,” said the
+president; “more so, perhaps; for then you
+need not hear what he has to say in
+reply.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am so glad to see you looking so well
+to-day, Dorothy, dear,” whispered the girl
+with the dimple in her chin; “it pleases me
+to see that you still take an interest in
+dress, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Pray, why shouldn’t I take an interest
+in dress? Really, Emily Marshmallow, you
+are the queerest girl I ever did see! Here,
+you see me trying to conceal my poor
+broken heart with smiles, and then you begrudge
+me the slight pleasure I take in appearing
+decently clad. And when I mean
+to go and teach in a free kindergarten—well,
+next week, and wear a black gown
+with white collar and cuffs for the rest of
+my natural life!”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t mean to begrudge
+you anything, dear. And Jack says that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+he is sure that if you would just see him,
+he could explain the whole thing—”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, you have been on his side all
+along. That is the way of the world;
+everybody sympathizes with the one who
+is in fault, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“He said that he was hurrying to catch
+up with you on the street yesterday, and
+that Frances—this is what he says, dear—not
+knowing what he was doing, called him
+to rescue her hat, which had blown away.
+By the time he had done it, you were out
+of sight. You see, Dorothy, he seems to
+fancy that you are—well, rather nice to
+Clarence, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I thought Clarence was coming.
+So I am rather nice to the one human being
+who really understands me, am I? Well,
+you may just tell Jack Bittersweet that I
+shall keep on being nice to him as long as I
+choose—and he might know me well enough
+by this time to be sure that I shall keep my
+word!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Dorothy, you surely are not
+crying, are you?” cried the brown-eyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+blonde. “Do tell me what is wrong; perhaps
+I can help you.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am afraid not, dear. I was just telling
+Emily that there is so much trouble in
+the world that I sometimes feel actually
+guilty when I think of my own absolutely
+cloudless existence! By the way, have you
+heard that Clarence Lighthed has just
+bought that pretty place in Astor Street,
+which was for sale? He must think that
+my knowledge of architecture is valuable,
+for he told his agent to make an offer for it
+just because I admired it so much!”</p>
+
+<p>“Poor Effie Bittersweet,” said the president.
+“I—ah, I don’t know what has made
+me think of <i>her</i> just at this time, but Madame
+told me yesterday that she had been
+obliged to alter all her gowns for her. They
+are a full half-inch too loose, she says!”</p>
+
+<p>“Really? Is Effie ill?” cried the blue-eyed
+girl, in surprise. “How odd that you
+never thought to mention it, Frances! I
+should have gone to see her immediately,
+had I known it. Pray, tell her so when
+you see her next.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“If you are so anxious to see her, why
+not go with me, and tell her so, yourself,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde, dryly.</p>
+
+<p>“In this gown? and when all of hers are
+at the dressmaker’s! I couldn’t think of
+doing such a mean thing. I only thought
+that as you are always at her house, you
+could take a message for me; that is all.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tom says Clarence asked him the other
+day, if he didn’t consider that the best
+thing a fellow could do was to marry some
+nice girl, and settle down,” said the president,
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes? And what did Tom say?” asked
+the girl with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“He must have said ‘yes,’ dear; otherwise
+he wouldn’t have dared to mention
+the occurrence to me at all.”</p>
+
+<p>“What <i>I</i> am wondering,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, innocently, “is: what on earth
+made Clarence ask him such a question?”</p>
+
+<p>“Sheer curiosity, dear,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, sweetly; “what other reason
+could he possibly have had? By the way,
+girls, have you noticed that Marie is showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+great strength of character lately? She
+has broken with Mr. Mushley, and actually
+refused to send back any of his presents.
+She says the sight of them could not fail to
+remind him of his loss, and she would rather
+have people speak unkindly of her than
+cause him unnecessary pain!”</p>
+
+<p>“How sweet of her,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “I only hope he will
+appreciate her consideration. Girls, what
+do you think Elizabeth told me the other
+day? Why, that all the photographs of
+girls my brother saw when he called on
+Fred belonged to a man with whom he
+used to room, and he was only keeping them
+until he happened to run across him again.”</p>
+
+<p>“And she believed him?” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, scornfully.
+“How silly some girls are, to be sure!
+They believe anything a man tells them.
+To be sure, Dick was telling me the truth
+when he said that he only wrote all those
+sonnets to Clara as a joke; but that was
+very different.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very different,” said the girl with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+classic profile. “Girls, I heard to-day that
+Jack Bittersweet is thinking of throwing up
+his partnership, and emigrating to Australia.
+I beg your pardon, Dorothy, did
+you speak?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, dear, I was about to say that I
+think ‘Woman as a Parliamentarian’ is the
+most interesting topic we have ever discussed.
+By the way, I wonder if the climate
+of Australia is as unhealthy as some
+people think! I—I am so fond of Effie
+that I should hate to have anything happen
+to her brother.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think Effie could bear it, dear,” said
+the president, “even in her present state of
+health. She says Jack is so cross that a
+hyena would be amiable by comparison.”</p>
+
+<p>“Jack Bittersweet cross!” cried the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Why, he is one of
+the nicest fellows I ever knew, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“But after all, you are hardly a judge of
+masculine dispositions, dear,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin. “Your acquaintance
+with the sex has been so limited,
+you know. Oh, Evelyn, I’ve been intending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+to ask you if we can’t take up theosophy,
+and discuss it thoroughly at one of our
+meetings in the near future. I am so anxious
+for a thorough knowledge of it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed we can,” cried the president,
+heartily. “You don’t know how pleased I
+am to hear you say that, Emily,—well, if
+there is one thing this club can safely pride
+itself upon it is its thoroughness; and I
+am sure that is more than most organizations
+can do—!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know it,” said the blue-eyed girl;
+“why, my father belongs to a club which
+has taken six months to study the financial
+problems of Europe and the United States.
+They are not yet through discussing the
+subject—and yet they have the temerity to
+call themselves students!”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope you have pointed out to them
+the superiority of our system over—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, no, dear; somehow it does not
+seem wise to discuss such a subject with
+one’s father. Dear, dear, do you suppose
+that girls were so very different in the days
+when our fathers were young?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Humph, no,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose, “but they were much more
+afraid of remaining single. Besides, our
+fathers were young, too, in those days, and
+ever so much easier to please. Still,” she
+added, thoughtfully, “I don’t know that
+it is altogether that. No one is so easily
+subjugated as an elderly man who has become
+a widower. It is so long since girls
+have really tried to make themselves agreeable
+to him, that all their little ways are
+new to him.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m, yes—unless he has grown daughters
+of his own,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see what difference that makes.
+They don’t try their little ways of—of being
+nice on <i>him;</i> and seeing them tried on
+some one else is very different.”</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t it?” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Now, for instance, it is very interesting
+to have a man pay one compliments;
+but how it does bore one to hear
+him say the very same things about another
+girl!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Doesn’t it? and yet, such is the selfishness
+of man, that he expects one to be as
+much interested,” said the girl with the
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” cried the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “you know that old Mrs.
+Myllons is always making presents to Barbara
+and me! Well, one day in the beginning
+of the season she called for me to go
+shopping with her. Of course, I went.
+Now, it was not long after Barbara had encouraged
+her to give me that awful picture
+of Burns, and I was as eager for her to
+select a present for Barbara as for me. I
+knew I could direct her choice in either
+case. To my joy, she stopped to look at
+silks, and her choice fell upon a hideous
+piece of green which would demolish Barbara’s
+complexion completely—and I really
+think that girl would sooner part with her
+life than her complexion. I managed to
+convey to Mrs. Myllons my personal preference
+for a lovely pink which cost a dollar less
+a yard, while encouraging her to buy the
+green. You see she was planning her reception,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+and Barbara and I were to assist
+her on that occasion.”</p>
+
+<p>“So she took it, did she?” said the president.
+“I only hope I may see Barbara in
+the green!”</p>
+
+<p>“You never will,” wailed the girl with
+the dimple in her chin—“it was for me!
+Mrs. Myllons sent it with a lovely note
+complimenting me on my unselfishness in
+wishing Barbara to have the handsomer
+piece. I dare not refuse to wear it at the
+reception; and my own father actually says
+it serves me right for trying to play a joke
+on Barbara!”</p>
+
+<p>“You must not expect sympathy from
+your father, dear,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “he will expect you to wear
+that gown all season, to save buying another.
+And nothing will ever happen to it,
+either,” she added. “It is only the gown
+that is dearer to you than life itself which
+has a fatal attraction for cups of coffee or
+fowls carved by inexperienced hosts!”</p>
+
+<p>“Did I ever tell you of the awful thing
+which happened to me last winter?” said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+the girl with the classic profile. “I believe
+not, though; we hadn’t started our club
+then. Well, I just had to have a new
+gown, and I was so afraid that my father
+wouldn’t give it to me that I got it without
+saying a word to him. I knew that
+even if there was a cyclone over the bill
+I’d have the gown anyhow. That being
+the case, I got a much handsomer one than
+I would have chosen under other circumstances.”</p>
+
+<p>“Quite right,” said the president; “if
+there must be an unpleasant scene, better
+have it over something which will fully
+repay one.”</p>
+
+<p>“So I thought. Well, the gown only
+came home the evening of my sister’s
+dance; and I really wanted to enjoy that,
+so I decided not to give papa the bill until
+the next day, though the dressmaker was in
+a great hurry for her money.”</p>
+
+<p>“They always are,” sighed the president.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. I was having a lovely time until
+supper was served, and then Mr. Rocksby
+emptied a plate of lobster salad over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+whole front of my new gown! Florence
+was near; she never got farther away from
+him than—than she could help; and—well,
+you all know how he admires amiability!
+He apologized profusely, and I, smilingly,
+said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t make the least difference.
+The gown is of no value at all, and
+I should probably never have worn it again,
+anyhow.’”</p>
+
+<p>“How lovely of you!” said the blue-eyed
+girl. “It must have made a deep impression
+upon him.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m, I don’t know about that; but it
+did upon me. I happened to turn my head
+just then, and papa was at my elbow! I’d
+rather not tell you the things he said when
+I gave him the bill for that gown the next
+morning!”</p>
+
+<p>“We can all guess,” said the blue-eyed
+girl, with a shudder. “But wasn’t Mr.
+Rocksby awfully nice to you after that?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, he wasn’t. He said that the girl
+who cared nothing for the destruction of
+such a handsome gown was too extravagant
+to make a good wife for a poor man!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+And the hardest part of it all was the fact
+that he must have lots of money, else he
+never on earth would speak of himself as
+‘a poor man!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Let us hope your father never found
+that out,” said the president, in devout
+tones.</p>
+
+<p>“But he did. He overheard Mr. Rocksby
+saying it to Florence; and that was one
+of the things he mentioned when I gave
+him the bill.”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor dear!” said the president. “I
+declare it really depresses me to hear of
+such persistent ill-luck. Well, girls, since
+we have thoroughly exhausted our subject,
+I think we may just as well adjourn.”</p>
+
+<p>The blue-eyed girl went home with the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, and after
+they had begun to sip their tea, she said:</p>
+
+<p>“Is it true that Jack intends to go to
+Australia unless our quarrel is made up?”</p>
+
+<p>“He—he <i>says</i> he will,” was the cautious
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, I want to know what you intend
+to do in the matter?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“What I—intend to do in the matter?”
+she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Of course it is thoroughly in your
+hands. I have not made a single move
+without consulting you, and being guided
+by your advice. And if the quarrel is
+never made up, and I die of a broken heart,
+it will be entirely your fault!”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XII<br />
+
+<small>The Club Investigates Theosophy</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“We will discuss to-day: ‘What Theosophy
+Really Teaches,’” said the president, as
+soon as she could make herself heard.
+“You expressed an earnest wish to study
+it,’ Emily, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Did I?” asked the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, looking surprised. “I had quite
+forgotten it. However, I have been so
+busy with my new hats and the chairmanship
+of a committee appointed to instruct
+tenement house mothers as to the best
+method of bringing up children, that I have
+had no time for anything else.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+classic profile. “How grateful those poor
+ignorant people must be for your instruction!”</p>
+
+<p>“M—I don’t know about that. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+times, I am very much discouraged. One
+woman said she would gladly allow her children
+to wear two fresh aprons a day, if I
+would pay for the washing of them. Another
+said that she had already raised six
+children without my assistance, and she believed
+she could worry on without it a bit
+longer. Still another was so stupid that
+she couldn’t be made to understand how
+I, who had never had any children, was
+able to offer her such valuable suggestions.”</p>
+
+<p>“As if it depended on experience,” said
+the president. “The theory is ever so much
+more important.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was what I said to the woman
+who— You knew that I had resigned
+from that same committee, didn’t you?”
+said the girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no; this is the first I have heard
+of it. And you were so enthusiastic, too!
+What on earth has made you change your
+mind?”</p>
+
+<p>“A woman. She—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I thought, perhaps, it was a
+man,” said the brown-eyed blonde.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“No. I am not as easily influenced as
+you are, dear. This woman lived up six
+flights of the dirtiest stairs I ever saw. I
+wondered at the time why she didn’t ask
+the landlord to have an elevator put in;
+probably she hadn’t thought of it. She
+lived in two rooms, and you never saw such
+awful poverty in your life. I thought, as
+she was so awfully poor, she couldn’t have
+much feeling, so I told her plainly that she
+could never expect her children to love and
+honor her if she did not at once give them
+each a hot bath, and put up fresh curtains
+and a pot or two of flowers in the windows.
+Everybody knows how cheap curtains are
+nowadays—not the real lace ones, of course,
+but—”</p>
+
+<p>“Tamboured muslin and all that,” said
+the president. “Was she grateful for your
+interest in her?”</p>
+
+<p>“I fear not. She looked at me, earnestly,
+and said: ‘You’ve been to one of
+them, haven’t you? I’ve always wanted
+to see somebody that had!’”</p>
+
+<p>“Was the woman mad?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I was afraid so, and I began to back
+out of the door, when she called, ‘Mary
+Ellen! oh, Mary Ellen! come right in here
+this minute! Here is a lady who has been
+to one of them there beauty doctors we was
+talking about yesterday! She must be awful
+old, for she’s brought up a lot of children;
+and come here to teach me how to raise
+mine; and if that beauty doctor ain’t fixed
+her up so she looks real young!’”</p>
+
+<p>“And did Mary Ellen come?” asked the
+girl with the dimple in her chin, sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know. I didn’t wait; but I
+am almost sure I heard several people
+laughing as I came down-stairs. After this,
+I shall devote my energies to foreign missions
+or something like that. If the heathens
+are not grateful for my efforts in their
+behalf, they at least express themselves in
+a tongue I don’t understand; and they are
+too far away for me to hear them, even if I
+<i>could</i> understand!”</p>
+
+<p>“Their ingratitude is awful,” wailed the
+president. “Well, I’m glad you have told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+me all this. Otherwise, I never could have
+had courage to tell you my last experience
+with visiting the dwellers in the slums as a
+member of the ‘Society for Procuring Better
+Ventilation in Other People’s Bedrooms!’
+I called on one woman, who really
+seemed impressed by my arguments; she
+was quite polite, and never took her eyes
+off my bonnet all the time I was talking to
+her. I was so pleased with her that I gave
+her my address, and told her I would let
+her have a lot of pamphlets on the subject,
+if she would send for them. I knew I
+could not get one of my maids to carry
+them into that district, and besides her
+husband could easily come for them. He
+was a street paver, and no doubt would be
+glad to get the exercise.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course,” said the blue-eyed girl.
+“Did he come?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. But she herself walked in on my
+reception day a few weeks later. She wore
+a bonnet which was a perfect caricature of
+mine. She said she hoped I would forgive
+her for delaying the returning of my call so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+long; and didn’t I think my reception-room
+was too warm to be quite healthy?”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you ever hear of such impertinence!
+and in your own house, too!”
+said the girl with the eyeglasses. “What did
+the other members of the society say?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know. I resigned, by telephone,
+as soon as Tom and the doctor succeeded
+in bringing me out of my fainting
+fit.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no wonder,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin, sympathetically. “And
+yet, people complain that we take so little
+interest in the poor! Only a real philanthropist
+can appreciate the rebuffs we receive.
+The only thing which helps us to
+bear them, is the knowledge that we are
+doing such incalculable good.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is very sweet and good of you to feel
+so,” sighed the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I don’t know that I am quite so magnanimous,
+myself. Oh, Catharine, dear; you
+were speaking of Mr. Rocksby the other
+day. Did you ever hear the end of his affair
+with Florence?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Why, no,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “I only knew that it <i>had</i> an end.
+How on earth did you find out about it?”</p>
+
+<p>“I heard that she and Effie had fallen
+out, and I asked Effie all about it. Of
+course she was glad enough to tell. It
+seems that there was a dance at the club in
+Arcadia, and Florence went out to stay
+with the Brownstones and attend it. Mr.
+Rocksby happened to meet her at the station,
+and went out with her, intending to
+return by the next train. It turned out
+that there was no train back until midnight,
+so the Brownstones invited him to dine and
+go to the dance with them. They even
+brought out a dress coat of Mr. Brownstone’s
+for him to wear, and Florence told
+Effie that he looked as if he weighed twenty
+pounds less when he put it on.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s really wonderful the way people
+always help Florence along,” sighed the
+girl with the classic profile. “Nobody ever
+does such things for <i>me</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>“I fancy Florence wishes they hadn’t
+for <i>her</i>, dear. Well, he was lovely to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+at the dance, and after a while he coaxed
+her out on the balcony for a quiet talk.
+Before she fairly knew what he was about,
+he had fallen heavily on his knees and said,
+‘Florence, I—’ when she heard the queerest
+sound, and he sprang to his feet, with his
+hand on his back!”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, I hope the poor old
+soul hadn’t hurt himself?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; I believe not. But he had split
+Mr. Brownstone’s dress coat from top to
+bottom. And though Florence tried her
+very best, she never could coax him to finish
+the sentence he had just begun!”</p>
+
+<p>“Poor Florence! No wonder she says now
+she thinks a man looks better in cycling
+garb than anything else. The sight of a
+dress coat must be enough to make her ill.”</p>
+
+<p>“I should think so,” said the president.
+“By the way, speaking of theosophy, I
+wonder why its stout and elderly devotees
+wear such flowing white robes? The
+younger ones seem content with short
+hair and general dowdiness.”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, you will be wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+next why politicians always wear diamonds
+or why dressmakers invariably appear in
+old-fashioned gowns,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose; “and I must say, frankly, that
+I can’t answer either of those questions.
+By the way, Evelyn, I suppose I am to
+congratulate you. I hear that Tom has
+just inherited ten thousand dollars.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know whether you may congratulate
+me, or not,” said the president.
+“Sometimes, I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! Then, there is no truth in the
+report?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, it is true enough, but I don’t
+know whether I am to be congratulated or
+not. You see, I was getting along very
+well as we were, and now I see that I need
+a lot of things I never thought of before—more
+than the extra income could possibly
+cover—and I shall be absolutely wretched
+unless I can have them.”</p>
+
+<p>“But you will have some of them, anyhow,
+won’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m not sure. Tom talks now of putting
+all the money into his business. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+that case he will be obliged to work harder,
+because he will have more at stake; he
+says, also, that I shall have to be more
+economical than ever because every cent
+will be needed to extend his operations.
+On the whole,” she added, thoughtfully,
+“I am rather sorry his aunt is
+dead. It was ever so much nicer when
+she was living, and I could spend the
+expected legacy royally, in imagination, at
+least.”</p>
+
+<p>“You poor dear; to think of having cause
+to regret the death of a wealthy relative,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, “but—er—couldn’t
+Tom put you on the pay-roll as a clerk, or
+something?”</p>
+
+<p>“I did suggest that; but he said he’d
+rather pay me a salary to stay out of
+the office. I haven’t spoken to him
+since.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you know, I always think it a mistake
+to stop speaking to any one,” said the
+blue-eyed girl; “it seems unkind, and then
+one loses the opportunity to say unpleasant
+things to them, too.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I believe you are right,” said the president.
+“No married man seems to appreciate
+speechless indignation, anyhow.”</p>
+
+<p>“I must see you alone a moment, Emily,
+dear,” whispered the blue-eyed girl. “Can’t
+you come with me down to the other end
+of the room, and let me pretend to straighten
+your hair?”</p>
+
+<p>“With pleasure, dear,” replied Emily,
+but there was no alacrity in her voice;
+“only we must not stay too long lest
+Frances suspect something.”</p>
+
+<p>“What if she does? She would only think
+we are talking about her—and I doubt if
+that would make her particularly comfortable.
+It is about Jack. Perhaps, you can
+pardon his behavior, but for me the last
+link which bound us is broken, and I feel
+now that I can start for India as a missionary
+without a pang!”</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness, what has he done now?
+I’ve been afraid all along, Dorothy, that
+you would put off the reconciliation too
+long. While he confines his attentions to
+Frances, it is all right; but some time he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+will find out that there are a number of nice
+girls in the world, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Frances has nothing to do with it,” she
+replied, with great dignity. “It happened
+this way: I was coming home about dusk
+yesterday—you remember how it rained,
+don’t you? Well, I was so miserable that I
+didn’t even attempt to hold up my skirts—it
+was a kind of a comfort to let them get
+thoroughly draggled. A gust of wind blew
+my umbrella to one side, and I saw Jack
+and Mr. Bonds just ahead of me. By the
+way, did you ever notice that—er—there is
+a certain likeness between those two?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve always said they looked enough
+alike to be brothers. Don’t you remember,
+dear, when you were first engaged to Jack,
+you wouldn’t speak to me for two weeks
+because I mentioned the fact?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I don’t remember. Well, all of a
+sudden, I felt that I could forgive Jack all
+if I could just lay my head on his shoulder,
+and hear him say that he was sorry.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy, dear, I am so glad! He
+told me this morning that he—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“If you will kindly allow me to proceed,
+without interruption, I will explain how
+that is now impossible. I was wondering
+how Mr. Bonds could be gotten rid of, so
+that Jack could go home with me and apologize
+comfortably before dinner; when he
+suddenly left him and ran up the Vansmith’s
+steps. Jack was walking slowly,
+and I just shut my eyes, and made a dash
+to catch up with him. My own voice
+sounded like a fog whistle, as I said: ‘W—wait
+a moment; I—I wish to speak to you.’
+And, oh, Emily—”</p>
+
+<p>“You surely never mean to say that Jack
+wouldn’t stop when you called?”</p>
+
+<p>“It wasn’t Jack. It was Mr. Bonds;
+Jack had gone into the Vansmith house!
+But, oh, Emily, if he really loved me, he
+would have known that I was right behind
+him, ready to forgive and forget. I shall
+sail for India some time next week, and if I
+never return, you—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, Dorothy, Jack is only too anxious
+to make up. He says that a lover’s quarrel
+is worse than a Welsh rarebit for keeping a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+fellow awake at night. And he told me to
+tell you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Emily Marshmallow, if this is all
+the interest you take in our discussion of
+theosophy, we might as well adjourn, and
+go to a millinery shop or an afternoon tea,”
+said the president, with some asperity;
+“and, after all the trouble I’ve taken in
+reading everything the dictionary and the
+encyclopædia have to say on the subject, I
+think you might at least pay attention to
+my remarks!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Evelyn, I really beg your
+pardon. I shall borrow Elise’s note-book,
+and study it all out before I sleep. There
+is nothing so productive of a good night’s
+rest as half an hour’s solid reading after
+one is in bed. Why, the other night, I
+took a book on philosophy to bed with me,
+and before I had read six sentences I was
+asleep. I never woke till nine o’clock in
+the morning, and the gas was blazing all
+that time. I doubt if I’d have waked then
+if somebody hadn’t knocked at my door.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was the sweet consciousness of duty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+well performed,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Now, if your book had been
+a really interesting novel, you would have
+been awake half the night.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
+profile, “and been as yellow as a primrose
+in the morning. I often say that a few
+pages of really good literature just before
+retiring is the best thing in the world for
+the complexion. One girl I know says
+she always reads her Bible then; but I
+don’t approve of that—if one falls asleep
+suddenly, allowing it to drop heavily upon
+the floor, it is sure to awaken the other
+members of the family. If I do that, my
+father—”</p>
+
+<p>“I know,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, plaintively. “Mamma says
+that if I take any more solid reading to
+bed I may confront papa with this month’s
+gas bill, when it comes in, for she absolutely
+refuses to do it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw, men are all alike; though I
+didn’t use to think so,” said the president.
+“Now, I always forget all about the topic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+for discussion until half an hour before it is
+time to start for the club. A man would
+say that he hadn’t time to prepare for it,
+but a woman’s courage never deserts her.
+I am all ready at the appointed time, even
+if I have to tell the cook to have anything
+she chooses for dinner. Now, Tom thinks
+I ought to be ready by the day before, even
+if I have to give up a tea or a luncheon to
+do it.”</p>
+
+<p>“The idea!” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Really, women have so many
+things to do nowadays that is a wonder
+they find time for them all; and yet,
+men seem to expect them to be just as good
+housekeepers as they were when they had
+nothing else to do. I regret to see that
+the sexes have not progressed equally.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed they have not,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde. “Who ever heard of the
+new man? And if there <i>was</i> such a creature
+he would no doubt be so effeminate
+that nobody would care anything for
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic profile,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+“sometimes, I fear that Helen’s husband
+will develop such proclivities. Of
+course it is only a harmless eccentricity
+which makes him sew on his own buttons—I
+can overlook that. But the other day he
+was getting ready to go down town while
+she was out on her bicycle. Just because
+she was wearing one of his shirts and a collar
+and tie of his, he dressed up in that
+lovely lace collarette of hers, and was
+actually going out with it on! What would
+people have said of a man who appeared in
+such feminine attire!”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, I hope he is not losing
+his mind,” said the president. “However,
+if he is, Helen is always ready to supply
+him with a piece of hers. By the way,
+girls, what queer questions men do ask!
+Several of Tom’s friends dined with us last
+evening, and they actually wanted to know
+why a stout woman always selects a tiny
+dog for a pet, while a wisp of a woman will
+be tugging at the chain of an enormous
+mastiff. I simply told them that they
+must not be so curious, for, though I would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+not confess it to <i>them</i>, I really could not
+answer the question.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you were quite right,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, indignantly; “by and by,
+they will actually expect us to give a reason
+for everything we do! Which is palpably
+absurd, since we so often do things
+without any reason at all!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, luckily, we are not responsible
+for anybody,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Oh! I just wouldn’t be a man
+for anything in the world.”</p>
+
+<p>“Would anybody, if he could help it?”
+queried the brown-eyed blonde. “Of
+course, they all pretend to like it, but one
+can easily see the hollowness of the pretense.
+Why, they would not be half so
+anxious to criticise our actions if they
+didn’t feel that we have the best of things.
+Of course, I would not be a man for anything—”</p>
+
+<p>“Nor I,” said the president, “and have
+to give up my comfortable seat in a street
+car every time a woman entered.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“But of course it is only right for them
+to give up their seats to us,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly, it’s right. Only I shouldn’t
+like to have to do it myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not. Or to have to pay for
+pretty things for somebody else to wear.
+Or to have to drop a nice book, and go out
+in the rain to escort home a girl who had
+been calling on some one else,” said the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Or to have to buy candy for
+somebody else to eat,” said the girl with
+the classic profile.</p>
+
+<p>“M’hm. Or to have the nearest woman
+manage one, without one being aware of
+the fact,” said the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“I know! Or to have to fall in love with a
+girl, and marry her, just because she had
+made up her mind that one should,” said
+the blue-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Well, really the poor things have
+a great deal to endure, though many of
+their sufferings are mercifully hidden from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+them,” said the girl with the dimple in her
+chin. “But, after all, we are very nice to
+them, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course we are,” said the president;
+“we wouldn’t get nearly so many things
+out of them, if we were not. Girls, I hear
+that Annie has finally decided to marry
+Nelson.”</p>
+
+<p>“I thought she had done that long ago,”
+said the brown-eyed blonde. “Talk of a
+woman not knowing her own mind. That
+man never—”</p>
+
+<p>“He knew his own mind well enough,
+dear. It was only about Annie’s that he
+was doubtful,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “Annie told me herself
+how it came to be settled. She said that
+she couldn’t decide whether to accept him
+or not—”</p>
+
+<p>“Which means that she had done all she
+could, and was doubtful whether he would
+do the rest,” said the brown-eyed blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps so. At any rate it was still
+uncertain until last Tuesday. He had been
+out of town for several days, and returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+unexpectedly. Annie had gone out to
+mail a letter, and just as she raised the lid
+of the letter-box she saw him coming up
+the street toward her. As they walked away
+together, she glanced down and saw that
+she still held her letter in her hand, but her
+pocket-book was gone!”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness, you don’t mean to say that
+she—”</p>
+
+<p>“I do. She said she knew at once that
+she must care a good deal for a man whose
+sudden appearance was enough to make her
+post her pocketbook instead of a letter—so
+she said ‘Yes.’”</p>
+
+<p>“As soon as he asked her,” said the
+brown-eyed blonde. “Well, what he can see
+in <i>her</i>, I’m sure <i>I</i> don’t know!”</p>
+
+<p>“What <i>she</i> can see in <i>him</i> puzzles me,”
+said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully. “I
+don’t see how any girl can really love and
+honor a man who wears red neckties; do
+you?”</p>
+
+<p>“For <i>my</i> part, I can’t see what they see
+in each other,” said the president, thoughtfully.
+“Well, I really think Annie ought to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+give me a handsome present, for it was I
+who brought it all about.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, did you speak ill of her to Nelson?”</p>
+
+<p>“No; but I told Tom the other day that
+I didn’t believe that girl would ever get
+married. And when I make a remark like
+that about any girl, she may as well set
+about selecting her trousseau, for somebody
+is sure to propose to her at once.”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet, I doubt if Annie would be
+grateful to you, if you told her,” said the
+blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“One must not expect gratitude in this
+world, dear. The consciousness of having
+done one’s duty is reward enough for a
+right-minded person. By the way, Emily
+dear, I hear that Dick says he will positively
+wait no longer. You must give him a decisive
+answer one way or the other, or
+he—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; but he hasn’t yet screwed up the
+courage to tell <i>me</i> so, dear. When he
+<i>does</i>, it will be time for me to make up my
+mind. I do wonder,” she added, thoughtfully,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+“why a girl who has one lover
+already, is sure to win the affections of another
+man?”</p>
+
+<p>“Cause and effect,” said the president,
+gloomily. “I never thought of buying that
+new hat until I heard Helen tell the milliner
+it was too expensive for her. After I
+got it home, I found it didn’t match a
+thing I possessed. I just believe Helen said
+that before me for meanness, knowing I
+would be compelled to buy it, then. And
+now the milliner absolutely refuses to take
+it off my hands. I threatened to withdraw
+my trade if she didn’t; but it had no
+effect. She knows I have more hats
+already than I need for this season, and by
+the time they are all worn out—and paid
+for—I shall have forgotten all about it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But why not pay your bill at once, and
+open another with somebody else? That—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t care to let Tom see the old bill
+just now, dear. It wouldn’t matter ordinarily,
+but since he inherited that money
+from his aunt he is feeling unusually poor,
+and it might cause a family unpleasantness.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“How thoughtful you always are, Evelyn!
+Really, the study of theosophy
+seems to have developed your character
+wonderfully. I do hope you will explain
+it all thoroughly to me,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose; “I am really so stupid
+that even after to-day’s discussion, I feel
+that I do not fully understand it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps at some future time,” said the
+president, hastily. “I am sorry to say
+that we really must adjourn now. My
+mother-in-law is coming to dine with us,
+and I don’t want her poking about the
+house in my absence.”</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XII<br />
+
+<small>A Discussion and a Surprise</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>“‘Civic Organizations Among the Ancient
+Greeks,’ will be our topic for to-day,”
+said the president. “And, oh, girls, I am
+so angry with Tom that I would go right
+home to mamma, but for the fact that she
+always agrees with him. Papa invariably
+thinks <i>I</i> am in the right; but he would say
+unpleasant things about Tom, and I
+shouldn’t like that, either. The consequence
+is that I must just endure my
+martyrdom in silence.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, what is wrong? Is it about that
+legacy from Tom’s aunt?” queried the girl
+with the Roman nose. “Dear me, I often
+think it’s so hard that really poor men are
+usually nicer than those that have money.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see why you always think of
+money in connection with me,” said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+president. “Heaven knows, I am not mercenary,
+and I only want to live well and
+dress properly, in order that people may
+see Tom is not stingy. No, this is quite
+another matter. It all came from the topic
+I selected for to-day. I was talking, rather
+learnedly, about ‘Civic Organizations
+Among the Ancient Greeks,’ when Tom
+asked me suddenly what ward I live in! Of
+course, I didn’t know—”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, neither do I,” said the brown-eyed
+blonde, “but it must be the same one,
+for we both live on the north side!”</p>
+
+<p>“I really don’t know, either,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “I don’t
+see what difference it makes though, for I
+could ask the clerk at the corner drug store
+if I needed particularly to know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course you could,” said the president,
+“and so could I. But, Tom was
+awfully unpleasant—he couldn’t have been
+more so if we had been married twenty
+years instead of two. He said he didn’t
+see any use in my poking about among
+the civic organizations of ancient Greece,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+when I did not know what ward I lived
+in.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! I suppose next thing he will
+be saying that he doesn’t see any use in
+the Teacup Club,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, in sarcastic tones. “A man
+will say anything when he is angry.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! I fancy he will hardly say
+anything like that, dear. He knows it has
+its use, if it is only to make me look more
+leniently on his own club. When we first
+organized it he complained a good deal
+about the demands it made on my time and
+attention, and I just said: ‘Oh, very well,
+dear, let us both give up our clubs, and
+spend all our spare time at home together.’
+After that, he held his peace on the subject.”</p>
+
+<p>“But you wouldn’t have given it up,
+would you?” asked the brown-eyed blonde,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not—but Tom didn’t know
+that. By the way, Emily, what is making
+Dorothy so late to-day?”</p>
+
+<p>“I fancy she is engaged,” replied the girl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+with the dimple in her chin, demurely; “at
+least Jack Bittersweet was on his way to
+call on her a couple of hours ago, and I
+suppose—Pardon me, Frances, did you
+speak?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I was about to say, ‘how nice’—for
+Dorothy, I mean. By the way, girls, I—I
+am thinking of going to Omaha for a nice,
+long visit as soon as I can get ready.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I thought you had already refused
+Lola’s invitation,” said the girl with the
+dimple in her chin.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I had. But, really I have bought
+so many pretty things of late that I can get
+ready for my visit without the slightest
+trouble, and as my last visit was cut short,
+I—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I remember that quite well, dear.
+I remember that you came home a few days
+after Dorothy broke with poor Jack. But
+I don’t understand why you have been
+embroidering so much table linen lately.
+You surely will not need that for a visit to
+Omaha.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—no. I—I shall take it as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+present to Lola’s mother, I think. You
+have no idea of how fond she is of me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed, I have, dear,” said the girl
+with the dimple in her chin, warmly.
+“I’ve often noticed that married women
+who have no grown sons <i>are</i> fond of you.
+It is rather a pity, as things turned out,
+that you cut your last visit short; I am
+really afraid, if you go now, that you will
+miss Dorothy’s wedding.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, dear, she will not miss it
+herself. Really, I think the poor girl
+would have lost her mind if she had lost
+Jack. These disappointments are so hard
+to bear that—”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall tell her that you said so, dear.
+I am sure she and Jack will both—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the president, hastily,
+“do you suppose that Greek women used
+actually to wear those dowdy gowns on the
+street? Of course they would do very well
+for tea gowns, but—”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t suppose anything of the kind,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “It
+was chiefly the men who made the antique<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+statues, wasn’t it? Very well, then, the
+poor creatures had no idea of style, and
+just reproduced the gowns they happened
+to admire themselves.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
+profile; “men always detest the ruling fashion
+of the hour. And yet, they seem to
+think we dress to please them,” she added,
+derisively.</p>
+
+<p>“I know it. And the women of ancient
+Greece were just like anybody else, I suppose,”
+replied the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“However, if they really wore white as frequently
+as they seem to, they must have
+had more money than I have to pay the
+laundress.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, or the principal street of Athens—I
+forget the name of it, must have been a
+good deal cleaner than State street,” said
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “I
+don’t suppose, however, that the carving
+of statues could have made much dirt, and
+really the ancient Greeks seem to have done
+little else.”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate their system of civic organization<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+was—dear me, what was it? I had
+it all written down on the back of an invitation
+to dinner, and I must have lost it as
+I came along,” wailed the president. “Oh,
+dear, what shall I do?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind, you can tell us what you
+remember,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose, soothingly. “None of us know
+enough about it to detect the fact if you
+<i>are</i> wrong.”</p>
+
+<p>“It isn’t that; I’ve got it all at home in
+the old school book I copied it from. But,
+as I say, it was on the back of an invitation
+to dinner, and I can’t remember whether
+it was for next Tuesday or Thursday!”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me, that is really serious,”
+said the girl with the dimple in her chin;
+“but perhaps Tom will remember.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tom remember the date of an invitation
+to dinner! How little you know about
+men. Why, he would tell me the wrong
+day, if he did remember, just to escape
+putting on his dress coat and going with
+me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! from what Helen says, you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+may be thankful that he goes at all. Her
+husband does not. She says—”</p>
+
+<p>“Helen didn’t manage him properly at
+first, that’s all. When Tom first began to
+declare he wouldn’t go to dinners, I would
+just say, ‘Very well, dear, we’ll both remain
+at home, and tell our would-be hostess
+the true reason why we didn’t come. And
+now, I often reap the benefit of that Spartan
+policy. Of course, he is sometimes detained
+at the office by important business,
+or even called off by a telegram just as we
+are about to start. However, I always remember
+that he is only human after all,
+and seldom revenge myself in any other
+way than by telling him that Mr. Troolygood
+sat next me at table. Life will be a
+much more complicated affair for me if that
+dear fellow ever takes it into his head to
+marry.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think you are perfectly safe for some
+time to come, dear,” said the girl with the
+classic profile, “his married sister, with
+whom he lives, is anxious for him to marry.
+She has the habit of inviting any girl he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+seems to admire, so constantly to the house
+that she soon loses all her charm for him.”</p>
+
+<p>“No man likes courtship made easy,”
+said the girl with the Roman nose. “Mr.
+Troolygood will surely die a bachelor unless
+he succeeds some day in unearthing a
+girl whom his sister dislikes. That is
+hardly probable, either, since he invariably
+admires a girl with money—a habit, by the
+way, which I have also noticed in other
+young clergymen.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is not confined to young clergymen,
+dear,” remarked the girl with the eyeglasses.
+“Talk about women being mercenary,
+I have often noticed that men think
+much more of money than we do. We
+know that they must provide for us somehow,
+and the doing of it is their affair.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, girls,” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin, “what excellent mental training
+we do receive at this club! Dorothy
+was wondering the other day how we ever
+got along without it; and, indeed, so was I.
+A reputation for being intellectual is the
+nicest thing in the world; once you have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+it, you can be as silly as you choose, and
+people will feel actually grateful to you for
+unbending. It has its drawbacks, though.
+I find one must be more careful than ever
+to have cuffs and gloves immaculate.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the classic
+profile. “Girls, a college professor asked
+me the other day why we always wear veils
+on the street!”</p>
+
+<p>“And what did you reply?” queried the
+girl with the Roman nose.</p>
+
+<p>“To keep our faces clean! What did
+you suppose?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I thought you told him the
+truth. However, the more intellectual a
+man is the less he understands women.
+One of his students would—”</p>
+
+<p>“Know better than to expect the truth
+in reply to such a question? Of course he
+would,” said the president; “but oh, girls,
+if an octogenarian knew as much about us as
+a sophomore <i>thinks</i> he does, what a queer
+world this would be!”</p>
+
+<p>“Unpleasant rather than queer,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “Of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+course we understand men thoroughly; but
+that is a very different matter.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, very different,” said the girl with
+the Roman nose. “But aren’t they queer?
+Why, I once knew a man who called a girl
+a ‘most adorable little flirt,’ and then felt
+very much aggrieved when she kept on
+flirting after they became engaged!”</p>
+
+<p>“Lots of girls never have an opportunity
+to flirt until they <i>are</i> engaged,” remarked
+the girl with the dimple in her chin. “To
+some men, an engagement ring on a girl’s
+hand has the same effect that a ‘Keep off
+the grass’ sign has on children.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” said the girl with the Roman
+nose. “Oh, Marion, shall you also visit
+Lola this year?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not this century,” replied the girl with
+the eyeglasses. “Didn’t you hear what
+happened the last time she was here?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no; except that she was to dine
+with you. What happened? Did she discuss
+art in a monologue from soup to coffee?
+or, did—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, she did that; but it wouldn’t have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+really mattered, except for—you see it was
+this way: when she was here last summer,
+she gave me one of her, well, <i>she</i> calls them
+paintings. I accepted it with profuse thanks;
+and hung it in the darkest corner of the attic
+as soon as her train was well out of Chicago.
+When I heard that she was coming
+back, I fished the picture out of its corner,
+and gave it a prominent place in the parlor,
+telling her it had been there all the time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I’m sure she ought to be satisfied
+with that,” said the president; “not
+many people care enough for Lola to hang
+her pictures even temporarily on the parlor
+walls. The one she gave me is in the
+cook’s bedroom—the poor woman has been
+complaining of insomnia lately.”</p>
+
+<p>“No wonder. Unluckily I forgot to
+coach my family, and when we came in
+from the dinner table, my brother Frank
+joined us. You know Lola <i>is</i> pretty when
+she remembers to comb her hair and remove
+her painting apron.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy on us! did he criticise her painting
+while she was present?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“No. He only said, ‘Hello, where did
+you get this new picture? I never saw it
+before. Looks like the one that has been
+vegetating in the attic!’”</p>
+
+<p>“You needn’t tell us the rest, dear; we
+all know Lola. It was too bad, when you
+had only done it to spare her feelings, too!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear! dear!” said the girl with the dimple
+in her chin. “I wonder why the most
+hopeless artists are ever the most generous
+with their productions? They seem to
+wish to give them away, whereas—”</p>
+
+<p>“Self-preservation, dear. When one has
+done something dreadful, one dislikes to be
+constantly reminded of the fact!” said the
+girl with the classic profile. “You know
+my eldest sister, don’t you? Well, her
+husband has an awful temper, but he seldom
+gives Sophie any trouble. Whenever
+he begins to be unpleasant, she says: ‘Isn’t
+it fortunate, dear; if you should die, or we
+should ever separate, I could have a good
+income, anyhow—I could just publish in
+book form the poems you wrote to me before
+we were married!’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“And what then?” asked the president,
+breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he kicks the dog or snubs his typewriter;
+but he never says another word to
+Sophie.”</p>
+
+<p>“And yet, Sophie used to be considered
+dull at school,” said the president, thoughtfully.
+“Well, that’s only another proof that
+even genius needs a special opportunity.”</p>
+
+<p>“Speaking of opportunities,” said the
+girl with the eyeglasses, “have you heard
+of Marie’s last mishap? No? I thought
+not. You know that delightful young physician
+who cares nothing for society, and
+declines all non-professional invitations, and
+never calls on a woman under seventy.
+Well, Marie has developed neuralgia, grip,
+and nervous prostration in swift succession,
+and he has been called in to attend her.
+You see, it is this way: it gives her an opportunity
+to see him in bewitching tea-gowns,
+and she studies new poses on the
+sofa when she is not taking powders.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! And when are they to be married?”
+asked the president.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Never, dear. He says he had long loved
+her silently, and was trying to summon up
+enough courage to tell her so. Now, however,
+he sees that she is too delicate to
+make a good wife for a hardworking professional
+man!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! No wonder Marie’s little
+brother told mine he wants to go away to
+boarding-school,” said the girl with the
+Roman nose. “Well, I always did hate
+deceit. I never—”</p>
+
+<p>“By the way,” said the president, “I
+thought you had such a bad headache that
+you could not go out to-day.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was when mamma wanted me to
+accompany her to a meeting at the orphan
+asylum, dear. I felt ever so much better
+after she was gone.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am so glad you care so much for the
+club,” said the president. “I gave up a
+luncheon at my mother-in-law’s, in order
+to come, myself. I wanted awfully to go—all
+the other guests were lovely old ladies—perfect
+walking encyclopædias on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+subject of servants, and the proper time to
+hunt moths or cut first teeth.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I forgot to tell you, dear,” said the
+girl with the dimple in her chin. “Tom’s
+mother sent you a message by me that she
+had put the luncheon off until Friday because
+you were so disappointed at your inability
+to be present.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, if she expects me to waste a
+whole morning on those old frumps, she is
+very much mistaken, that is all. And you
+are no true friend of mine, or you would
+have told her I had an engagement for that
+day, too!”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! You seem to forget that I
+am afraid of her, too. She was my old
+Sunday-school teacher, and she would as
+lief be disagreeable to me as to you. Besides,
+it is not as if Tom had no unmarried brothers.
+One has to consider her feelings, you
+know, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very true, dear. You always were
+charitable, Emily—I can just as well go to
+bed with a cold on Friday. Well, I fear we
+must adjourn now. What a profitable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
+meeting we have had! I only wish Dorothy
+could have heard some of the arguments
+that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, indeed, Dorothy needs all of the
+good sense she can possibly obtain in
+any form,” murmured the brown-eyed
+blonde.</p>
+
+<p>“Not now that she is about to be married,
+dear,” said the girl with the dimple in
+her chin. “However, I am sure that nothing
+save death or a boil on her chin will
+ever keep her away from another meeting.
+She says she considers the founding of this
+club her life work.”</p>
+
+<p>“And a noble one, too,” said the president,
+warmly. “Well, if ever a girl entered
+upon matrimony with bright prospects, <i>she</i>
+is that one. I verily believe she could
+make Jack Bittersweet do anything she
+wanted, whether he liked or not!”</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate, she has begun well,” said
+the brown-eyed blonde, sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>When the girl with the dimple in her chin
+reached the blue-eyed girl’s home, she ran
+up the stairs to her friend’s room, two steps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+at a time, and burst open the door. That
+young person was discovered, radiant with
+smiles in spite of the traces of recent tears;
+she was seated at her desk, and the waste
+basket was overflowing with crumpled
+sheets of her best note paper.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, you dear, Dorothy,” said the visitor,
+“tell me all about it, do! I was dying
+to come earlier, but I wanted to see what
+Frances would do when she heard that Jack
+was coming here, so I had to stay all
+through the meeting. Evelyn says that
+no girl ever had brighter prospects in marrying
+than you, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! then, they all know I am to be
+married, do they? Did Jack tell? I
+thought he would hold his peace, because—”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, not exactly; but he told me that
+he was on his way here to ask you to forgive
+him for everything he ever did! And
+he said he just wouldn’t come away until
+you set your wedding-day, and so—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! he told you that, did he? Well,
+it is set, and—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“Dear old Jack, he must be the happiest
+fellow in the world, for he—”</p>
+
+<p>“M—I can’t say that he looked it when
+he went away; however, some people have
+such a way of concealing their emotions. I
+never had myself; I am as open as the day—anybody
+could know just what I intended
+to do all the time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course; I told Jack how it would be
+from the start. But I don’t see why he
+looked so melancholy when he came away.
+Didn’t you set the wedding day early
+enough to please him?”</p>
+
+<p>“He said he didn’t want to know the
+day, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t want to know the day of his
+own wedding! Why, the poor boy must
+be crazy; he—”</p>
+
+<p>“The date of his <i>own</i> wedding! Emily
+Marshmallow, are you out of your mind?
+I said the date of <i>my</i> wedding, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Would you mind feeling my pulse,
+dear, or examining my eye to see if there is
+a look of insanity in it! For really, I don’t
+see how you and Jack can be married to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+each other on different days, unless you are
+thinking of matrimony on the instalment
+plan; and that—”</p>
+
+<p>“Married to each other? Jack Bittersweet
+and I? Why, Emily Marshmallow,
+you haven’t listened to a word I have been
+saying, when I have been telling you for
+the last half hour I am to marry Clarence
+Lighthed, the only man I ever loved, next
+month, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy, don’t! If Jack did not
+ask you to marry him to-day, it was only
+that he hadn’t the courage, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“He did, dear—twice. But you see, I
+had accepted Clarence an hour before he
+came. Well, it is a great comfort to know
+that I never encouraged poor Jack! You
+will bear me out in that, I know. And oh,
+Emily, Clarence is the dearest person in
+the world! You can’t imagine how happy
+first love makes one! I—I wouldn’t say a
+word to Frances now if I saw her with
+one eyebrow a full half inch higher than
+the other. But, what is the matter?
+You—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“I—I feel a little faint, dear; that is all.
+Did you—er, try to soften the blow to
+Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“I did. I advised him to marry Frances;
+said that I knew she would make him happier
+than I could ever have done, and their
+marriage was the one thing needed to complete
+my own happiness.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, he wouldn’t marry her now if—not
+if she was a wealthy young widow.
+Did—did Jack say anything about me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, er—yes; he seemed sort of
+offended with you for something. I don’t
+know what it was. The only reference I
+made to you in our whole conversation, was
+to tell him that you had seen all along that
+I intended to marry Clarence. Of course
+if you had not been able to make him understand
+that fact, it was his own stupidity,
+and not your fault. Oh, I tell you, I
+always defend my friends—even before they
+are attacked! But what is the matter?
+You look sort of queer?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I was only wondering what they
+would say at the club! They—they seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+to have an idea that you would marry Jack,
+and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Marry Jack Bittersweet! What on
+earth could have put such an idea into their
+heads? I only hope, Emily, that you—”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no, dear; nothing of the kind.
+I—I merely told them that he was on his
+way to ask you to marry him, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Very thoughtful it was of you, dear. I
+only wish I could ask you to be bridesmaid
+for your pains; but Clarence has somehow
+gotten an idea that you are not a friend of
+his. There was no one else to oppose the
+match, and I—I doubt if he’d have asked
+me quite as soon if you hadn’t; so I shall
+try to forgive you, in time, for the things
+you have said about him.”</p>
+
+<p>The girl with the dimple in her chin
+gasped, but her only reply, was: “I really
+don’t know what the other members of the
+club will say. They—”</p>
+
+<p>“The club. I am so glad you mentioned
+it. There was a meeting to-day, was there
+not? I was just writing Evelyn a letter
+when you came in, saying—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>“That you want us to meet twice a week
+after this! How nice; that is just—”</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear; it was a letter of resignation
+I was writing. Dear Clarence has such a
+horror of intellectual women, that I—”</p>
+
+<p>“But, Dorothy, you know when you
+founded the club, you said the membership
+would be for life, and—”</p>
+
+<p>“Emily Marshmallow, I never said anything
+of the kind! And, if I <i>did</i>, only a
+person of your colossal selfishness would
+expect me to waste my time on a mere
+club when I want to devote eighteen
+hours a day to the selection of my trousseau,
+and the other six to Clarence! And,
+if you want to know my real opinion of the
+club, I consider it the greatest bore among
+my social duties!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a><br /><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="copyright"><br /><br />
+<b>PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY<br />
+&amp; SONS CO. AT THE LAKESIDE<br />
+PRESS, FOR WAY &amp; WILLIAMS,<br />
+CHICAGO, U.S.A. MDCCCXCVII<br /></b>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<div class="tnote"><div class="center">
+<b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></div>
+
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired. This text uses both single
+quotation marks and double quotation marks within dialogue. This was
+retained as printed.</p>
+
+<p>Page 82, “nowaday” changed to “nowadays” (nowadays don’t intend)</p>
+
+<p>Page 216, “absense” changed to “absence” (bears my absence)</p>
+
+<p>Page 245, removed repeated word “heard” (you heard Miss Blanque)</p>
+
+<p>Page 296, “he” changed to “her” (criticise her painting)</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Teacup Club, by Eliza Armstrong
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+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
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author	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-02-05 04:58:38 -0800
committer	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-02-05 04:58:38 -0800
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