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diff --git a/old/50751-0.txt b/old/50751-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 83d3043..0000000 --- a/old/50751-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6561 +0,0 @@ -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 - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEACUP CLUB *** - -***** This file should be named 50751-0.txt or 50751-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/7/5/50751/ - -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) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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