Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
Which letter resulted in an immediate interchange of notes:
"DEAR JIM:
"Fifteen and eighteen are not far apart. A man can help Chance to twist
his path through life. The resulting route is called the Path of
Destiny. I think you have already started to travel it. I hope you are
better.
"DIANA."
He replied:
"DEAR DI:
"You meant that path which leads to Close & Co., didn’t you?
"J. E. 3d."
She answered:
"DEAR JIM:
"No, I meant the other path you mentioned. Follow it for the next three
years. Mr. Inwood says that little Miss Ellis is the most beautiful and
winsome and intelligent and cultivated child he ever knew. Life is all
before you, Jim.
"DIANA."
He wrote:
"I’m in the designing department as draughtsman! Mr. Rivett’s friend,
Mr. Dineen, dropped in to have a chat with me. He’s a very decent
fellow.... You don’t think that Mr. Rivett has inspired him to show me
any unmerited favors, do you? It would make havoc of my present
complacency. Try to find out.
"JIM."
She answered:
"Mr. Rivett isn’t to be pumped. I tried it. I’ll never try it again.
Anyway, Jim, no favor can inject brains into a man; it can only
stimulate what intellect he has. Don’t worry about favors. Neither Mr.
Rivett nor Mr. Dineen are the men to injure their own affairs by the
incompetent service of others. You can be perfectly certain that you
are worth what is offered you if they have anything to do with it.
"Why don’t you fall in love with Christine? She’s one of the sweetest
girls I ever knew. I supposed she and you were on delightful terms
once. Also, once, I thought she was inclined toward Mr. Inwood. But he
seems to be monopolized by Mrs. Wemyss; and the poor child comes into my
room in a forlorn sort of way—so white and limp these days that I’m
wondering what this change in her means. _Does_ it mean your absence?
You’d tell me, wouldn’t you? But I know you’re not the sort of man to
win a young girl’s heart, and then coolly walk out of her life. It
looks to me as though she had something on her mind. Dr. Billings has
been here several times, and her mother is worried sick.
"That’s all the gossip, except that the shooting is in full blast here.
A number of men came up for it—the usual sort of men who shoot, except
one. He’s a Mr. Wallace, and very nice and a poor shot. He and I go
out together sometimes, and he is forever making fun of himself and his
perfectly rotten marksmanship, and he and I don’t care two raps whether
we get anything or not.
"Mr. Inwood is the saddest young man I ever had the pleasure (?) of
trying to animate. Are all your friends as melancholy and
temperamental? He haunts the terrace like a lost soul until Mrs. Wemyss
annexes him. Christine does not seem to care for him; she doesn’t seem
to care for anybody these days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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