III. WITH A GYM GIRL 43 IV. WITH A HEROINE 65 V. WITH A CLUBWOMAN 89 VI. WITH A CYNIC 113 VII. WITH A CHAPERON 135 VIII. WITH A NICE MAN 157 IX. WITH AN ENGAGED GIRL 177 X. WITH A BRIDE 195 [Illustration] I WITH A DÉBUTANTE [Illustration] “And so,” I said, “you are to come out.” She was not the girl I took in to dinner, a circumstance which invested her with a perverted interest. It often is so. The fact might remind us of the wider paradox—the fascination of the people in whom we shouldn’t be interested. I have noticed the same thing in the matter of duties, even of agreeable duties. When I have a book to write, I always can think of the most beautiful things for the book that I am to write next after that. I tried to express something of this idea to her while the man who brought her in was talking to a charming lady on his left. “As a means of justifying yourself,” she said, “I should find your philosophy needlessly circuitous. I hate justifications.” “Now don’t,” I pleaded, “don’t upset my theory that every one—even a woman—prefers to be justified, is justified, in his (I wish we had taken up that new pronoun _thon’s_) own sight before doing anything.” “How stupid! Can’t you see that your justification takes all the fun for me out of your conversation? Now, if you couldn’t justify yourself there would be something in it.” “But I haven’t said that I do.” “O I can feel it! You have a justified tone.” “What an infliction!” I moaned. “A justified tone must be worse than a sanctified one. Isn’t it enough that I simply can’t help talking to you?” “Certainly not. If you weren’t immersed in theories you would know that to a woman nothing could ever be _enough_.” “It sometimes seems so,” I assented. “You might have reminded me of that.” “Evidently you are meditating a cynicism. I can hear the rumble of it in the distance.” “No,” I said, “cynicisms do not rumble. That is profundity. I was going to say, when you did riot interrupt me, that you typify for me the spirit of the insatiable in the modern young woman.” “And we are at a dinner, too,” she returned severely. “Your profundities are very rude.” “As for that, an appetite has ceased to be awkward. It is very pleasant to think that a girl and gastronomy are no longer incongruous.” “So nice of you to let us eat.” “My dear, the era not only permits you to eat, but insists on your eating, and dotes on the spectacle. The American girl is not a disembodied sentiment. She is a splendid physical fact. But that is another matter. The interesting thing for me at the moment is the news that you are coming out. Let us talk about that.” [Illustration] “An absurd topic. I can’t see anything interesting in that.” “Which proves that you are insatiable. What could be more interesting?”