The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of HimFord, Paul Leicester
General
The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him
Ford, Paul Leicester
Labor movement -- Fiction; Love stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Political fiction; Tenement houses -- Fiction
Now a word as to the fellow you are so anxious to meet. I have talked
to you so much about him, that you will probably laugh at my attempting
to tell you anything new. I’m not going to try, and you are to consider
all I say as merely a sort of underlining to what you already know.
Please remember that he will never take a prize for his beauty—nor even
for his grace. He has a pleasing way with girls, not only of not
talking himself, but of making it nearly impossible for them to talk.
For instance, if a girl asks me if I play croquet, which by the way, is
becoming very _passé_ (three last lines verge on poetry) being replaced
by a new game called tennis, I probably say, “No. Do you?” In this way
I make croquet good for a ten minutes’ chat, which in the end leads up
to some other subject. Peter, however, doesn’t. He says “No,” and so
the girl can’t go on with croquet, but must begin a new subject. It is
safest to take the subject-headings from an encyclopædia, and introduce
them in alphabetical order. Allow about ninety to the hour, unless you
are brave enough to bear an occasional silence. If you are, you can
reduce this number considerably, and chum doesn’t mind a pause in the
least, if the girl will only look contented. If she looks worried,
however, Peter gets worried, too. Just put the old chap between you and
your mamma at meals, and pull him over any rough spots that come along.
You, I know, will be able to make it easy for him. Neglect me to any
extent. I shan’t be jealous, and shall use that apparent neglect as an
excuse for staying on for a week after he goes, so as to have my
innings. I want the dear old blunderbuss to see how nice a really nice
girl can be, so do your prettiest to him, for the sake of
WATTS CLARKSON D’ALLOI.
When Watts and Peter saved the “cows in the barn” by stepping off the
train on June 29th, the effect of this letter was manifest. Watts was
promptly bestowed on the front seat of the trap with Mr. Pierce, while
Peter was quickly sitting beside a girl on the back seat. Of course an
introduction had been made, but Peter had acquired a habit of not
looking at girls, and as a consequence had yet to discover how far Miss
Pierce came up to the pleasant word-sketch Watts had drawn of her.
Indeed, Peter had looked longingly at the seat beside Mr. Pierce, and
had attempted, in a very obvious manner, though one which seemed to him
the essence of tact and most un-apparent, to have it assigned to him.
But two people, far his superior in natural finesse and experience, had
decided beforehand that he was to sit with Helen, and he could not
resist their skilful manoeuvres. So he climbed into place, hoping that
she wouldn’t talk, or if that was too much to expect, that at least
Watts would half turn and help him through.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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