Alice Duer Miller

“ Will you come, Miss Carman, very informally? I never give parties.”
“I am sure I shall be delighted,” returned Marie Louise, trying not to seem too eager; “at least, if I have no engagement, and I am almost sure I haven’t.” She might well be sure, for this was the first invitation she had received since she left Stonehurst, where they had not been so particularly numerous, either.
“Tell Jerry, Anne,” Miss Bowles went on, to Mrs. Orvice, “that the Bill Emmonses are coming. I suppose that will please him. Isn’t it absurd the way you have to bribe men nowadays to come to your house? ”

“ It showed a most decided change now.
“If no one else has any further suggestion,” he said, “I have a candidate to propose. I have in mind a young lady, energetic, generous, and excessively rich——”
“It sounds almost too good to be true,” said Miss Bowles. “Let us elect her by all means. Who is she?”
“Her name is Carman—Miss Marie Louise Carman.” Doctor Joyce looked almost guiltily about the room, but it was evident that, with the exception of Miss Bowles, no one could connect the name with anything. ”

“ Miss Bowles tapped the arm of her chair. “I give you my word,” she said, “that it has never crossed my mind from that day to this. However, it does not matter, for I am always pestering my friends to come on this board, but they have their own charities. People are so selfish.”
The other ladies and Mr. Peale, the treasurer, had not been so forgetful. Several names were suggested, but without conviction, and when the possibilities appeared to be exhausted, Doctor Joyce himself spoke. ”

“ One of the elderly ladies in the corner was saying:
“Every one always seems to enjoy music so much. If we could give a concert, perhaps the singers would give their services, and a manager might give the theater, and——”
“And what should we make?” interrupted Miss Bowles. “We'd be lucky if we cleared a thousand dollars, to say nothing of our own bills for nervous prostration. No, if you want money nowadays you have got to ask for it. ”

“ There had always been to her something glossy and pertaining to the frock coat in any acknowledged type of masculine beauty. She had long kept a picture, cut from a magazine, of a certain disturbingly beautiful and well-dressed actor. ”

“ All, at least, except the culprit himself, who was endeavoring to achieve an explanation that would shift the blame from his shoulders without placing it too obviously on Marie Louise’s, and Peale, who, under an absolutely blank exterior, was debating whether or not it was possible to blackball a lady in her very presence.
The matter was settled, as usual, by Miss Bowles.
“Oh, sit down, Miss Carman; sit down,” she said, leaning forward, very erect from the waist up, and nodding encouragingly at the girl. ”

“ Orvice.
“Not so embarrassing as to offer something that no one wants,” rejoined Miss Bowles. “Who cares for concerts? I hate them, and I think most people do. I have no ear for music, and I don’t want to have it brought home to me.”
Somebody asked if it were absolutely necessary to have a new building immediately, which brought out so vivid a description of the defects of the present hospital, that Marie Louise saw on the instant her opportunity to redeem the awkwardness of her entrance. ”