Alice Duer Miller

“ After dinner, while the men smoking, further hostilities were avoided by the simplest of devices. After a few minutes’ apparent mingling, and a few remarks on both sides about old times and the changes in Stonehurst, Mrs. Bill and Marie Louise retired to one end of the president’s large drawing-room, where, from the delighted giggles that they emitted, it is to be supposed that they entertained each other, and probably at the expense of their fellow guests. ”

“ And he did. He asked her if she had attended the lecture of an Antarctic explorer who had been recently in New York. Try as she would, Mrs. Bill could not conceal the fact that she had never heard of the explorer, and was very hazy about the Antarctic. The professor could think of nothing else, and so they sat staring blankly before them, in mutual terror and disgust.
Marie Louise was not at a loss for conversation. She was soon giving the president her first impressions of the New York social world. ”

“ Carman and her daughter in a private car. The girl was in the wildest spirits. The mere thought of her past at Stonehurst threw her present into the most brilliant relief, and the prospect of Jerry’s company for two uninterrupted days was enough in itself to make her perfectly happy.
They arrived in time to dress hurriedly for the president’s dinner. This function Mrs. Carman had declined attending from the first. She went out to supper with a maiden cousin. ”

“ The cold eye of the professor of botany, turned, as it was, very rarely upon her, seemed to say: “You are ugly, you are indecently dressed, your face does not express intelligence, but I shall do my duty ”