Elisa Armstrong Bengough

“ I resigned, by telephone, as soon as Tom and the doctor succeeded in bringing me out of my fainting fit.”
“And no wonder,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin, sympathetically. “And yet, people complain that we take so little interest in the poor! Only a real philanthropist can appreciate the rebuffs we receive. The only thing which helps us to bear them, is the knowledge that we are doing such incalculable good.”
“It is very sweet and good of you to feel so,” sighed the girl with the eyeglasses. ”

“ And when I make a remark like that about any girl, she may as well set about selecting her trousseau, for somebody is sure to propose to her at once.”
“And yet, I doubt if Annie would be grateful to you, if you told her,” said the blue-eyed girl, thoughtfully.
“One must not expect gratitude in this world, dear. The consciousness of having done one’s duty is reward enough for a right-minded person. By the way, Emily dear, I hear that Dick says he will positively wait no longer. ”

“ Dear me, Evelyn, I really beg your pardon. I shall borrow Elise’s note-book, and study it all out before I sleep. There is nothing so productive of a good night’s rest as half an hour’s solid reading after one is in bed. ”

“ Any man would be stupid, if his only theme was another girl. You—you couldn’t let Jack know about Clarence, could you? If it was any one else Effie would tell him the first time she was provoked with him. Frances will be careful not to let him know, and men have such silly ideas about interfering with other peoples’ affairs, that I doubt if any of them say a word to him about the matter. ”

“ Dear, dear, do you suppose that girls were so very different in the days when our fathers were young?” [254]
“Humph, no,” said the girl with the Roman nose, “but they were much more afraid of remaining single. Besides, our fathers were young, too, in those days, and ever so much easier to please. Still,” she added, thoughtfully, “I don’t know that it is altogether that. No one is so easily subjugated as an elderly man who has become a widower. It is so long since girls have really tried to make themselves agreeable to him, that all their little ways are new to him.” ”

“ Of course, he is sometimes detained at the office by important business, or even called off by a telegram just as we are about to start. However, I always remember that he is only human after all, and seldom revenge myself in any other way than by telling him that Mr. Troolygood sat next me at table. Life will be a much more complicated affair for me if that dear fellow ever takes it into his head to marry.”
“I think you are perfectly safe for some time to come, dear,” said the girl with the classic profile, “his married sister, with whom he lives, is anxious for him to marry. ”

“ You seem to imagine that I want to be flattered, like a man, by being asked to explain things. I told you, didn’t I? that Jack and I quarreled about his membership in a new club. Very well, I too, have decided to join a club!”
“Humph, that isn’t a bad idea. But what kind of a club? An Ibsen or a Browning one, I suppose. I notice that men dislike particularly to have us members of really intellectual clubs.” ”

“ Dear Clarence has such a horror of intellectual women, that I—”
“But, Dorothy, you know when you founded the club, you said the membership would be for life, and—”
“Emily Marshmallow, I never said anything of the kind! And, if I did, only a person of your colossal selfishness would expect me to waste my time on a mere club when I want to devote eighteen hours a day to the selection of my trousseau, and the other six to Clarence! And, if you want to know my real opinion of the club, I consider it the greatest bore among my social duties!” ”

“ However, if you are in danger of losing in an argument, be sure to say, with a smile of superiority, ‘I suppose you know what the statistics are?’ Now, people are not in the habit of carrying statistics around, like cough-drops, and they will simply give up the battle on the spot. ”

“ But though that is the honest truth, there isn’t another girl of my acquaintance who would even pretend to believe it if I told her.”
“I suppose not, dear; and yet men must sometimes admire girls of their own free will. Well, Effie must be feeling very badly, then, for she said that of course she knew I would laugh at her for saying it, but for her part, she considered Dorothy Darling the prettiest girl in our set.”
“Humph, I’ll remember that when Clarence calls to-morrow afternoon. You couldn’t persuade Effie to drop in with you for a cup of tea, could you?” ”

“ Is it about that legacy from Tom’s aunt?” queried the girl with the Roman nose. “Dear me, I often think it’s so hard that really poor men are usually nicer than those that have money.”
“I don’t see why you always think of money in connection with me,” said the [286] president. “Heaven knows, I am not mercenary, and I only want to live well and dress properly, in order that people may see Tom is not stingy. No, this is quite another matter. It all came from the topic I selected for to-day. ”

“ Anyhow, it is only a man who can do but one thing at a time. I suppose it is necessary in a club of men that only one person have the floor at a time, and all that sort of thing.”
“I suppose it is,” said the president, “no man that ever lived could tell what anybody else was saying while he was talking himself. ”

“ I suppose next thing he will be saying that he doesn’t see any use in the Teacup Club,” said the girl with the classic profile, in sarcastic tones. “A man will say anything when he is angry.”
“Humph! I fancy he will hardly say anything like that, dear. He knows it has its use, if it is only to make me look more leniently on his own club. ”