Hence Van Bibber's crossness.
He waited as long as his dignity would allow, and then turned off into
a by-lane end dropped on a bench and looked gloomily at the Lohengrin
swans with the paddle-wheel attachment that circle around the lake.
They struck him as the most idiotic inventions he had ever seen, and
he pitied, with the pity of a man who contemplates crossing the ocean
to be measured for his fall clothes, the people who could find delight
in having some one paddle them around an artificial lake.
Two little girls from the East Side, with a lunch basket, and an older
girl with her hair down her back, sat down on a bench beside him and
gazed at the swans.
The place was becoming too popular, and Van Bibber decided to move on.
But the bench on which he sat was in the shade, and the asphalt walk
leading to the street was in the sun, and his cigarette was soothing,
so he ignored the near presence of the three little girls, and
remained where he was.
"I s'pose," said one of the two little girls, in a high, public school
voice, "there's lots to see from those swan-boats that youse can't see
from the banks."
"Oh, lots," assented the girl with long hair.
"If you walked all round the lake, clear all the way round, you could
see all there is to see," said the third, "except what there's in the
middle where the island is.
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