In other and more expansive days, when you could look at a
magnum without flushing and at a cheroot without turning white, you supplied me
with most of the material. Take it back again--would that I could have
preserved your fetterless speech in the telling--take it back, and by your
slippered hearth read it to the late Miss Deercourt. She will not be any the
more willing to receive my cards, but she will admire you immensely, and you, I
feel sure, will love me. You may even invite me to another very bad dinner--at
the Club, which, as you and your wife know, is a safe neutral ground for the
entertainment of wild asses. Then, my very dear hypocrite, we shall be quits.
Yours always,
RUDYARD KIPLING.
P. S.--On second thoughts I should recommend you to keep the book away from
Mrs. Mafflin.
POOR DEAR MAMMA
The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky,
The deer to the wholesome wold,
And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid,
As it was in the days of old.
--Gypsy Song.
SCENE. Interior of Miss MINNIE THREEGAN'S Bedroom at Simla. Miss THREEGAN, in
window-seat, turning over a drawerful of things. Miss EMMA DEERCOURT, bosom--
friend, who has come to spend the day, sitting on the bed, manipulating the
bodice of a ballroom frock, and a bunch of artificial lilies of the valley.
Pages:
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156