expected to be sitting in
the Directors' Room in a couple of years, talking it over with Henry
C. Frick.

So he waved aside the Square Envelopes and allowed himself to be
billed all over the Macaroon Circuit as a Woman-Hater.

Of course he girled in a conservative way, but he merely trailed. He
did not buzz, or throw himself at the fallen Handkerchief, or run to
get the Wraps, or do any of the Stuff that marks the true and bounden
Captive.

When he found himself in the cushioned Lair of a Feline, he would lean
back in perfect Security, knowing that even if she exercised her
entire repertoire of Wiles, she could not warm the Dead Heart nor stir
into life the fallen Rose Leaves of Romance.

All the time she was spilling her familiar line of Chatter, he would
look at her with an arid and patronizing Smile, such as the Harvard
Man produces when he finds himself in immediate juxtaposition to some
human Caterpillar from west of Pittsburgh.

Very often, when the registered Dolly Grays got together for a Bon-Bon
Orgy, some one would say, "Oh, Crickey, ain't he the regular Cynic?"

Another might suggest that he was hiding a great Sorrow, his whole
Existence having been embittered by the faithlessness of some
Creature.

Then they would take a Vote and decide that he was a plain Mutt.

The Chauncey who refuses to reciprocate will excite more Conversation
than a regular Union Lover, but it is Lucky for him that he does not
hear all the Conversation.

Walter at the age of twenty-five thought he was too old and sedate to
be a Diner-Out and a Dancing Devil.

When he was 28, however, he had become Hep to the large and luminous
Truth that the man who sits in his Lodgings reading Dumas may overlook
many a Bet.

He noted on every Hand the nice-looking Boys who turned in about 10.40
and avoided the Pitfalls of Society, and most of them were pulling
down as much as $14 a week.

He recalled what this humble Chronicler had said away back in 1899:
"Early to Bed and Early to Rise and you will meet very few of our Best
People."

He looked over the Lay-Out and decided that it was just as easy to
mingle with the Face Cards as to sleep in the Discards.

He saw many a Light Weight with a gilt sign exposed on Main Street and
no Assets except a Suit with a Velvet Collar, a pair of indestructible
dancing Legs, and just enough intellectual Acumen to stir Tea without
spilling it.

So he decided to have a try at the Gay Life and worm