e any gentleman would of--what does
the poor silly do but blink at her a couple of times like an old barn owl
that's been startled and say 'Yes, ma'am!'--flat and cold, just like
that!

"It almost made an awkward pause; but the lady pretended she had been
saying something to me, so she couldn't hear him. That Cousin Egbert! He
certainly wouldn't ever get very high in the diplomatic service of
anybody's country.

"And here's this grand ball of the Allied nations in costume, give in
Genevieve May's palatial residence. It must of throwed a new panic into
Berlin when they got the news off the wire. Matter of fact, I don't see
how them Germans held out long as they did, with Genevieve May Popper
putting crimps into 'em with her tireless war activities. That proves
itself they'd been long preparing for the fray. Of course, with Genevieve
May and this here new city marshal, Fotch, the French got, it was only a
question of time. Genevieve is sure one born taker-up! Now she's made a
complete circle of the useful arts and got round to dancing again. Yes,
sir!"

I affected to believe I was solitary in the room. This time it did not
work--even measurably. Almost at once came: "I said she was the darndest
woman in the world to take things up!" The tone compelled notice, so I
said "Indeed!" and "You don't say!" with a cautiously extended space
between them, and tried to go on thinking.

Then I knew the woman's full habit of speech was strong upon her and
that one might no longer muse upon a caught trout--even one to weigh
well up toward four pounds. So I remembered that I was supposed to be
a gentleman.

"Go right ahead and talk," I murmured.

"Sure!" said the lady, not murmuring. "What in time did you think I was
going to do?"

Yes, sir; I bet she's the greatest taker-up--bar none--the war has yet
produced. She's took up France the latest. I understand they got a
society of real workers somewhere that's trying to house and feed and
give medicine and crutches to them poor unfortunates that got in the way
of the dear old Fatherland when it took the lid off its Culture and tried
to make the world safe--even for Germans; but I guess this here society
gets things over to devastated France without much music or flourishes or
uniforms that would interest Genevieve May.

But if that country is to be saved by costume balls of the Allied
nations, with Genevieve May being La Belle France in a dress hardly long
enough to show three c