The Washington times., 1920-08-18
tCo. tinued from Yesterd.yJ


with Lady Button-eyes on his
arm he had threaded his way into
the supper room. where the gods,
demigods and heroes were ban
quoting most riotously.
II was becoming very rapidly a
dubiously mixed AFFAIR; Bacchus,
with his noisy crew. invaded the
supper room and pronounced Gle
lands snub-nosed. button-eyed
goddess tray chick" and there
arose Immediately a terrific tumult
around her-gods and satyrs doing
battle for her; but she persisted in
her capricious fancy for Cleland.
He, however. remained in two
minds; one was to abandon Button
eyes, retire and 1nd Stephanie
again, in spite OF the ever-snolder-
ing resentment he felt for Grismer;
the other was TO teach himself with
out loss or time to keep away from
her: school himself to do without
her: preoccupy himself casually and
recklessly with anything that
might aid in obliterating his de-
sire for her companionship-w
this snub-nosed one. for example.
The desire to see Stephanie re-
mained, nevertheless, sometimes
f1ercely importunate, sometimes
sullenly persistent-seeming out
of all proportion to any sentiment
he had ever admittedly entertained
for her-out OF proportion, also, to
his sulky resentment at the folly she
had committed with Oswald Girls
mer.
For. after all. II she ultimately
married Grismer in the orthodox
way her eccentric pre-nuptial be-
havior was nothing more serious
than eccentric. And IL she didn't,
then it meant annulment or divorce;
and he realized that. nobody out
side of the provinces paid any at
tention to such episodes nowadays.
And nobody cared what clod hoppers
thought about anything.
His button-eyed goddess had a
pretty good soprano voice and she
was using IL now, persuaded into
a duet by Better. Cleland looked
at her sideways without enthusiasm,
undecided, irritated, and gloomy.
She was Broadway vulgarity per-
sonifed.
Badger Sphinx dropped onto a
chair on the other side Of him:
who's your transparent lady
friend?" he inquired lazily. "She
looks like a gutter-angel. Who is
the depraved little beast?''
"T don't know-some actress,
believe-Sonia Something-or-other.
\ DO you want herr"
Thanks. What does she repre-
sent: A Kewpie behind a pane Of
glass;"
"she's a goddess of sorts. be-
lieve. This is getting rather raw,
isn't it, Spink?''
NATION OF DANCING DOLLS.
Sphinx yawned and gazed leisurely
about him. the satyr's horn emerg-
ing from his thick, wcavy pomp-
adour hair. accentuating his clever,
saturnine features. His expression
was slightly Satanic always.
Yes" he said. "it's turning out
rather rough. what do you think
Of this sort of thing in New York.
Cleland? We're drifting toward
Babylon. That's the trend since the
dance craze swept this moral ma
ton off it's moral feet into a million
tango joints"
There's something the matter
with us, that's sure" said Cleland
"This sort of thing doesn't belong
In the new world"
ITS up to our over-rated Amer
lean women" sneered Sphinx. "Only
few years ago we were slobber-
ing over them, worshipping them,
painting pictures OF EN- pictures
Influenced by the French natural
istic SCHOOL, lot of cow-faced
American females suckline their
young. Everybody was yelling for
the simple life, summoning the ma
ton back to nature, demanding that
babies be produced in every family
by the dozen, extolling procreation
and lauding the American woman.
That's the sort of female we cele-
brated and pretended to want. Now,
look what we've gotta nation of
dancing dolls! A herd of restless,