The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-11-17


session when finally caught by
officials.
the only hope OF the world 10
equal justice for all classes: he
merely gratifies his primitive in
stinct Tor vengeance precisely
the same today, as during the
first servile uprising Of Rome
he butchers and slaughters ana
wrecks, and then sinks with his
own weight, while what brains
are left reconstruct civilization
out OF the ruins. 'aThe trouble
IL that the reconstructing brains
are never quite good enough. and
after 4 time 1t is all to do over
again. 80
Not q MOnOlOgue.
This was by no means . mono
log11e, but evoked in the give
and take Of argument with Mr..
Osborne, who believed in never
yielding an inch to the demands
Of labor, and with Mr.. Dinwiddie.
who, since his association with
the sophisticates, was looking
forward vaguely toward some
idealistic regeneration Of the 30
cial order, although socialism
was rather out Of date among
them. ana bolshevism long since
relegated to the attic.
But Clavering was not partic-
ularly interested In her political
Views, sound az they were. Foreign
women Of her class, Il not as
liberal, always talked intelligently
Of politics. What interested him
keenIy was her deliberate, her
quite conscious attempt to ensIave
the two men beside her, and her
complete success. Occasionally
she threw him s word, and once
he fancied she favored him with
q, glance of secret amused under
standing, but he was thankful 20
be on the outer edge Of that
glamorous crescent. It was
enough to watch ct g compar-
atively safe distance Would his
turn come next. or was she
merely bent on so befuddling
these old chaps that there would
be no place left In their en-
raptured minds for suspicion or
criticism? No doubt he was too
rank an outsider. = She
shot him another glance.
Was his to be the role Of the
sympathetic friend?
Then she began to draw Din
widdie and Osborne out, and it
struck him that her attitude was
not merely that Of the accom-.
plished hostess. They both talked
well, they were intelligent and
well-informed, and he was himself
interested in what they had to
say on the subject Of national
politics. (The Judge, who had an
unimpaired digestion, was attend
ing strictly to his champagne
and his dinner) There was some
thing Of anxiety, almost Of visit
fulness, in her expression as she
listened to one or the other doing
his admirable best to entertain
her. They had the charm Of
crisp well-modulated voices, these
two men Of her own class; she
had met no better-bred men in
Europe: and their air was as
gallant as it had been in their
youth. He had fleeting vision
of what gay dogs they must have
been. Neither had married, but
they had been ardent lovers once
and aging women still spoke Of
them with tender amusement. And
yet only the shell had changed.
They had led decent enough lives
and no doubt could fall honestly
and romatically in love today.
In fact, they appeared to be dem.
onstrating the possibility, with
the eternal righteousness of the
male. And yet nature had played
them this scurvy trick. The
young heart in the old shell.
Grown-up boys with a foot in
the grave. Dependent upon mind
and address alone to win a wo-
mans regard, while the woman
dreamed Of the man with a
thick thatch over his brains and
the responsive magnetism of her
own years. Poor old fighting.
cocks! What a jade nature was
or was 1t merely the
tyranny Of an idea, carefully
tnculcated at the nativity of the
social group, with other arbitrary
laws. in behalf of the race? The
fetish of the body. Stark mate
rialism. However. il
was not as hard on thsm as on