Judge, 1914-10-10 · page 11 of 24
Judge — October 10, 1914 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This story satirizes upper-class snobbery and delayed matrimony. Sylvia, a wealthy spinster, has postponed marriage for years due to fastidiousness, believing she could always find a better match. Now aging and isolated (her female companions have all married), she falls for Percy, a stock broker who has lost his wealth but maintains social standing through careful networking. The humor emerges in her friends' cryptic warning: Percy is apparently skilled at dancing the "Ta-tao" and "Tete-a-tete"—lower-class, public dances performed for paying audiences. The implication is that Percy, despite his current respectability, may have compromised himself financially or socially. The satire targets Sylvia's vanity and snobbish class consciousness: her penalty for being "extra-punctual" (overly particular) in choosing a husband is nearly becoming an unmarriageable old maid—and potentially marrying someone beneath her pretensions.
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A Penalty YLVIA had become a spinster in the word’s most unfavorable significance. She was still modish in attire and in various other superficial details, but her efforts to approximate youth served only to emphasize her loss of it. She was the legal custodian of a fortune at which many a masculine eye had been made, but her fastidiousness had led her to postpone matri- mony hazardously. Too long, she admitted to herself, she had believed that two birds in the bush are worth more than one bird in hand. She had not fully realized the truth until she took account of her social allies. All her girl companions had disappeared. Middle- aged and settled women were her familiars. The vanity of still having men about her—old beaus and others not exactly old—had obscured for a time the real reason for their atten- tions, The only satisfaction left to her was the fact that she was nevertheless rich. At last—and while her case seemed serious—Sylvia fell in love. She was naturally ardent, and circumstances led to her complete obsession, The man was Percy, a stock broker at by Joa of Extra-punctuality WALDRON present without vocation, but still alert to the possibilities of chance. Sylvia had heard of him indefinitely at a period when he owned a yacht and race horses, and he did not tell her the times had forced him to part with his dearest possessions. Percy had worked his enforced leisure to good purpose. His acquaintance gave him social opportunities that he cultivated with all the assiduity he would have given to business if busi- ness had not disappeared. He met Sylvia at a garden party where dancing of a stately sort was affected to show superiority over the craze of the vulgar. And he danced his way into her heart. “Ah! Acclever man! Who would have thought it?”’ some- what obscurely remarked one of Sylvia’s friends to whom Syl- via had confided her engagement to Percy. ‘You should see him in the less exclusive dances.’’ “You mean—the—the' “Yes. The more miscellaneous dances that so many persons indulge in at public places, where even more miscellaneous per- sons look on for a fee--dances like the Ta-tao and the Tete-a- tete and the’’—— ‘But those must be exceedingly vulgar! And what funny comicbooks.com