Life — October 9, 1902 — page 8: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

304 A Confidential Chat with Miss Penelope Astorbilt. O much of outward charm attaches to this adorable young person, that one forgets in gazing at her that she is not so real as she seems. “I did not come,” I said, ‘‘ to ask you the his- tory of your life, for that has been made plain tome in the society columns of the papers, nor yet to in- quire about your future, for I believe that has already been determined upon, but I should really like to know just what your secret opinion is about yourself, and your position in that particular strata of society in which you find yourself. If I should go entirely by that striking line of Kipling’s : ‘The colonel's lady aud Julia ds OG EWS) “ate sisters un- der the skin,’ I might easily in- fer that, after all, you are but a woman, and thus arrive at my own conclu- sions, gathered from my experience with your sex in general.’’ Miss Penelope regarded me with a mild look of concern. “You're off your trolley a bit,’’ she said. ‘Here, take aweenippy. I hate high balls, but I find ab. ands. is a good leveler after dancing until four G. M., and this may put you on your feet.” I gazed at her in some surprise. ‘Every day,’’ I said, ‘‘Ilearn something new about women, but this is rather startling. Here you are,a mem- ber of the smart set, daughter of millions, graduate of Miss Pillikin’s school on upper Fifth Avenue, and somehow Thad an idea you were a hothouse plant, a sort of lay fig- ure for foreign noblemen to negotiate for—with a mind like the quatrains in a magazine—used here and there to fill up odd spaces.” ‘** Oh, come off,’’ said Miss Penelope. ‘I’m exactly like the rest of the push—I'm in for a good time while the wheel spins, for to-morrow I may be «Myself with yesterday's seven thousand years.’ Papa and mamma, you know, have all kinds of money, and I'm burning it to beat the band. I toady to them asa matter of course, to make them have a proper pride in me, but I get up my own gowns, pick my own crowd, keep * myself in condition of course, because it pays, play the tLLPE + races on the quiet, ran around the world a little, and keep myself from being bored the best way I know how. When I've sowed my wild oats I mean to settle down, marry some real live lord, with a pedigree at least as long as my favorite hunter, and live in London town. Have a cork tip?” “You're a wonder,”’ I exclaimed. “ Really, now, Miss Penelope, I never dreamed you were like this, Alas! I fear I have wasted a lot of foolish sentiment upon you.” “You silly thing !"’ she exclaimed. ‘‘ But for fair now, what did you think I was—a wax doll—a piece of salable property ?”” A tear glistened in my eye at the recollection. ** Well, no,’’ I replied. ‘Not exactly that. But you know, pondering on the sociological conditions in general, my mind has often gone out to you, perhaps in sympathy, perhaps in pity. Touse your own language, I ‘sized’ you up, first as a young,innocent creature, with an undeveloped heart, a certain amount of misplaced education, who had been the victim of circumstances. I said: * Here isa young girlso hemmed in by artificiality, by mere glitter, by conventionality—in a word, by the almighty dollar, that she never can bea true woman. She grows up with a tender, loving heart, that longs to be true to itself, but is prevented by the very conditions that surround it. The result is that she is obliged to sacrifice herself to this Moloch, and, secretly longing for the simplicity of Arcadia, passes her life in vain regrets.’’’ Miss Penelope lifted her dainty hands in derision. “What awful rot!’ she exclaimed. ‘* My dear boy, you are ina bad way. Now, don't fool yourself. I'm having the best time in the world.” “But, seriously now,” I observed, ‘‘how about that “MUCH OP A CROWD WHERE YOU SPENT YOUR Vacation?” “1 SHOULD SAY 801 COULDN'T CROOK MY ARM WITHOUT PIND- INO 4 OINL's Waist INSIDE.” comicbooks.com