A Social Meteor — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

20 A SOCIAL METEOR. laughs at, or worse still, pities you. It only pays to amuse one’s self.” ‘““Wisely spoken, ma chere,” nodded Ray, blow- ing a cloud of smoke into the air and watching it fade away. ‘“The world, or rather the people in it, ave a queer lot, and the sooner we learn to live only for our own selfish gratification, the better off we are. ‘Laugh and the world laughs with yow’ is just as true to-day as it was a hundred years ago, and will be a hundred years hence. The time has gone by when women wait upon their lords’ pleasure like penny dogs. And why? Because that sort of thing isn’t appreciated any more. Men run after women nowadays who will amuse and flatter them, and the ones who lack originality may just as well make up their minds first, as last, to go to the wall. Trample upon every one who stands between you and your de- sires, is the motto of to-day; only do it with a smiling face, so that no one will believe you are cruel. “People may frown upon a woman who goes to greater lengths to attract men than they consider ‘nice’; but what of it? In spite of them she flourishes. She is the one around whom all the men crowd in the ball-room, and it is she whom EomichbooksiGo