The Wasp — 1914 — page 103: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents a dialogue between a young man and Captain Nash. The young man, apparently a foreigner (he mentions awaiting "a remittance from my agents" in England), has just saved Nash's daughter's life through medical services. The young man nobly refuses Nash's offer of money, requesting instead hospitality until funds arrive and asking a tailor to learn of his circumstances. He offers to work as a secretary. Captain Nash is relieved—he had worried the young man would request a substantial loan. The narrative then comments cynically on young aristocrats' tendency to forget their benefactors once their circumstances improve, suggesting this was a common social anxiety of the era. The satire appears to target both entitled foreign gentlemen and the class dynamics of gratitude and social obligation in late 19th-century America.