The Gilded Age


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it would seem, in a young lady devoted to grave studies.  
Had Ruth a premonition of Philip's intention, in his manner? It may be,  
for when the girls came down stairs, ready to walk to the cars; and met  
Philip and Harry in the hall, Ruth said, laughing,  
"
The two tallest must walk together" and before Philip knew how it  
happened Ruth had taken Harry's arm, and his evening was spoiled. He  
had too much politeness and good sense and kindness to show in his  
manner that he was hit. So he said to Harry,  
"
That's your disadvantage in being short." And he gave Alice no reason  
to feel during the evening that she would not have been his first choice  
for the excursion. But he was none the less chagrined, and not a little  
angry at the turn the affair took.  
The Hall was crowded with the fashion of the town. The concert was one  
of those fragmentary drearinesses that people endure because they are  
fashionable; tours de force on the piano, and fragments from operas,  
which have no meaning without the setting, with weary pauses of waiting  
between; there is the comic basso who is so amusing and on such familiar  
terms with the audience, and always sings the Barber; the attitudinizing  
tenor, with his languishing "Oh, Summer Night;" the soprano with her  
"Batti Batti," who warbles and trills and runs and fetches her breath,  
and ends with a noble scream that brings down a tempest of applause in  
the midst of which she backs off the stage smiling and bowing. It was  
326  


Page
324 325 326 327 328

Quick Jump
1 170 341 511 681