as to take advantage of his over-generous impulse. She _must_ understand
that his time belonged to the ages and the race, not to the momentary
perplexities of a high school dunce.... At the worst it would be only
five minutes here and there--say ten minutes a week; forty minutes a
month. No, no! He would not put that in.
But the hour of Bodily Exercise could not be so evaded. It must go in.
On land or sea there was no help for that. For thirty days henceforward
at the least--and a voice within him whispered that it would be for much
longer--his Schedule must stand like this:
8.20 Breakfast
8.40 Evolutionary Sociology
1.30 Dinner
2 Evolutionary Sociology
4.45 to 5.15 Open-Air Pedestrianism
5.15 to 6.15 The _Post_
6.15 to 6.45 Klinker's Exercises for all Parts of the Body
7 Supper
7.20 Evolutionary Sociology
Hand clasped in his hair, Queed stared long at this wreckage with a
sense of foreboding and utter despondency. Doubtless Mr. Pat, who was at
that moment peacefully pulling a pipe over his last galleys at the
_Post_ office, would have been astonished to learn what havoc his
accursed fleas had wrought with the just expectations of posterity.
IX
_Of Charles Gardiner West, President-Elect of Blaines College, and
his Ladies Fair: all in Mr. West's Lighter Manner._
The closing German of the Thursday Cotillon, hard upon the threshold of
a late Lent, was a dream of pure delight. Six of them in the heart of
every season since 1871, these Germans have become famous wherever the
light fantastic toe of aristocracy trips and eke is tripped. They are
the badge of quality, and the test of it, the sure scaling-rod by which
the frightened debutante may measure herself at last, to ask of her
mirror that night, with who can say what tremors: "_Am I a success?_"
Over these balls strangers go mad. They come from immense distances to
attend them, sometimes with superciliousness; are instantly captivated;
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