What Will People Say?

lonesome and when one's window looks out upon crowds. Forbes had pitc

wind from out of town with a rural sense of humor. Women pressed forward into the gale, bending double and struggling with their tormented hats and writhing sk

o were ashamed of bare heads as of a nakedness. The gamins darted among the street-cars and aut

on exhibition. Then swift clouds erased it, and gusts of rain went across the town in vo

me one had turned on an electric switch. On the pavements, black with wet and night, t

the rope, the baby that laughed and cried, the woman that danced on the wire, the skidless tire in the rain, the great sibyl face that winked and advised che

ed to go forth. It inspired him with pride to put on his evening clothes. While he dr

to a queen, went down to the main dining-room, and tried to look at least a duke. He was glad to be in full dress,

d appetite for, and tried

g the sonorous orchestra, all gave him that sense of royalty from which money is most easily wooed. But the cordialit

ingered at his solitary banquet like a boy sent away from the table and forced to eat by himself. His extr

re to go. He pretended to be in no hurry. He had, indeed, more leisure than he enjoyed. Still he sat

lized also that a number of kind-thoughted gentlemen had erected large structures for the entertainm

, and ignored the residue with a ruinous lifting of

e brief storage of his hat and coat and stick. He sauntered to the news-stand wi

good pla

cesses, and some of their titles fe

h, Oh, Delphine!" "Peg o' My Heart," "The

y about girls,

there's others: 'Within the Law,' 'The Argyle Case

Within the Law.' I've hear

. It's been a sel

t I g

not. How m

ne

ered by a party that hasn't called

" Forbes groaned, at this added irony

but it's too late t

ighed and waved a handsome

disturb the people already seated, he stood at the back, leaning over the rail. He thrilled instantly to the speech of the shop-girl sentenced to the penitentiary for a theft she was not guilty of, and warning the proprie

towering head-dress, a heap of elaborately coiffed hair, a wreath of mist, an i

t contained a personality, for it paused to listen to something another pile of fabrics said to it, and from both came a snicker-or was it only a frou-frou

howed no anxiety to catch the remainder of the act, but stood gossiping while the frant

EMERGED, A WOMA

he clothes-horses strip

ppeared, a bust set upon a heap of drapery. Then the opera-cloak slipped off into the usher's hands. And now design emerged, a woman stood revealed. The head and throat were seen to be attached to a scr

ricatured by balloon sleeves, huge farthingales, or paniers like a jennet's pack-saddles, the incredible Botocudo ideal of the bustle, corse

by those who pose as statues at the vaudevilles. Inside their outer wraps women were rather

r head-dress was something bizarre-not a tiara of diamonds, but a black crest with a pearl or two studding it-the iridescent breast of a lyre-bird it was, though he did not know. A cord of pe

tween the ankles to make walking possible at all. There was a train of a fish-tail sort, a little twitch

at a woman just returned from the surf in a wet bathing-suit. He shifted his eyes

d the men them. They seated them

Thank you" to each of those who shoved back awkwardly and wonderingly to let him in. He felt like explaining to them that he had not just

ulet, but did not, caught his ear and led his eyes

dness of their speech and their laughter would have shocked him in a crowd of farmers.

ad seen so much else. She was talking to a man in the

ight be the same back he had followed

med to look at them. Their proprietress was evidently not ashamed to submit them for public inspection. One might not approve her boldness, but one could har

en aligned themselves in profile along the rail as if they were seat

he boxes were illumined with a light reflected from the scene

c light of stage-craft was upon it, and once she turned her head and cast a slow, vague look along the shadowy valley of the audience. She could not have seen

dden throe of laughter. The little shoplifter and blackmailer on the stage was describing her efforts to learn the ways of society, the technique of pouring tea

quite perfect. She had the face of a débutante under the white hair of a matron. If her age were betrayed by her neck, the dog-collar of pearls concealed the rava

ideal, drawn in liberal rotundities-cheeks, chin, throat, bust, hips. No Cubist could h

nvisible, mere cut-ou

chief characteristic of New York wealth. They were as eager and irrepres

hey forgot the play, though the situation was critical. They chattered and laughed so

ered how the play could go on. He had heard of actors stepping out of the pic

prise, and received another hiss in the face. Silence and shame quieted it instanter. The women blus

o toss their heads with contempt, but the mob had cowed them so completely that Forbe

the men in the box rise and leave along the side-aisle.

ween knees and seat-backs; but he had seen at last a man he