Had you other experiences of the kind?"
"On another occasion," he resumed, "we were walking on the beach and
again in a flash we had lost our footing in the world we knew. We were
in a magnificent ballroom. The chandeliers were Venetian, the orchestra
was Hungarian, the decorations were priceless orchids. Every woman wore
a tiara with chains of pearls. There were stout dowagers, callow youths,
gamblers, and blacklegs, and, among the many handsome men, one of about
five-and-thirty, with a wonderfully cut chin, bending sedulously over a
glorious, slender girl whose eyes attested the purity of her soul and
fidelity unto death. 'Dearest,' she was saying, 'what does it matter
that my father was the greatest Greek scholar in America and my mother
the most beautiful woman south of Mason and Dixon's line? What that I
have ten million dollars and can ride, shoot, swim, golf, tennis, dance,
sing, compose, cook, and interpret the Irish sagas? I love you though
you have only twelve thousand a year.' And all over the hall we caught
such phrases as, 'Yes, he dropped 25,000 on Non Sequitur at Bennings.
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