Can
the Japanese vie with this?"
The contrast between his eager, grave gaze, and the levity of his words,
puzzled Selma. He looked interesting, but his speech seemed to her
trivial and unworthy of the occasion. Still she appreciated that she
must not be a spoil-sport, and that it was incumbent on her to resign
herself to the situation, so she smiled gayly, and said: "I am the only
one then not suffering from self-restraint. I never made a Welsh rabbit,
nor cooked on a blazer." Then, in her desire for more serious
conversation, she added: "Do you really think that we, as a people, are
less polite than the Japanese?"
The doctor regarded her with solemn interest for an instant, as though
he were pondering the question. As a matter of fact, he was thinking
that she was remarkably pretty. Then he put his finger on his lips, and
in a hoarse whisper, said, "Sh! Be careful. If the editorial ear should
catch your proposition the editorial man would appropriate it. There!"
he added, as her left-hand neighbor bent toward them in response to the
summons, "he has heard, and your opportunity to sell an idea to the
magazine is lost. It is all very fine for him to protest that he has
heard nothing. That is a trick of his trade.
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