Nevertheless she seized an opportunity to
ask the editor if he did not think the verses remarkable.
"They are certainly remarkable," answered Mr. Dennison. After a brief
pause he added, "Being a strictly truthful person, Mrs. Littleton, I do
not wish to seek shelter behind the rampart which your word 'remarkable'
affords. A dinner may be remarkable--remarkably good, like the one I
have just eaten, or remarkably bad. Some editors would have replied to
you as I have done, and yet been capable of a mental reservation
unflattering to the ambitious young woman to whom we have been
listening. But without wishing to express an opinion, let me remind you
that poetry, like point-lace, needs close scrutiny before its merits can
be defined. I thought I recognized some ancient and well-worn flowers of
speech, but my editorial ear and eye may have been deceived. She has
beautiful hair at all events."
"'Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare;
And beauty draws us by a single hair.'
"You cynical personage! I only hope she may prove a genius and that you
will realize when too late that you might have discovered her," said
Selma, looking into his face brightly with a knowing smile and tapping
her fan against her hand.
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