St.
Michael.

"And tell us," Mrs. Gregory continued, "if it's your opinion that a boy
who has never been married is a better judge of matrimony's pitfalls
than his father."

"Or than any older person who has bravely and worthily gone through with
the experience," Mrs. Weguelin added.

"Ladies, I've no mind to argue. But we're ahead of Europe; we don't need
their clumsy old plan."

Mrs. Gregory gave a gallant, incredulous snort. "I shall be interested
to learn of anything that is done better here than in Europe."

"Oh, many things, surely! But especially the mating of the fashionable
young. They don't need any parents to arrange for them; it's much better
managed through precocity."

"Through precocity? I scarcely follow you."

And Mrs. Weguelin softly added, "You must excuse us if we do not follow
you." But her softness nevertheless indicated that if there were any one
present needing leniency, it was myself.

"Why, yes," I told them, "it's through precocity. The new-rich American
no longer commits the blunder of keeping his children innocent. You'll
see it beginning in the dancing-class, where I heard an exquisite little
girl of six say to a little boy, 'Go away; I can't dance with you,
because my mamma says your mamma only keeps a maid to answer the
doorbell.' When they get home from the dancing-class, tutors in poker
and bridge are waiting to teach them how to gamble for each other's
little dimes. I saw a little boy in knickerbockers and a wide collar
throw down the evening paper--"

"At that age? They read the papers?" interrupted Mrs. Gregory.

"They read nothing else at any age. He threw it down and said, 'Well, I
guess there's not much behind this raid on Steel Preferred.' What need
has such a boy for parents or grandparents? Presently he is travelling
to a fashionable boarding-school in his father's private car. At college
all his adolescent curiosities are lavishly gratified. His sister at
home reads the French romances, and by eighteen she, too, knows (in her
head at least) the whole of life, so that she can be perfectly trusted;
she would no more marry a mere half-millionaire just because she loved
him than she would appear twice in the same ball-dress. She and her
ball-dresses are described in the papers precisely as if she were an
animal at a show--which indeed is what she has become; and she's eager
to be thus described, because she and her mother--even if her mother
was once a lady and knew b