o see "Hamlet" with her, and
he said he was game. Lest his sensitive feelings be hurt by finding
himself a humble daw among the peacocks of the rich, gay world, she
bought seats in the balcony and wore her shabbiest gown.

When he called for her she felt slightly faint. He was in evening
dress, the most impeccable evening dress conceivable, even to the
pumps and the opera hat. He, too, looked a little shocked when he saw
her. Doubtless he would have asked her to dine at Rector's first if
she had been properly dressed. They both recovered sufficiently to go
to "Hamlet," and she trembled lest he would not like it. She need not
have worried--or rather she had more cause to worry than she knew.
Like it? He loved it; he shouted with honest mirth from first to last.
And, when it was over--

"Say," he burst out, "that beats any musical comedy show hollow! _It's
the funniest thing I ever see in my life!_"

Henceforward that dear lady did not let her theories out in a cold
world, but kept them safe in cotton wool under lock and key.

There are fakers in the Village--just as there are fakers everywhere
else. Only, of course, the ardour of new ideas which sincerely
animates the Village does lend itself to all manner of poses. And
because of this a perfectly earnest movement will attract a number of
superficial dilettanti who dabble in it until it is in disrepute. And,
vice versa, a crassly artificial fad will, by its novelty and
picturesqueness, draw some of the real thinking people. Such
inconsistencies and discrepancies are bound to occur in any such
mental crucible as Greenwich. And, moreover, if the true and the false
get a bit mixed once in a way, the wise traveller who goes to learn
and not to sit in judgment will not look upon it to the disadvantage
or the disparagement of the Village. Young, fervent and courageous
souls may make a vast quantity of mistakes ere they be proved wrong
with any sort of sound reasoning. If our Villagers run off at tangents
on occasion, follow a few false gods and tie the cosmos into knots, it
is, one may take it, rather to their credit than otherwise. No one
ever accomplished anything by sitting still and looking at a wall. And
it is far better to make a fool of yourself with an intense object,
than to make nothing of yourself and have no particular object at
all!

There are all sorts of fakers--conscious or otherwise. There is the
futurist, post-impressionist _poseur_ who more than half b