erroneous.--H. H.

To H. H.: Good God, I know it! but if you had seen what I first
wrote about it you would keep still.--D. S.

"I should say," said Gud, "that it is beautiful simplicity."

"That is just the trouble with all that these chaps are writing. They
are so keen on the obvious. You see, I can understand all that these men
have written, for it is all explainable by psychoanalysis. It is merely
the symbolism of a suppressed wish to be famous. And, oh Gud, how I do
crave true mystery!"

"Then," said Gud, "you shall have it, for am I not Gud the Great?"

"If you are, why do you not inspire these men who are writing this book
about you to put something into the book that no one can understand?
Indeed, if you cannot do that I shall be tempted to believe that you are
not Gud, but only a mere figment of fancy conceived in the brains of two
conceited young egotists who are seeking a cheap notoriety by shocking
decent people with blasphemous literature."

"I fear you are right."

"Oh," cried the woman, "then you admit that you are what I said?"

"Not at all. I merely admit that he is what you said."

"Really, Gud, you ought to have had some well-known writer do this book
about you--some one who had already been suppressed, or, better yet, a
Russian."

"Who are the Russians?" asked Gud.

"They are the supremists in dancing, the theorists in politics, the
idealists in economics and the realists in literature. But you are
romantic, aren't you, Gud?"

"I think so. At least I feel so--did you always wear your hair that
way?"

"Oh, no, indeed. You see, I used to wear it shorn like that of a boy,
for that fashion was once the insignia of the female intelligence. But
all the fat bankers' wives aped us, so now our only chance for
distinction is to ape our mothers, and I wear my mother's hair. See, I
will take it off and show it to you."

"It is very lovely," said Gud, as he fingered her mother's hair. "I
think I should have loved your mother, and it is very sweet of you to
wear this hair in remembrance of her. Most women who have risen to your
intellectual heights forget their mothers."

"It is very kind of you to say that, but distinction is in being
different, and so we ultra-intelligent women are again showing respect
for our mothers to distinguish us from the mob of the commonplace
intellectuals who came flopping into the pool of progress and muddied
the water.... It is a great race, dear Gud,