Back to the Bright Lights 



of jewels flashing in the semi-darkness. 

 You have touch of elbow, mayhap, as 

 you sit in hushed expectancy, with 

 those who are near and dear. You 

 feel the exaltation of the hour. For- 

 gotten is the daily grind. Forgotten 

 the frozen cabbies of the curb outside, 

 and the motor fleet in waiting in the 

 snowy midnight. You are soothed or 

 saddened, depressed, uplifted, satisfied 

 or comforted and your imagination 

 stirred just according as your mood, 

 your individual capacity, or attending 

 circumstances may admit. 



An hour later in the warmth and 

 comfort of the library, I viewed 

 many things in retrospect. Happy as 

 I had surely been under the witchery 

 of those high appeals to the finer sen- 

 sibilities, my mind kept ever turning 

 back from a contemplation of the 

 cherry blooms with which poor Cho 

 Cho San had decked her little home in 

 honor of the coming of her lover to a 

 cottage in the wood where the romance 



[i49] 



