EIVIPTl^ INVITATIONS 



much champagne he could buy. From cussedness on 

 those evenings I ^vould ask for beer or Vichy. Several 

 ti lies I have saved him from recklessness and getting 

 into trouble. The reiterated word was : " \Vlien you 

 come to New York, see what a friend I will be." 

 AVould you believe it, my card and a letter re- 

 m.'iined unanswered ? I could do without him, and 

 evidently he could do without an Englishman when he 

 was back to his cheap money-grubbing and cheating. 

 I tell you it makes one a bit sore. 



There was another cheap turn I met in Trouville in 

 1900. I don't like to speak of it so much because the 

 person had a charming wife. He forced himelf on me 

 to ask me about everything. He didn't know any- 

 thing about the pari-mutuel, little about racing and 

 darned little about anything outside his own little 

 world, in which, thanks to his relations and perhaps 

 his wife's money, he had been planted. I instructed 

 Jiim, introduced him, and generally made his stay 

 delightful where he would have been a tourist wander- 

 ing about in nice clothes and a shining veneer of 

 manner. His faux pas were glossed over by his wife's 

 tact. The usual sweet honeyed word was said : 

 " When you come to New York," etc. I left my card 

 at his business place in New York, a lowly factory 

 engaged in making something — lace curtains or boot- 

 laces, it makes no matter. Then someone said to me : 

 " He's a big social man : he won't like you calling at 

 his factory ; he's connected with the So-and-so's and 

 the Such-and-such's ; leave your card and address 

 at his house at 80th Street, just out of farther 

 Fifth Avenue." Would you credit it ? — not a word, 

 although I was living — forgive the snobbishness — at a 

 very reputable hotel and was to be found that week 

 at the millionaires' club, the Metropolitan. " Put not 



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