Child of the Stars

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1904. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all your tears wash out a Word of it Edw. Fitzgerald It will give you the best idea of this other world to which I aspired, if I show you the friends of mine who were part of it, just as I found them. To approach it gradually would be but to tell you much that you already know. Rather is it better, therefore, to commence with my own small beginning in it, yet whether it is a beginning or an ending, I am really uncertain, so small a part do I play in all of it, and so short a time was there even for that small part. That night Mrs. Brice's home was a blaze of lights when I arrived. Let it be said here that I did not find myself as self-possessed as I approached this, my debut, so to speak, in a social affair so important as one of Mrs. Brice's dinners, which had already become famous, even here in New York. As I say, it was not without some trepidation that I found myself waiting for the proper time to go down to the drawingroom. Of course, I was the first to arrive. It is always so when one is new and strange. The time seemed unending before there were other men waiting with me. There were two among them, older than myself, who smoked and chatted over some similar affair of the night before, with the air of those wearied of this sort of thing. I suppose, said one of them, that Major Fitzhugh will be here to-night, as usual. Rumor has it that when he leaves he's to take our hostess with him, to preside at his home in the North of England. He's welcome, said the other, knocking the ashes from his cigarette. The young one is more to my liking. A fine face and figure, and money enough to back it, too, I guess, if h...