He brought in several fashionable names, I remember--I don't
recall just how he did it, but he tried to appear casual when he spoke
of Mrs. Thus-and-So, who had a mansion on Fifth Avenue; and he indicated
that he often dined there now. They had met in the Orient, and Reggie
was a corker, too, and he might summer at Newport, and what did I think
of an offer of five thousand dollars from a great weekly for a serial
dealing with high life?
He sickened me that evening. Yes, he was a prig, a snob, and I don't
know what else. Frankly and coldly I told him to go to the dickens. Our
magazine had existed without him once upon a time, and it could go on
existing without him. I was sorry to see him make such a fool of
himself.
His whole attitude changed.
"Oh, don't think I mean all I say, Allison!" he pleaded. "I'll continue
to give you something now and again. After all, I've got a wide audience
with you people, and I don't quite wish to lose it."
That irritated me more than ever--his stupid patronage, his abominable
self-assurance. I remember paying the check very grandiloquently, and
leaving him alone--as he was so fond of being, at one time--in the
center of the room.
When we met thereafter of course we were exceedingly chilly to each
other. Once I saw him with Mrs.
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