"
He went to the elevator and rode down to the office with Oscar and
dismissed him carelessly. Then John Armitage bought an armful of
magazines and newspapers and returned to his room, quite like any
traveler taking the comforts of his inn.
CHAPTER XI
THE TOSS OF A NAPKIN
As music and splendor
Survive not the lamp and the lute,
The heart's echoes render
No song when the spirit is mute--
No songs but sad dirges,
Like the wind through a ruined cell,
Or the mournful surges
That ring the dead seaman's knell.
--Shelley.
Captain Richard Claiborne gave a supper at the Army and Navy Club for ten
men in honor of the newly-arrived military attache of the Spanish
legation. He had drawn his guests largely from his foreign acquaintances
in Washington because the Spaniard spoke little English; and Dick knew
Washington well enough to understand that while a girl and a man who
speak different languages may sit comfortably together at table, men in
like predicament grow morose and are likely to quarrel with their eyes
before the cigars are passed. It was Friday, and the whole party had
witnessed the drill at Fort Myer that afternoon, with nine girls to
listen to their explanation of the manoeuvers and the earliest spring
bride for chaperon.
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