Mortimer Dwight.
IV
During the first winter and spring while his pupils were still fairly
regular in their attendance, he was both incensed and grimly amused by
their various idiosyncrasies. He soon became accustomed to their vanity
boxes and their public application of powder and lip stick, the frank
crossing of their knees that exhibited more diaphanous silk than he had
ever seen in his life before, the polite excitement that any new article
of attire worn by one seemed to induce in all, the wicked but on the whole
good-natured baiting of Aileen Lawton and Polly Roberts, the alternate
insolence and Circean glances of Mrs. Bascom, who amused herself
"practicing on him," and the constant smoking of most of them.
But what he could neither understand nor accept was their attitude toward
one another. They would all rush at the hostess of the day as they entered,
or at late comers, with the excited enthusiasm of loved and loving
intimates who had not met for months; and Kirkpatrick, who missed nothing,
knew that they met once a day if not oftener.
In spite of their intimacy their warm enraptured greetings carried a patent
measure of admiration and even respect. It was always at least fifteen
minutes before they would settle down for "work" and meanwhile they
chattered about their common interests, but always with the air of relating
long-delayed information and a frank desire to give of their best.
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