Daddy Long Legs

However--our guests came Friday afternoon in time for tea in the senior

corridor, and then dashed down to the hotel for dinner. The hotel was

so full that they slept in rows on the billiard tables, they say.

Jimmie McBride says that the next time he is bidden to a social event

in this college, he is going to bring one of their Adirondack tents and

pitch it on the campus.

At seven-thirty they came back for the President's reception and dance.

Our functions commence early! We had the men's cards all made out

ahead of time, and after every dance, we'd leave them in groups, under

the letter that stood for their names, so that they could be readily

found by their next partners. Jimmie McBride, for example, would stand

patiently under 'M' until he was claimed. (At least, he ought to have

stood patiently, but he kept wandering off and getting mixed with 'R's'

and 'S's' and all sorts of letters.) I found him a very difficult

guest; he was sulky because he had only three dances with me. He said

he was bashful about dancing with girls he didn't know!

The next morning we had a glee club concert--and who do you think wrote

the funny new song composed for the occasion? It's the truth. She

did. Oh, I tell you, Daddy, your little foundling is getting to be

quite a prominent person!

Anyway, our gay two days were great fun, and I think the men enjoyed

it. Some of them were awfully perturbed at first at the prospect of

facing one thousand girls; but they got acclimated very quickly. Our

two Princeton men had a beautiful time--at least they politely said

they had, and they've invited us to their dance next spring. We've

accepted, so please don't object, Daddy dear.

Julia and Sallie and I all had new dresses. Do you want to hear about

them? Julia's was cream satin and gold embroidery and she wore purple

orchids. It was a DREAM and came from Paris, and cost a million

dollars.

Sallie's was pale blue trimmed with Persian embroidery, and went

beautifully with red hair. It didn't cost quite a million, but was

just as effective as Julia's.

Mine was pale pink crepe de chine trimmed with ecru lace and rose

satin. And I carried crimson roses which J. McB. sent (Sallie having

told him what colour to get). And we all had satin slippers and silk

stockings and chiffon scarfs to match.

You must be deeply impressed by these millinery details.

One can't help thinking, Daddy, what a colourless life a man is forced

to lead, when one reflects that chiffon and Venetian point and hand

embroidery and Irish crochet are to him mere empty words. Whereas a

woman--whether she is interested in babies or microbes or husbands or

poetry or servants or parallelograms or gardens or Plato or bridge--is

fundamentally and always interested in clothes.