"Yes," he said, almost groaning.

The next morning a man, who had buried his Ideal, tottered downstairs.
He was pale enough; almost as pale as a corpse; but in spite of this, he
is still alive, and if he has any Ideal at all at present, it is
certainly not a theatrical princess.




STABLE PERFUME


Three ladies belonging to that class of society which has nothing useful
to do, and therefore does not know how to employ its time sensibly, were
sitting on a bench in the shade of some pine trees at Ischl, and were
talking incidentally of their preference for all sorts of smells.

One of the ladies, Princess F----, a slim, handsome brunette, declared
there was nothing like the smell of Russian leather; she wore dull brown
Russian leather boots, a Russian leather dress suspender, to keep her
petticoats out of the dirt and dust, a Russian leather belt which
spanned her wasp-like waist, carried a Russian leather purse, and even
wore a brooch and bracelet of gilt Russian leather; people declared that
her bedroom was papered with Russian leather, and that her lover was
obliged to wear high Russian leather boots and tight breeches, but that
on the other hand, her husband was excused from wearing anything at all
in Russian leather.