Page:The beautiful and damned.djvu/167

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THE RADIANT HOUR
153

Fourth Young Man: By gad! What an ass I am!

Second Young Man: What d'you make of the bridesmaid who thinks she's Nora Bayes? Kept telling me she wished this was a ragtime wedding. Name's Haines or Hampton.

Dick: (Hurriedly spurring his imagination) Kane, you mean, Muriel Kane. She's a sort of debt of honor, I believe. Once saved Gloria from drowning, or something of the sort.

Second Young Man: I didn't think she could stop that perpetual swaying long enough to swim. Fill up my glass, will you? Old man and I had a long talk about the weather just now.

Maury: Who? Old Adam?

Second Young Man: No, the bride's father. He must be with a weather bureau.

Dick: He's my uncle, Otis.

Otis: Well, it's an honorable profession. (Laughter.)

Sixth Young Man: Bride your cousin, isn't she?

Dick: Yes, Cable, she is.

Cable: She certainly is a beauty. Not like you, Dicky. Bet she brings old Anthony to terms.

Maury: Why are all grooms given the title of "old"? I think marriage is an error of youth.

Dick: Maury, the professional cynic.

Maury: Why, you intellectual faker!

Fifth Young Man: Battle of the highbrows here, Otis. Pick up what crumbs you can.

Dick: Faker yourself! What do you know?

Maury: What do you know?

Lick: Ask me anything. Any branch of knowledge.

Maury: All right. What's the fundamental principle of biology?

Dick: You don't know yourself.

Maury: Don't hedge!