But Van Bibber only groaned, and the awful memories of the lead-like spaghetti and the bad oil and the queer cheese made him shudder, and turned things before him into a Tantalus feast of rare cruelty.  There were Little Neck clams, delicious cold consomme, and white fish, and French chops with a dressing of truffles, and Roman punch and woodcock to follow, and crisp lettuce and toasted crackers-and-cheese, with a most remarkable combination of fruits and ices; and Van Bibber could eat nothing, and sat unhappily looking at his plate and shaking his head when the waiter urged him gently.  “Economy!” he said, with disgusted solemnity.  “It’s all tommy rot.  It wouldn’t have cost me a cent to have eaten this dinner, and yet I’ve paid half a dollar to make myself ill so that I can’t.  If you know how to economize, it may be all right; but if you don’t understand it, you must leave it alone.  It’s dangerous.  I’ll economize no more.”

And he accordingly broke his vow by taking the whole party up to see the lady who would not be photographed in tights, and put them in a box where they were gagged by the comedian, and where the soubrette smiled on them and all went well.

MR. TRAVERS’S FIRST HUNT

Young Travers, who had been engaged to a girl down on Long Island for the last three months, only met her father and brother a few weeks before the day set for the wedding.  The brother is a master of hounds near Southampton, and shared the expense of importing a pack from England with Van Bibber.  The father and son talked horse all day and until one in the morning; for they owned fast thoroughbreds, and entered them at the Sheepshead Bay and other race-tracks.  Old Mr. Paddock, the father of the girl to whom Travers was engaged, had often said that when a young man asked him for his daughter’s hand he would ask him in return, not if he had lived straight, but if he could ride straight.  And on his answering this question in the affirmative depended his gaining her parent’s consent.  Travers had met Miss Paddock and her mother in Europe, while the men of the family were at home.  He was invited to their place in the fall when the hunting season opened, and spent the evening most pleasantly and satisfactorily with his fiancee in a corner of the drawing-room.  But as soon as the women had gone, young Paddock joined him and said, “You ride, of course?” Travers had never ridden; but he had been prompted how to answer by Miss Paddock, and so said there was nothing he liked better.  As he expressed it, he would rather ride than sleep.

“That’s good,” said Paddock.  “I’ll give you a mount on Satan to-morrow morning at the meet.  He is a bit nasty at the start of the season; and ever since he killed Wallis, the second groom, last year, none of us care much to ride him.  But you can manage him, no doubt.  He’ll just carry your weight.”

Mr. Travers dreamed that night of taking large, desperate leaps into space on a wild horse that snorted forth flames, and that rose at solid stone walls as though they were hayricks.