GOSSIP
"They say—"
"Who say?"
"Oh, all the people who don't matter."
"Germany's attitude toward peace is ominous," said General Laurin Lawson at a luncheon in Louisville."
"Germany reminds me, in fact, of the new parlor-maid whose mistress said to her:"
"'And above all things, I expect you to be reticent.'"
"'Yes, ma'am, certainly, of course, ma'am,' said the new maid."
"Then she leaned toward her mistress with shining eyes."
"'And what's there to be reticent about, ma'am?' she asked."
"Now this is a secret and you mustn't tell anybody."
"Rest assured that I won't tell that secret to anybody, dear. I have no desire to figure as a female Rip Van Winkle. That secret is at least three weeks old."
Women talk among themselves about other people. Men talk to other people about themselves.
If you want to know a woman
Who can play a game of tag
With Truth until it's spent beyond repair,
Who can start a thousand rumors,
Set ten thousand tongues a-wag
Till there's nothing left of Gospel in the air,
Who can get you into trouble
And your reputation smirch—
It's Mrs. Grundy
On a Sunday
When she's walking home from church.
—Katharine Eggleston Roberts.
"They tell me that woman is a gossip. Do you think she is reliable?"
"I know that whatever she says goes."
"It's just an idle rumor."
"Well, my wife's bridge club is in session. If those ladies get hold of that idle rumor, they'll soon put it to work."
A gossip is one who can make a mountain out of a molehill and then bring it to you.
Conversation being dull at an evening party, the hostess requested one of her guests to go home, that the rest might have somebody to talk about.