The multitudinous jabber was suddenly interrupted by the sound of scampering feet accompanied by merry shrieks. A young girl burst from the vestibule door, closely followed by three young men. She was about eighteen years old, well fed, of a ravishing strawberries-and-cream complexion, her low-cut evening gown leaving her plump arms and a good deal of her bust exposed. One of the rocking-chairs on the porch impeding her way, she was seized by her pursuers, apparently a willing victim, and held prisoner. Two of her captors gripped her bare arms, while the third clutched her by the neck. Thus they stood, the men stroking and kneading her luscious flesh, and she beaming and giggling rapturously. Then one of the men gathered her to him with one arm, pressing his cheek against hers
"She's my wife," he jested. "We are married. Let go, boys."
"I'll sue you for alimony then," piped the girl
Finally, they released her, and the next minute I saw them walking across the lawn in the direction of the dancing-pavilion
The man who had talked scientific philanthropy spat in disgust
"Shame!" he said. "Decent young people wouldn't behave like that in Russia, would they?"
"Indeed they wouldn't," his interlocutor assented, vehemently.
"People over there haven't yet forgotten what decency is."
"Oh, well, it was only a joke, said a woman
"A nice joke, that!" retorted the man who had dwelt on scientific charity
"What would you have? Would you want American-born young people to be a lot of greenhorns? This is not Russia. They are Americans and they are young, so they want to have some fun. They are just as respectable as the boys and the girls in the old country. Only there is some life to them. That's all."