“I have never particularly admired the steam calliope as a form of expression,” observed Miss Van Arsdale.
“Ah!” said the actress, smiling, “but Royce Melvin doesn’t make music for circuses.”
“And a modern newspaper is a circus,” pronounced the satyr-like scholar.
“Three-ring variety; all the latest stunts; list to the voice of the ballyhoo,” said Masters.
“Panem et circenses” pursued the mathematician, pleased with his simile, “to appease the howling rabble. But it is mostly circus, and very little bread that our emperors of the news give us.”
“We’ve got to feed what the animal eats,” defended Banneker lightly.
“After having stimulated an artificial appetite,” said Edmonds.
As the talk flowed on, Betty Raleigh adroitly drew Banneker out of the current of it. “Your Patriot needn’t have screeched at me, Ban,” she murmured in an injured tone.
“Did it, Betty? How, when, and where?”
“I thought you were horridly patronizing about the new piece, and quite unkind to me, for a friend.”