“Shades of the Hall Room Boys!” I exclaimed to myself. “What kind of world is this anyway—what sort of people? Here we ride up to a casino door in the heart of a summering community, and two soufflé youths in white offer to introduce us to their friends as friends of theirs. Is it my looks, or Franklin’s, or the car, or what?”
A spirit of adventure began to well up in me. I thought of a few days spent here and what they might be made to mean. Thus introduced, we might soon find interesting companionship.
But I looked at Franklin and my enthusiasm cooled slightly. For an adventure of any kind one needs an absolutely unified enthusiasm for the same thing, and I was by no means sure that it existed here. Franklin is so solemn at times—such a moral and social mainstay. I argued that it was best, perhaps, not to say all that was in my mind, but I looked about me hopefully. Here were all those costumes I have indicated.
“This seems to be quite a place,” I said to this camp follower. “Where do they all come from?”
“Oh, Pittsburg principally, and Cleveland. Most of the people right around here are from Pittsburg.”
“Is there very good bathing here?”
“Wonderful. As good as anywhere.”
I wondered what he knew about bathing anywhere but here.
“And what else is there?”
“Oh, tennis, golf, riding, boating.” He fairly bristled with the social importance of the things he was suggesting.