"Pray go on," she said, "we try to be simple and sincere, and we are always ready to satisfy an intelligent inquirer."
"Well," I said, desperately, "people do say that you all wear—er—blue stockings. But I am sure," I added quickly, "that it is not true" ...
It was too late. When the friend who had smuggled me into the building came to my rescue, he asked me, rather noisily, "if I was feeling well?" I replied that I was not, and that I did not think I ever should again. And I never have.
TRUE MODESTY.
[A West-end hosier advertises suits of Pyjamas in his window as "the latest styles in slumber-wear.">[
All hail, O hosier; deem me not absurd
That I should thank thee for so apt a word.
'Tis thus that Modesty our language trims:
Where men say "legs" she softly whispers "limbs."