An Applied Epigram

1895

The diplomat was talking to a young woman in Washington, and, contrary to the usual order of procedure in such cases, the young woman was not giving her most reverent and soulful attention to the remarks of the gentleman whom all Washington women delight to honor. It is true she was hearing what he was saying, but a very remarkable specimen of the Washington dude was engaging a great deal of her attention. He was posing on the other side of the room, and there was about him such an air of blase hauteur and such an astonishing revelation of clothes that to save her she could not help looking at him as the diplomat talked.

"Talleyrand once remarked," the diplomat was saying, to illustrate a profound point in diplomacy he was seeking to bring out, "that everything which is exaggerated is insignificant."

"My!" she exclaimed, with a start. "I didn't know things like that over there lived in Talleyrand's time." — Detroit Free Press.