Page:The beautiful and damned.djvu/167

 Rh : By gad! What an ass I am!


 * What d'you make of the bridesmaid who thinks she's Nora Bayes? Kept telling me she wished this was a ragtime wedding. Name's Haines or Hampton.


 * (Hurriedly spurring his imagination) Kane, you mean, Muriel Kane. She's a sort of debt of honor, I believe. Once saved Gloria from drowning, or something of the sort.


 * I didn't think she could stop that perpetual swaying long enough to swim. Fill up my glass, will you? Old man and I had a long talk about the weather just now.


 * Who? Old Adam?


 * No, the bride's father. He must be with a weather bureau.


 * He's my uncle, Otis.


 * Well, it's an honorable profession. (Laughter.)


 * Bride your cousin, isn't she?


 * Yes, Cable, she is.


 * She certainly is a beauty. Not like you, Dicky. Bet she brings old Anthony to terms.


 * Why are all grooms given the title of "old"? I think marriage is an error of youth.


 * Maury, the professional cynic.


 * Why, you intellectual faker!


 * Battle of the highbrows here, Otis. Pick up what crumbs you can.


 * Faker yourself! What do you know?


 * What do you know?


 * Ask me anything. Any branch of knowledge.


 * All right. What's the fundamental principle of biology?


 * You don't know yourself.


 * Don't hedge!