Page:Tom Beauling (1901).pdf/120

 would not choose the draft. Pearls are merely—pearls. I am, dear lady. Faithfully yours, .

Dear Phylis: Avicula Meleagrina margaritifera, a lamellibranchiate mollusk of the family Aviculidae. There is a plunge into science for you! And you can look it up in a book to see if it is spelled right, if you like. It stands for pearl-oyster, and the book will go on to say that it is not really an oyster, after all, and the book will tell you many other things besides. But it will not tell you just how rough and ugly is the outside of the shell, just how smooth and beautiful the inside, or just how iridescent and many-colored, from the serenest pink to the flamingest red, or how the oyster, lowest and most exquisitely creative of artisans, fashions the pearl in self-defense, and fashions his house beautiful, because he cannot bear to live in a house ugly. It will not tell you these things, nor even hint at them, for they are facts