I tried to picture her as she would look. She would be in evening dress, of course. After thinking over different colors, and trying them upon her in my mind, I decided that her gown should be of a delicate pink, and should be made of some frail, beautiful material which would float about her like gossamer when she moved, and shimmer like the light of dawn upon the dew. You know the sort of gown I mean: one of those gowns upon which a man is afraid to lay his finger-tips lest the material melt away beneath them; a gown which, he feels, was never touched by seamstress of the human species, but was made by fairies out of woven moonlight, star dust, afterglow, and the fragrance of flowers. Such a gown upon a lovely woman is man's proof that woman is indeed the thing which so often he believes her--that she is more goddess than earthly being; for man knows well that he himself is earthly, and that a costume made from such dream stuffs and placed on him, would not last out the hour. He has but to look up at the stars to realize the infinity of space, and, similarly, but to look at her in her evening gown to realize the divinity of woman.
And that is where she has him. For it isn't so!
At last came the train--just the dingy train to stop at such a station. I boarded it, found a seat, and continued to dream dreams as we rattled on toward Washington.
Even when I found myself walking through that great terminal by which all railroads enter the capital, I hardly believed that I was there, nor did I feel entirely myself until I had reached my room in the New Willard.
Having started my bath, I went and knocked upon the door of the near-by room where the clerk had told me I should find my fellow traveler.
"Oh," he said, without enthusiasm as he discovered me. "You're here, are you?"
He looked imposing and severe in his evening dress. I felt correspondingly dirty and humble.
"None," he replied. "I've reserved a table at Harvey's. They dance there. At first they said there was not a table to be had--Saturday night, you know--but I told them who was to be with us, and they changed their minds."
"Good. I'll be dressed in a little while. Silk hats?"
Less than an hour later, my toilet completed, I rejoined him, and together we descended, in full regalia, to the lobby.