"
"Oh," laughed Watts, "you are heavenly! Just imagine a host saying to
his dinner-party, 'Friends, before this wine is passed, will you please
show me your drink licenses.'"
"You may laugh, Watts," said Peter, "but such a request would have saved
many a young fellow from ruin, and society from an occasional terrible
occurrence which even my little social experience has shown me. And it
would soon be so much a matter of course, that it would be no more than
showing your ticket, to prove yourself entitled to a ride. It solves the
problem of drunkenness. Ant that is all we can hope to do, till humanity
is--" Then Peter, who had been looking at Leonore, smiled.
"Is what?" asked Leonore.
"The rest is in cipher," said Peter, but if he had finished his
sentence, it would have been, "half as perfect as you are."
After this last relay of callers had departed, it began to pour so nobly
that Peter became hopeful once more. He wandered about, making a
room-to-room canvass, in search of happiness, and to his surprise saw
happiness descending the broad stair incased in an English shooting-cap,
and a mackintosh.
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