But,
as it was, they looked sorry, and asked her if she had never read
"Who's Who in America"? She shook her head, and admitted that she
had not read it all through.
"Well," said her neighbor on the south, "this is rather an offhand
_soiree,_ and we may as well cut out proper names. But I will
put you wise to the fact that I am the Magazine Lion. I got away
from Roosevelt in Africa. He called me 'Mucky,' and I made tracks.
Here he cannot hurt me, for they will never let that man do anything
in good old New York, not even touch a Tiger."
"And I," said her neighbor on the north, "I am the Academic Lion, of
whom you must have heard. My character is noted for its concealed
sweetness, and my style leaves nothing to be hoped for. I am
literally a man of letters, for I have seventeen degrees. Usually
I look literary-lean and nobly dissatisfied, but yesterday I
swallowed a British Female Novelist by accident, and that accounts
for my inartistic air of cheerfulness. I won my splendid reputation
by telling other Lions how they ought to have done their little
tricks.
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