pillory of letters what he is pleased to call "The Disagreeable Girl."

And he has done it by a dry-plate, quick-shutter process in a manner
that surely lays him liable for criminal libel in the assize of
high society.

I say society's assize advisedly, because it is only in society that the
Disagreeable Girl can play a prominent part, assuming the center of the
stage. Society, in the society sense, is built upon vacuity; its favors
being for those who reveal a fine capacity to waste and consume. Those
who would write their names high on society's honor roll, need not be
either useful or intelligent--they need only seem.

And this gives to the Disagreeable Girl her opportunity. In the paper
box factory she would have to make good; Cluett, Coon & Co. ask for
results; the stage demands at least a modicum of intellect, in addition
to shape, but society asks for nothing but pretense, and the palm is
awarded to palaver. But do not, if you please, imagine that the
Disagreeable Girl does not wield an influence. That is the very
point--her influence is so far-reaching in its effect that George
Bernard Shaw, giving cross-sections of life in the form of dramas,
cannot write a play and leave her out.

She is always with us, ubiquitous, omniscient and omnipresent--is the
Disagreeable Girl. She is a disappointment to her father, a source of
humiliation to her mother, a pest to her brothers and sisters, and when
she finally marries, she slowly saps the inspiration of her husband and
very often converts a proud and ambitious man into a weak and
cowardly cur.