Explore "The Blond Beast" by Edith Wharton on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"My chief aim in life? " Orlando G. Spence repeated. He threw himself back in his chair, straightened the tortoise-shell _pince-nez_, on his short blunt nose, and beamed down the luncheon table at the two young men who shared his repast.
His glance rested on his son Draper, seated opposite him behind a barrier of Georgian silver and orchids; but his words were addressed to his secretary who, stylograph in hand, had turned from the seductions of a mushroom _souffle_ in order to jot down, for the Sunday _Investigator_, an outline of his employer's views and intentions respecting the newly endowed Orlando G. Spence College for Missionaries. It was Mr. Spence's practice to receive in person the journalists privileged to impart his opinions to a waiting world; but during the last few months -- and especially since the vast project of the Missionary College had been in process of development -- the pressure of business and beneficence had necessitated Millner's frequent intervention, and compelled the secretary to snatch the sense of his patron's elucubrations between the courses of their hasty meals.