THE ORCHID AND THE DÉBUTANTE

A Sad Tale of Wicked Associates

Carolyn Wells

IT WAS a wicked orchid, oh she was bloomin' bad!

A lot of naughty impulses that wicked orchid had.

Her curling petals fairly reeked with vanity and pride,

And selfishness and arrogance and other things beside.

HER purple depths were eloquent of dark and hidden sin,

Her subtle fragrance breathed a lure seductively. And in

Her paler tints were languid hints, symbolically sad;

Oh, yes, that wicked orchid was jolly bloomin' bad.

ONE day a lovely debutante was blithely coming out;

A wide-eyed child, who knew full well just what she was about!

Set free to flirt and fox-trot, her hands no longer tied;

Avid for social triumphs as bud and belle and bride.

A MYRIAD floral offerings were all about her

heaped,

But from a basket—chiffon-bowed—that wicked orchid peeped.

The debutante demurely gazed. She felt her young heart stir;

And as her angel-eyes peeped back, that orchid winked at her!

BUT was that ingenue dismayed? Not so you'd notice it!

She kissed that wicked orchid, and her eyes with welcome lit.

She flouted prim carnations, and cold chrysanthemums,

But she loved that wicked orchid, for she knew they would be chums.