"If spoon you must"
A meet-cute in In Search of the Unknown (1904) by Robert W. Chambers
"I don't suppose you know that the antenna of that silvery-winged moth are distinctly pectinate," I said.
"Of course I do," she said. "I took my degree as D.E. at Barnard College."
"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "You've been through Barnard? You are a Doctor of Entomology?"
"It was my undoing," she said. "The department was abolished the year I graduated. There was no similar vacancy, even in the Smithsonian."
She shrugged her shoulders, eyes fixed on the moths. "I had to make my own living. I chose stenography as the quickest road to self-sustenance."
She looked up, a flush on her cheeks.
"I suppose you took me for an inferior?" she said. "But do you suppose I'd flirt with you if I was?"
She pressed her face to the pane again, murmuring that exquisite poem of Andrew Lang:
"Spooning is innocuous and needn't have a sequel,
But recollect, if spoon you must, spoon only with your equal."
Standing there, watching the moths, we became rather silent—I don't know why.
In Search of the Unknown (1904)
By Robert W. Chambers
