ur own. I suppose you know that the
world is selfish, I mean the majority of the people in it, often
unconsciously I must admit, and especially people with a mission, with a
fixed idea, with some fantastic object in view, or even with only some
fantastic illusion. That doesn't mean that they have no scruples. And I
don't know that at this moment I myself am not one of them."

"That, of course, I can't say," I retorted.

"I haven't seen her for years," he said, "and in comparison with what she
was then she must be very grown up by now. From what we heard from Mr.
Blunt she had experiences which would have matured her more than they
would teach her. There are of course people that are not teachable. I
don't know that she is one of them. But as to maturity that's quite
another thing. Capacity for suffering is developed in every human being
worthy of the name."

"Captain Blunt doesn't seem to be a very happy person," I said. "He
seems to have a grudge against everybody. People make him wince. The
things they do, the things they say. He must be awfully mature."

Mills gave me a sidelong look. It met mine of the same character and we
both smiled without openly looking at each other. At the end of the Rue
de Rome the violent chilly breath of the mistral enveloped the victoria
in a great widening of brilliant sunshine without heat. We turned to the
right, circling at a stately pace about the rather mean obelisk which
stands at the entrance to the Prado.

"I don't know whether you are mature or not," said Mills humorously.
"But I think you will do. You . . . "

"Tell me," I interrupted, "what is really Captain Blunt's position
there?"

And I nodded at the alley of the Prado opening before us between the rows
of the perfectly leafless trees.

"Thoroughly false, I should think. It doesn't accord either with his
illusions or his pretensions, or even with the real position he has in
the world. And so what between his mother and the General Headquarters
and the state of his own feelings he. . . "

"He is in love with her," I interrupted again.

"That wouldn't make it any easier. I'm not at all sure of that. But if
so it can't be a very idealistic sentiment. All the warmth of his
idealism is concentrated upon a certain '_Americain_, _Catholique et
gentil-homme_. . . '"

The smile which for a moment dwelt on his lips was not unkind.

"At the same time he has a very good grip of the material conditions