g, and even use
_language_ if I felt it really necessary; otherwise he would certainly
have been the 'Winter of my discontent.'"

"What do you call language?" Dick wanted to know.

"Oh, well, I have invented some and submitted it for St. George's--if
not approval--tolerance. 'Carnation' for instance, and 'split my
infinitives,' are the most useful, and entirely inoffensive, when one's
excited. Also I may have a cigarette with him after dinner, if I like,
when we're alone. Only I haven't wanted it yet, for we have so much to
say, it won't stay lighted. But now tell me about yourself. Of course
we knew you'd come. It was in a paper here, that tells us all the news
about everybody, in English: who's who (but who isn't who nowadays who
can play bridge?), also what entertainments Who gives to Whom."

"Sounds complicated," said Dick.

"So it is, complicated with luncheon parties and tea parties, and
knowing whether to invite So and So with Thing-um-bob, or whether
they've quarrelled over bridge or something, and don't speak. It's most
intricate. But I've kept track of you--as much as one _can_ keep track
of an airman. We knew how busy you'd be, so we didn't expect you to
call. And St. George didn't like to go and worry you at Stellamare, as
he isn't acquainted with Mr. Schuyler."

"I believe Schuyler sends subscriptions to the church at Monte Carlo and
at Mentone, and to the Catholic priest at Roquebrune as well, and thinks
he's quit of religious duties," said Carleton. "Yet he's an awfully good
fellow--gives a lot away in charities, all around here. He is great
chums with some of the peasants. It's quite an experience to take a walk
with him: He says how-de-do to the quaintest creatures. But he can't be
bothered with society. Vows most of the people who come back here every
winter to the villas and hotels are like a lot of goldfish going round
and round in a glass globe."

"I hope _we_ shan't get like that," said Rose. "At present, I am quite
amusing myself. And it seems to me there are many different kinds of
life here. You have only to take your choice, just as you do in other
places, only here it's curiously concentrated and concrete."

"Now, I ask you, is it the right spirit, to talk of 'amusing yourself'
in taking up your new parochial duties?" Carleton teased her.

"Perhaps one does things better if it amuses one to do them," she
argued. "And really I'm a success as shepherd's assistant, or
sheep-dog-in-traini