s serving his country is about as absurd as
hunting bears with toy spaniels."

"You do not do him justice," I always answered. "You forget that the
days of original and personal diplomacy are over, or very nearly over.
Plenipotentiaries now are merely persons who have an unlimited credit at
the telegraph office. The clever ones complain that they can do nothing
without authority; the painstaking ones, like Macaulay Carvel,
congratulate themselves that they need not use their own judgment in any
case whatever. They make the best government servants, after all."

"When servants begin to think, they are dangerous. That is quite true,"
was Gregorios' scornful retort; and I knew how useless it was to attempt
to convince him. Nevertheless, I believe that as time proceeded he began
to respect Macaulay on account of his extreme calmness. The young man
had made up his mind that he would not be astonished in life, and had
therefore systematically deadened his mental organs of astonishment, or
the capacity of his mental organs for being astonished. As no one has
the least idea what a mental organ is, one phrase is about as good as
another.

We had not advanced another step in our investigations, in spite of all
our efforts, when we received news that the Carvels, accompanied by
Madame Patoff and Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, were on their way to
Constantinople. We had looked at several houses which we thought might
suit them, but as the season was advancing we supposed that John would
prefer to spend the remainder of the spring in a hotel, and then engage
a villa on the Bosphorus, at Therapia or Buyukdere. At last the day came
for their arrival, and Macaulay took the kavass of his embassy with him
to facilitate the operations of the custom-house. Paul did not go with
him, thinking it best not to meet his mother, for the first time since
her recovery, in the hubbub of landing. I, however, went with Macaulay
Carvel on board the Varna boat. In a few minutes we were exchanging
happy greetings on the deck of the steamer, and in the midst of the
confusion I was presented to Madame Patoff.

She was not changed since I had seen her last, except that she now
looked quietly at me and offered her hand. Her fine features were
perhaps a little less pale, her dark eyes were a little less cold, and
her small traveling-bonnet concealed most of her thick gray hair. She
was dressed in a simple costume of some neutral tint which I cannot
remember, an