rabid and foaming at the mouth.

I think the idiot simile must have been merely the misuse of language so
common among the half-educated youth of Great Britain.

Yet when I come to consider my present condition, I have doubts as to my
complete sanity. Here am I, in a little, semi-fashionable French
seaside place, away from my books and my comforts and my habits, as much
interested in its vapid distractions as if the universe held no other
pursuits worth the attention of a rational man. And I have been here a
calendar month.

To please Carlotta I wear white duck trousers, a pink shirt, and a
yachting-cap. I wired for them to my London tailor and they arrived
within a week. The first time I appeared in the maniacal costume I slunk
from the stony stare of a gendarme, as I was about to ascend the Casino
steps, and hid myself among the fishing-boats lower down on the beach.
Carlotta, however, was delighted and said that I looked pretty. Now I
have grown callous, seeing other fools similarly apparelled. But a
year ago, should I have dreamed it possible for me to strut about a
fashionable _plage_ in white ducks, a pink shirt, and a yachting-cap?
I trow not. They are signs of some sort of madness--whether that of a
Jaques or a dingo dog matters very little.

Pasquale was the main cause of my taking Carlotta away from London.
He came far too frequently to the house, established far too great a
familiarity with my little girl. She quoted him far too readily. She
is at the impressionable age when young women fall easy victims to
the allurements of a fascinating creature like Pasquale. If he showed
himself in the light of a possible husband for Carlotta, I should have
nothing to say. I should give the pair my paternal benediction. But I
know my Renaissance and I know my Pasquale. Carlotta is merely a new
sensation--that's all he seems to live for, the delectable scoundrel.
But I am not going to have her heart broken by any cinquecento wolf in
Poole's clothing. I assume that Carlotta has a heart, even if she is not
possessed of a soul. As to the latter I am still in doubt. At all events
I resolved to withdraw Carlotta from his influence, put her in fresh
surroundings, and allow her to mix more freely among men and women, so
as to divert and possibly improve her mind.

I perceive that Carlotta is becoming an occupation. Well, she is
quite as profitable as collecting postage-stamps, or golf, or amateur
photography.

I have spe