No constraint of this sort was ever felt with Roy. He could talk with a dancing grandee in terms that were perfectly comprehensible to him and with a racing countess in the language of her stable boys. They said of him that he was not a bit like an author. No compliment pleased him better. The Americans, who are the most efficient people on earth, have carried this device to such a height of perfection and have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an animated and amusing conversation without giving a moment's reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication.
Time can assuage the pangs of love but only death can still the anguish of wounded vanity.
Love is simple and seeks no subterfuge, but vanity cozens you with a hundred disguises. You cannot escape it, and should you take pains to guard against it, it will make use of these very pains to trip you up. You are defenseless against its onslaught because you know not on what unprotected side it will attack you. Sincerity cannot protect you from its snare nor humor from its mockery. All rights reserved.