horrible crowds, the hustle, the dirt, the smells, the uproar."

For answer Colin watched the clean rain fleeting through the trees, and
groaned aloud.

"But now if we walked, we would, so to say, let ourselves down lightly,
inure ourselves by gradual approach to the thought of life once more with
our fellows. Besides, we should be walking in the wake of the Summer. She
has only moved a little East as yet. We might catch her up on her way to
New York, and thus move with the moving season, keeping in step with the
Zodiac. Then, at last, ... how much more fitting our entry into New York,
not by way of some sordid and clangorous depot, but through the spacious
corridors of the Highlands and the lordly gates of the Hudson!"

When I had thus attained my crescendo, Colin rose impressively, and
embraced me with true French effusion.

"Old man," he said, "that's just great. It's an inspiration from on high.
It makes me feel better already. Gee! but that's bully."

French as was his blood, it will be observed that Colin's expletives were
thoroughly American. Of course, he should have said _sacré mille cochons_
or _nom de Dieu de nom de Dieu_; but, though in appearance, so to say, an
embodied "_sacré"_ he seemed to find the American vernacular sufficiently
expressive.

"Is it a go, then?" said I.

"It's a go," said Colin, once more in American.