hurry. You can see them coming for years, like a Balkan
trouble or a street improvement, and by the time they have
painted a thousand or so square yards of canvas, their work
begins to be recognised."

"Someone who Must Not be Contradicted said that a man must be
a success by the time he's thirty, or never."

"To have reached thirty," said Reginald, "is to have failed
in life."



REGINALD AT THE THEATRE



"After all," said the Duchess vaguely, "there are certain
things you can't get away from. Right and wrong, good
conduct and moral rectitude, have certain well-defined
limits."

"So, for the matter of that," replied Reginald, "has the
Russian Empire. The trouble is that the limits are not
always in the same place."

Reginald and the Duchess regarded each other with mutual
distrust, tempered by a scientific interest. Reginald
considered that the Duchess had much to learn; in particular,
not to hurry out of the Carlton as though afraid of losing