live up to the social necessity," said Lambert.

"And keep the Ten Commandments in the vulgar tongue," rejoined Vidall.

"I've lived seventy-odd years, and I've knocked about a good deal in my
time," said the general, "but I've never found that you could make a
breach of social necessity, as you call it, without paying for it one way
or another. The trouble with us when we're young is that we want to get
more out of life than there really is in it. There is not much in it,
after all. You can stand just so much fighting, just so much work, just
so much emotion--and you can stand less emotion than anything else. I'm
sure more men and women break up from a hydrostatic pressure of emotion
than from anything else. Upon my soul, that's so."

"You are right, General," said Lambert. "The steady way is the best way.
The world is a passable place, if a fellow has a decent income by
inheritance, or can earn a big one, but to be really contented to earn
money it must be a big one, otherwise he is far better pleased to take
the small inherited income. It has a lot of dignity, which the other
can only bring when it is large."

"That's only true in this country; it's not true in America," said Frank,
"for there the man who doesn't earn money is looked upon as a muff, and
is treated as such. A small inherited income is thought to be a trifle
enervating. But there is a country of emotions, if you like. The
American heart is worn upon the American sleeve, and the American mind is
the most active thing in this world. That's why they grow old so young."

"I met a woman a year or so ago at dinner," said Vidall, "who looked
forty. She looked it, and she acted it. She was younger than any woman