"Better take them so as to make ourselves younger."

"Then the other question."

"How they take us?"

"Yes. We're lucky, in this day and generation, if they take us at all."

"You may be right," assented Randolph ruefully. "Yet there are gleams of
hope. The more thoughtful among them have a kind of condescending pity to
bestow----"

"And the thoughtless?"

"They can find uses for us. One of the faculty was telling me how he tried
to give two or three of his juniors an outing at his cottage over in
Michigan. Everything he gave they took for granted. And if anything was
lacking they took--exceptions. Monopolized the boats; ignored the dinner-
hour.... Sometimes I think that even the thoughtless are thoughtful in
their own way and use us, if we happen to have lands and substance, purely
as practical conveniences. I've been almost glad to think that I possess
none myself."

"Don't stay here and talk like that. This is one of my blue days."

"I wish I had brought a novelette. Sure you don't want to hear a little
more about the Countess of Castlemaine and the rascalities of the Navy
Office?"