lieve, we are the more interesting.
I suppose the unbroken colt of the desert is more interesting than an
American trotting horse, but for downright practical use"----

"There is such a tremendous talk of usefulness!" ejaculated
Chrysophrasia, a faint, sad smile flickering over her sallow features.

"Usefulness is so remarkably useful," I remarked.

"Oh, Mr. Griggs," exclaimed Hermione, "what an immensely witty speech!"

"There is nothing so witty as truth, Miss Carvel, though you laugh at
it," I answered, "for where there is no truth, there is no wit. I
maintain that usefulness is really useful. Miss Dabstreak, I believe,
maintains the contrary."

"Indeed, I care more for beauty than for usefulness," replied the
aesthetic lady, with a fine smile.

"Beauty is indeed truly useful," said Paul, with a very faint imitation
of Chrysophrasia's accent, "and it should be sought in everything. But
that need not prevent us from seeing true beauty in all that is truly
useful."

I had a faint suspicion that if Patoff had mimicked Miss Dabstreak in
the first half of his speech, he had imitated me in the second portion
of the sentiment. I do not like to be made game of, because I am aware
that I am naturally pedantic. It is an old trick of the schools to rouse
a pedant to desperate and distracted self-contradiction by quietly
imitating everything he says.

"You are very clever at taking both sides of a question at once," said
Hermione, with a smile.

"Almost all questions have two sides," answered Paul, "but very often
both sides are true. A man may perfectly appreciate and approve of the
opinions of two persons who take diametrically opposite views of the
same point, provided there be no question of right and wrong involved."

"Perhaps," retorted Hermione; "but then the man who takes both sides has
no opinion of his own. I do not like that."

"In general, cousin Hermione," said Paul, with a polite smile, "you may
be sure that any man will make your opinion his. In this case, I submit
that both beauty and usefulness are good, and that they need not at all
interfere with each other. As for the compliment my aunt Chrysophrasia
has paid to us Russians, I do not think we can be said to have gone very
far in either direction as yet." After which diplomatic speech Paul
dropped his eyeglass, and looked pleasantly round upon all three of us,
as much as to say that it was impossible to draw him into the position
of disagreeing wi