deed always thereafter took to herself the
credit of having been the first to direct a cultivated northern
attention to this beautiful young creature, who was being left, "like
the poet's flower, you know, to blush unseen and waste her sweetness on
the desert air, though of coarse you understand that I am not literal of
course, for fortunately there are no deserts in Florida, unless, indeed,
you include the Everglades, and I don't see how you can, for certainly
the essence of a desert is, and always has been, dryness of course,
dryness to a _degree_, and the Everglades are all under water, so that
there isn't a dry spot anywhere for even so much as the sole of your
foot, any more than there was for Noah's weary dove, you know, and it's
water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink, that is, if you
should _wish_ to drink it, which I am sure I hope you wouldn't, for it's
said to be _most_ unhealthy, and even the Ancient Mariner himself
couldn't have stood it long."

Mrs. Carew was fertile in quotations, rich in simile; and if both were
rather wanting in novelty, there was at least an element of
unexpectedness in her manner of connecting them which amused her present
visitor and kept him listening. Not that Winthrop was ever inattentive.
On the contrary, he had listening powers of admirable range and calm. He
was capable of participating in any amount of conversation upon the
weather, he could accept with passiveness those advisers who are always
telling their friends what they "ought" to do, he could listen
imperturbably to little details from the people who always will tell
little details, he could bear without impatience even the narration of
dreams; he was able to continue an acquaintance unmoved with those
excellent persons who, when they have said a good thing, immediately go
back and tell it over again; in short, he betrayed no irritation in the
presence of great Commonplace. The commonplace people, therefore, all
liked him, he had not an enemy among them. And this was the more
amusing, as, in reality, he detested them.

His friends, those who knew him best, told him that he went about most
of the time in a mask. "All the world's a stage," he answered; "the only
point is that the mask should be an agreeable one. Why should I be
obliged to show my true complexion to Tom, Dick, and Harry, when Tom,
Dick, and Harry so much prefer the one I have assumed? It's good
practice for me--the mask-wearing--practice in self