FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66  
67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   >>   >|  
view of it. Now, to an amateur it's anything but dry. There is as much excitement in hunting down a missing link in a pedigree that you have been on the trail of for a long time, as there is in the chase of any other kind of game." "Do you ever get across the water? Travel, if I remember right, played a large part in your scheme of life once." "Yes; I've been over once, for a few months. But my income, though very comfortable for the statics of existence, is rather short for the dynamics, and so I mostly stay at home." "Did you meet any interesting people over there? Any of the crowned heads, famous wits, etc., whom you once proposed to cultivate?" "No; nobody in particular. I went in a very quiet way. I had some good letters to people in England, but I didn't present them. The idea of introductions became a bore as I got nearer to it." "And, of course, you didn't elope with the marquise?" "Was that in my scheme? Well--no, I did not." "You might have done worse, old man. You ought to have a wife, to keep you from getting rusty up here. And, besides, a fellow that goes so much into genealogy should take some interest in posterity. You ought to cultivate the science practically." "Oh, I'm past all danger of matrimony now," said Berkeley, with a laugh. "There was a girl that I was rather sweet on a few years ago. I was looking up a pedigree for her papa, and I found that I was related to her myself, in eight different ways, though none of them very near. I explained it to her one evening. It took me an hour to do it, and I fancy she thought it a little slow. At all events, when I afterward hinted that we might make the eight ways nine, she answered that our relationship was so intricate already that she couldn't think of complicating it any further. No, you may put me down as safe." After this, we sat listening in silence to the distant beat of paddle-wheels where a steamer was moving up river. "The river is a deal of company," resumed my host. "Thirty-six steamers pass here every twenty-four hours. That now is the _Mary Powell_." "Well," I said, answering not so much to his last remark as to the whole trend of his autobiography, "I suppose you are happy in this way of life, since you seem to prefer it. But it would be terribly monotonous to me." "Happy?" replied Berkeley, doubtfully. "I don't know. Happiness is a subjective matter. You _are_ happy if you think yourself so. As for me, I cultivat
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66  
67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

scheme

 
cultivate
 

people

 
pedigree
 

Berkeley

 

answered

 
intricate
 

relationship

 

couldn

 

thought


explained

 
evening
 

related

 

afterward

 

events

 

hinted

 

suppose

 
autobiography
 

prefer

 

Powell


answering

 

remark

 

terribly

 

matter

 

subjective

 
cultivat
 
Happiness
 

monotonous

 
replied
 

doubtfully


distant
 

silence

 

paddle

 

wheels

 
listening
 

steamer

 

steamers

 

twenty

 
Thirty
 

moving


company

 
resumed
 

complicating

 

comfortable

 

income

 
statics
 

existence

 
months
 

dynamics

 

crowned