One reason that he avoided
society at Monte Carlo and invited few people to his house was because
the constant babble about the "Rooms" and the "tables" exhausted his
vitality, making him feel, as he said, "like a field-mouse in a vacuum."
Sometimes it had seemed to him that, if once again he heard any one say,
"Oh, if only I had played on seventeen!" he would be forced to strike
the offender, or rush away in self-defence.
Already Mary's eyes were losing the starlike clearness of their delight
in all things novel or beautiful. They looked mistily introspective, as
if they were studying some combination going on in the brain behind
them; and when she could not talk about roulette she relapsed at once
into absent-mindedness. But even her absorbed interest in the new
pursuit was not proof against the hydro-aeroplane lurking in its hangar.
It looked wonderful, yet she could not believe that it was able really
to rise out of the water into air.
"I assure you it does, though, and it can run on land, too," said
Carleton, eagerly. "Surely you must have read of Glenn Curtiss and his
_Triad_, that made such a sensation in America? You can ask Jim. He saw
my first successful experiment in the Hudson River six weeks ago."
"And one or two unsuccessful ones, too," laughed Jim. "But I really
think, Miss Grant, that Carleton's got his pet dragon into pretty good
training now, both as a land and water and air animal. I shouldn't
wonder if we'd see something worth seeing nest week at Nice?--and it
will be new on this coast, for there've been no hydro-aeroplanes tried
here before.
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