It's quite an experience to take a walk
with him: He says how-de-do to the quaintest creatures. But he can't be
bothered with society. Vows most of the people who come back here every
winter to the villas and hotels are like a lot of goldfish going round
and round in a glass globe."
"I hope _we_ shan't get like that," said Rose. "At present, I am quite
amusing myself. And it seems to me there are many different kinds of
life here. You have only to take your choice, just as you do in other
places, only here it's curiously concentrated and concrete."
"Now, I ask you, is it the right spirit, to talk of 'amusing yourself'
in taking up your new parochial duties?" Carleton teased her.
"Perhaps one does things better if it amuses one to do them," she
argued. "And really I'm a success as shepherd's assistant, or
sheep-dog-in-training. I don't go barking and biting at the poor sheep's
heels (_have_ sheep heels?), for the sheep here are pampered and
sensitive, and their feelings have to be considered, or they jump over
the fence and go frisking away. Besides, I always think it must give
dogs such headaches to bark as they do! Instead, I make myself agreeable
and do pretty parlour tricks, which would be far beneath St. George's
dignity; and, anyhow, _he_ couldn't do tricks to save his life. His
place is on the mountain tops, so I sit in the valley below, and give
the weakest sheep tea and smile at them or weep with them, whichever
they like better."
The cousins laughed, both looking very young and happy, and pleased with
themselves and each other.
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