"The book or the song catches a mood, or feeds a craving, and when one passes or the other is glutted--" "The discouraging part is," Triscoe put in, still limiting himself to the Marches, "that it's never a question of real taste.

The things that go down with us are so crude, so coarsely spiced; they tickle such a vulgar palate--Now in France, for instance," he suggested.
"Well, I don't know," returned the editor.

"After all, we eat a good deal of bread, and we drink more pure water than any other people.

Even when we drink it iced, I fancy it isn't so bad as absinthe." The young bride looked at him gratefully, but she said, "If we can't get ice-water in Europe, I don't know what Mr.Leffers will do," and the talk threatened to pass among the ladies into a comparison of American and European customs.
Burnamy could not bear to let it.

"I don't pretend to be very well up in French literature," he began, "but I think such a book as 'The Maiden Knight' isn't such a bad piece of work; people are liking a pretty well-built story when they like it.