"Adventurers, mostly, I imagine," replied Palgrave, not unpleased to play Baedeker to a girl who was becoming more and more attractive to him.

"I mean people who live by their wits--writers, illustrators, actors, newspaper men, with a smattering of Wall Street brokers seeking a little mild diversion as we are, and foreigners to whom this place has a sentimental interest because it reminds them of home.

Sophisticated children, most of them, optimists with moments of hideous pessimism, enthusiasts at various stages of Parnassus, the peak of which is lighted with a huge dollar sign.

A friendly, kindly lot, hard-working and temperamental, with some brilliance and a rather high level of cleverness--slaves of the magazine, probably, and therefore not able to throw stones farther into the future than the end of the month.

This is not a country in which literature and art can ever grow big; the cost of living is too high.