How old are you ?" "Thirty-six." "C'est le bel age, as they say here." "What does that mean ?" "It means that a man shouldn't send away his plate till he has eaten his fill." "All that?
I have just made arrangements to take French lessons." "Oh, you don't want any lessons.

You'll pick it up.

I never took any." "I suppose you speak French as well as English ?" "Better!" said Mr.Tristram, roundly.

"It's a splendid language.

You can say all sorts of bright things in it." "But I suppose," said Christopher Newman, with an earnest desire for information, "that you must be bright to begin with." "Not a bit; that's just the beauty of it." The two friends, as they exchanged these remarks, had remained standing where they met, and leaning against the rail which protected the pictures.