Lady Angela, however, spoke of her dismay at the prospect of another winter in the desert; and drew a graphic little sketch of the personal discomforts to which Egyptologists were subjected.
"I always thought Egyptologists and suchlike learned folk were stuffy and snuffy with goggles and ragged old beards," laughed Paul.

"Your husband is a revelation." "Yes, he's quite human, isn't he ?" she said with an affectionate glance across the table.

"He's dead keen on his work, but he realizes--as many of his stuffy and snuffy confreres don't--that there's a jolly, vibrating, fascinating, modern world in which one lives." "I'm glad to hear you say that about the modern world," said Paul.
"What is Lady Angela saying about the modern world ?" asked the Princess, separated from Paul's partner only by Count Lavretsky.
"Singing paeans in praise of it," said Paul.
"What is there in it so much to rejoice at ?" asked the diplomatist, in a harsh voice.

He was a man prematurely old, and looked at the world from beneath heavy, lizard-like eyelids.
"Not only is it the best world we've got, but it's the best world we've ever had," cried Paul.

"I don't know any historical world which would equal the modern, and as for the prehistoric--well, Professor Doon can tell us--" "As a sphere of amenable existence," said Doon with a smile, "give me Chetwood Park and Piccadilly." "That is mere hedonism," said Count Lavretsky.