From whatever angle he viewed their dawning intimacy, he could not see it as part of her scheme of life; and to be the unforeseen element in a career so accurately planned was stimulating even to a man who had renounced sentimental experiments.
"Well," he said, "did it make you want to see more?
Are you going to become one of us ?" He had drawn out his cigarettes as he spoke, and she reached her hand toward the case.
"Oh, do give me one--I haven't smoked for days!" "Why such unnatural abstinence?
Everybody smokes at Bellomont." "Yes--but it is not considered becoming in a JEUNE FILLE A MARIER; and at the present moment I am a JEUNE FILLE A MARIER." "Ah, then I'm afraid we can't let you into the republic." "Why not?
Is it a celibate order ?" "Not in the least, though I'm bound to say there are not many married people in it.

But you will marry some one very rich, and it's as hard for rich people to get into as the kingdom of heaven." "That's unjust, I think, because, as I understand it, one of the conditions of citizenship is not to think too much about money, and the only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it." "You might as well say that the only way not to think about air is to have enough to breathe.

That is true enough in a sense; but your lungs are thinking about the air, if you are not.

And so it is with your rich people--they may not be thinking of money, but they're breathing it all the while; take them into another element and see how they squirm and gasp!" Lily sat gazing absently through the blue rings of her cigarette-smoke.
"It seems to me," she said at length, "that you spend a good deal of your time in the element you disapprove of." Selden received this thrust without discomposure.

"Yes; but I have tried to remain amphibious: it's all right as long as one's lungs can work in another air.