After all, portraiture is my specialty, and this silent grandeur is a little beyond my interpretation." She paused, and added the next few words in an authoritative manner, as though she had a truth of some consequence to deliver: "The difficulty is that you really can't interpret anything until you are quite sure what it means.

You see, I'm feverishly restless by temperament, and accustomed to indulge in all kinds of petty, purposeless activities.

They are petty, though the major calls them duties--social duties--and being, I'm afraid, a rather frivolous person in spite of my love of art, they appeal to me." Ida said nothing.

It was not necessary, and as a rule not advisable, to encourage Arabella Kinnaird when she commenced, as she sometimes described it, to talk seriously; and she rattled on: "My dear, I'm all appreciation, and graciously pleased with the wonders that you are showing me; but still this valley strikes me as being short of something.

It's too calm and quiet.