I'd rather see you flare out like that than pay compliments.

Yet I fancy you're a diplomatist, for all that." "You did me the honor to believe I was one once, when I was simply the most palpable ass and bungler living," said Paul bitterly.
She was still sweetly silent, apparently preoccupied in smoothing out the mane of her walking horse.

"Did I ?" she said softly.

He drew close beside her.
"How different the vegetation is here from what it is with us!" she said with nervous quickness, directing his attention to the grass road beneath them, without lifting her eyes.

"I don't mean what is cultivated,--for I suppose it takes centuries to make the lawns they have in England,--but even here the blades of grass seem to press closer together, as if they were crowded or overpopulated, like the country; and this forest, which has been always wild and was a hunting park, has a blase look, as if it was already tired of the unchanging traditions and monotony around it.