No More Learning

"

"Thanks for your courtesy. I'll return it. Ye-es we are both not
exactly--how shall I put it? "

"What we have been. 'I feel it in my bones,' as Mrs. Crossley says.
Polly, I've wasted my life. "

"As how? "

"Never mind how. I feel it. I want to be a Power before I die. "

"Be a Power then. You've wits enough for anything--and beauty? "

Mrs. Hauksbee pointed a teaspoon straight at her hostess.
"Polly, if you
heap compliments on me like this, I shall cease to believe that you're a
woman. Tell me how I am to be a Power. "

"Inform The Mussuck that he is the most fascinating and slimmest man in
Asia, and he'll tell you anything and everything you please. "

"Bother The Mussuck! I mean an intellectual Power--not a gas-power.
Polly, I'm going to start a salon. "

Mrs. Mallowe turned lazily on the sofa and rested her head on her hand.
"Hear the words of the Preacher, the son of Baruch," she said.

"Will you talk sensibly? "

"I will, dear, for I see that you are going to make a mistake. "

"I never made a mistake in my life at least, never one that I couldn't
explain away afterward. "

"Going to make a mistake," went on Mrs. Mallowe, composedly. "It is
impossible to start a salon in Simla. A bar would be much more to the
point.