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"They say that that's a difficult task, that nothing's amusing

that isn't spiteful," he began with a smile. "But I'll try. Get

me a subject. It all lies in the subject. If a subject's given

me, it's easy to spin something round it. I often think that the

celebrated talkers of the last century would have found it

difficult to talk cleverly now. Everything clever is so

stale...."

"That has been said long ago," the ambassador's wife interrupted

him, laughing.

The conversation began amiably, but just because it was too

amiable, it came to a stop again. They had to have recourse to

the sure, never-failing topic-gossip.

"Don't you think there's something Louis Quinze about

Tushkevitch?" he said, glancing towards a handsome, fair-haired

young man, standing at the table.

"Oh, yes! He's in the same style as the drawing-room and that's

why it is he's so often here."