Page 375 - tender-is-the-night

old families of the Western world, brought up rather than
brought out. Dick thought, for example, that nothing was
more conducive to the development of observation than
compulsory silence.
Lanier was an unpredictable boy with an inhuman cu-
riosity. ‘Well, how many Pomeranians would it take to lick
a lion, father?’ was typical of the questions with which he
harassed Dick. Topsy was easier. She was nine and very fair
and exquisitely made like Nicole, and in the past Dick had
worried about that. Lately she had become as robust as any
American child. He was satisfied with them both, but con-
veyed the fact to them only in a tacit way. They were not let
off breaches of good conduct—‘Either one learns politeness
at home,’ Dick said, ‘or the world teaches it to you with a
whip and you may get hurt in the process. What do I care
whether Topsy ‘adores’ me or not? I’m not bringing her up
to be my wife.’
Another element that distinguished this summer and
autumn for the Divers was a plenitude of money. Due to the
sale of their interest in the clinic, and to developments in
America, there was now so much that the mere spending of
it, the care of goods, was an absorption in itself. The style in
which they travelled seemed fabulous.
Regard them, for example, as the train slows up at Boyen
where they are to spend a fortnight visiting. The shifting
from the wagon-lit has begun at the Italian frontier. The
governess’s maid and Madame Diver’s maid have come up
from second class to help with the baggage and the dogs.
Mlle. Bellois will superintend the handluggage, leaving the

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