The Transgression of Andrew Vane; A Novel

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ... knows best; and that in lacking the simple touch of sea-water they lack the one thing which ever made them beautiful at all. It opens up a whole tragedy in the phrase 'out of one's element.' That's my parable. You'll remember, said Andrew, falling in with her whim, that the transgressing monarch rarely understood what the prophet was driving at in his parable. I, too, must follow precedent. Shall I speak plainly? asked Mrs. Carnby, laying her hand for an instant on his arm. Very, please. There seems to be something rather serious back of all this. Eh bien! You're a young man, Andrew Vane, to whom fate has been uncommonly civil. Your family is rather exceptionally good, on--er--on both sides. Your means are, or will be, some day, almost uncomfortably ample. You're more than passably good-looking, and you're surprisingly clever. Your health is magnificent, and, finally, nature chose America as your environment. A mixed blessing, that last! Five words, with Thomas Radwalader in every letter! said Mrs. Carnby. I should think you'd find the role of phonograph rather unsatisfying. I thought you liked him, said Andrew, flushing. And I like the obelisk! nodded Mrs. Carnby;but that doesn't necessarily imply that I should like half a hundred tin facsimiles set up in its immediate vicinity, and making the Place de la Concorde look like a colossal asparagus-bed! There are only three ways in which a man can be distinguished, nowadays. He must be unimaginably rich, unspeakably immoral, or unquestionably original. You're not the first, as yet, and you've just proved that you're not the last. I'm not the second, I hope? Mrs....