icans individually; I number several of them among my few friends, but I'm not sure I like them as a race. They're not a race—that's the trouble—but they will be some day. There's little racial breeding at present. As for characteristics, if you find them in the South, you lose them again in the East or West. You know more or less how an Englishman or a Frenchman's going to act, because, exceptions excluded, they run pretty true to form. But you can't guess how an American's going to act until you know whether he's Irish, German, British or Scandinavian American. Which complicates matters.
"Then I was five years in South America—three of them in Peru which I grew to love. After that—let me see—two in Burmah, one in Ceylon, and the last five in sunny spots in France and Italy—a sad spectator of war. I've enjoyed my travels. I have, I hope, learned much. But I can't write about it. I'm no good at that. Can't think how I used to write speeches once—and deliver them. I suppose living alone all these years has made me inarticulate. Miss McPherson's afraid of me, I believe. Silly little thing. That annoys me.
"You ask me who else is in Cannes. I'm not sure I ought to tell you, but knowing you as I do,