"Ah! For my part I would not bring such consideration to bear on the point. We may deduce, from the evolution of society, that progress is the newer movement, since the State, which welds together, is of more recent growth than the individualistic family or clan. This is as far as I care to go. To debate whether one be better for mankind than the other betrays what I call an anthropomorphic turn of mind; it is therefore a problem which, so far as I am concerned, does not exist. I content myself with establishing the fact that progress and civilization are incompatible, mutually exclusive." "Do you mean to say," asked the millionaire, "that it is impossible to be progressive and civilized at the same time?" "That is what I mean to say. Now if America stands for progress, this old world may be permitted--with a reasonable dose of that flattery which we accord to the dead--to represent civilization. Tell me, Mr. van Koppen, how do you propose to amalgamate or reconcile such ferociously antagonistic strivings? I fear we will have to wait for the millennium." "The millennium!" echoed Mr. Heard. "That is another of those unhappy words which are always cropping up in my department." "Why unhappy?" asked Mr. van Koppen. "Because they mean nothing. The millennium will never come." "Why not?" "Because nobody wants it to come. They want tangible things. Nobody wants a millennium." "Which is very fortunate," observed the Count. "For if they did, the Creator would be considerably embarrassed how to arrange matters, seeing that every man's millennium differs from that of his neighbour. Mine is not the same as yours. Now I wonder, Mr. van Koppen--I wonder what your millennium would be like?" "I wonder! I believe I never gave it a thought. I have had other things to puzzle out." And the millionaire straightway proceeded to think, in his usual clear-cut fashion. "Something with girls in it," he soon concluded, inwardly. Then aloud: "I guess my millennium would be rather a contradictory sort of business. I should require tobacco, to begin with. And the affair would certainly not be complete, Count, without a great deal of your company. The millennium of other people may be more simple. That of the Duchess, for example, is at hand. She is about to join the Roman Catholic Church." "That reminds me," said Mr. Heard. "She gave me some remarkable tea-cakes not long ago. Delicious. She said they were your specialty." "You have found them out, have you?" laughed the American. "I always tell her that once a man begins on those tea-cakes there is no reason on earth, that I can think of, why he should ever stop again. All the same, I nearly overate myself the other day. That was because we had a late luncheon on board. It shall never occur again--the late luncheon, I mean. Have you discovered, by the way, whether the business of Miss Wilberforce has been settled?" Mr. Heard shook his head.