They seemed affectionate to his memory, and universally commended his expertness in book-keeping.

But the epoch now before us initiated an education, the aim of which was to communicate not merely an outward expertness, but a real mental culture.

She had a sweet way of mixing French words in her conversation, calling everybody mon cher and pretending expertness in the organization of a supper.

To this phenomenon, which is at once a fact and an illusion of continuity, Mr. Cabell himself has consciously contributed, not only by a subtly elaborate use of conjunctions, by repetition, and by reintroducing characters from his other books, but by actually setting his expertness in genealogy to the genial task of devising a family tree for his figures of fiction.