the young ladies of their party and
letting them loose on society as propagandists of their Utopian ideas and
political fallacies.

[_Exeunt omnes_.

SCENE II.--Lady Gules's Boudoir. Elaine and Adolphus.

_Ad_. Dear Lady Elaine, Lady Gules has given me special permission and
opportunity to explain myself more fully than was possible yesterday.
Please tell me why you were so surprised at what I said, and why you
think me so very objectionable?

_El_. I don't think you at all objectionable, Mr Gresham, as a member of
society; on the contrary, I think you charming; though I do feel that,
magnetically, we are wide as the poles asunder! Oh, believe me, we have
no grounds of common sympathy, either in matters of philosophical,
political, or religious thought--and above all, in art! You seem to lack
that enthusiasm for humanity which could alone constitute an affinity
between us. I was surprised, because I had hoped to find in you an
intelligent companion; and mortified at the discovery that you could not
rise to higher ground than that of an ordinary admirer,--men in these
days seem to think that women have no other _raison d'etre_ except to be
made love to.

_Ad_. I do not think that is a new idea, Lady Elaine; but is it
absolutely necessary, in order that you should return the deep affection
I feel for you, that we should agree politically, philosophically,
theologically, and aesthetically? In old days women did not trouble
themselves on these matters, but trusted to their hearts rather than to
their heads to guide their affections.

_El_. And so I do now. I feel instinctively that we are not kindred
spirits; that the mysterious chord of sympathy which vibrates in the
heart of a girl with the first tone of the voice of the man she is
destined to love, does not exist between us. Oh, indeed, indeed, Mr
Gresham, although I adore Frederic Harrison as a thinker, as much as I
dislike Mr Mallock--though I read every word he writes as a duty--I am
not destitute of romance. I am a profound believer in the doctrine of
affinity. Who that accepts, as I do, the marvellous teaching of Comte,
and remembers that the highest ideas which it contains were inspired by a
woman, could fail to be? But I shall know the man towards whom I am
destined to occupy the relation that Comte's Countess did to him, at a
glance. No words will need to pass between us to assure us that we are
one in sentiment. It will be as impossi