" he stammered, "and I haven't had time to
read it yet."

"In other words, you wrinkled your brow as soon as you saw it, made up
your mind I was beginning to be somewhat of a nuisance, and threw it
aside unopened. Of course, you forgot all about it afterwards. You
have a perfect genius for putting crude facts in a delicate way."

"Another new discovery about me."

"That is but the natural result of the profound thought I bestow upon
you."

"Your profound thought contradicts itself. It declares me brutal and
charming with the same breath."

"Profound thought always contradicts itself. I know it for a fact,
because I've been looking up Hegel. The nice things and nasty things I
say about you arise equally from my love for you, which is thus the
unifying principle. The apparent contradictoriness, therefore,
disappears in a higher synthesis."

"Quarter! A man can't stand having philosophers hurled at his head."

"But I kiss your head sometimes. I'm sure I'd much prefer that always,
only you goad me into the other thing."

"I goad?"

"Yes. By your masterly inactivity when I am concerned. I have to force
myself into your life, and after we've been chums for three years,
you, left to yourself, ignore my existence. You have such a terrible
power of negative resistance against poor, strong-willed me. But,
after all, you admire me tremendously, don't you, dear Morgan?"

"I have told you scores of times you are the cleverest woman in the
kingdom."

"I am the only woman who understands your poetry. I don't mean that as
a bit of sarcasm at the expense of your compliment--I merely want to
show you I deserve it."

He made no reply. For a few moments there was a silence.

"How reticent you are to-night!" she said at length. "You usually have
quite a deal to tell me. Are the sentimental chapters preying on your
mind? I do so much want to know about those sentimental chapters, but
you always evade the subject. Tell me, _are_ there any in your life?"

"Ours was to be an intellectual companionship only."

"Comprising intellectual sympathy and kissing on the forehead--both
of them chaste, stony, saint-like, tantalising things. But I'd be
content for the time being if I were only sure your heart were
perfectly free. I couldn't bear the thought of your making love to
another woman."

"You are amusing."

"I am jealous."

"Then you have been imagining sentimental chapters for me."

"Well, being a woman of the world, thi