about you!"

"Me, Gilbert?" Henry said, looking up in astonishment.

"Yes. You haven't got much resolution, have you? Cecily has only got to
blub a little or kiss you a few times, and you're done for ... she can
do what she likes with you. You haven't got the courage to run away from
her, and you haven't the power to stand up to her and say 'Be-damned to
you'!"

"No, I know that!"

"So, I think I'll just kidnap you, Quinny. I think I'll make you come to
Ireland with me...."

"You can't do that, Gilbert!"

"Can't I, by God!" Gilbert's voice had changed from its bantering note
to a note of resolve. "Do you think I'm going to let my best friend make
an ass of himself, and do nothing to prevent him? Quinny, you're an ass!
You're too fond of running about saying you can't help this and you
can't help that ... and spilling over! And what do you think's going to
be the end of this business? I suppose you imagine that Cecily'll change
her mind some day, and run away with you? Do you think she'll run away
with _you_ when she wouldn't run away with me? Damn you, you've got a
nerve to think a thing like that...."

"I don't think that, Gilbert," Henry interjected.

"Oh, yes, you do! Of course, you do! That's natural enough. I wouldn't
mind so much if I thought there were a chance that she would run away
with you, but she won't!"

"You wouldn't mind!..."

"No. Why should I? If she won't run away with me, she couldn't do better
than run away with you. And there'd be a chance then that you'd get on
with your job. You'd soon shake down into some sort of balance if you
were together, but you'll never get level if you go on in the way you're
going now. You'll run up into one emotional crisis and down into
another, and you'll spend the time between them in ... in recovering.
That's all. And your work will go to blazes. I _know_, Quinny. You see,
I was your predecessor...."

"But Cecily's proud of my work...."

"She was proud of mine. So she said. Look here, Quinny, _buck up_! How
much of your new novel have you written since you knew her!"

"Not very much, of course, but!..."

"Exactly. I couldn't work either when ... when I was your predecessor.
Cecily's greedy, Quinny! She wants _all_ of you ... and she has the
power to make you give the whole of yourself to her. If you think that
'all for love and the world well lost' is the right motto for a man ...
then Cecily's your woman. But is it? Hang it all, Quinny, you haven'