Mr. Macgeorge when he spoke to you."

"Mr. Macgeorge--what has he to do with it?"

"He has to do with your getting on a little. If you think that's the
way--!"

Nick broke into a laugh. "I like lessons in getting on--in other words I
suppose you mean in urbanity--from you, Julia!"

"Why not from me?"

"Because you can do nothing base. You're incapable of putting on a
flattering manner to get something by it: therefore why should you
expect me to? You're unflattering--that is, you're austere--in
proportion as there may be something to be got."

She sprang from her chair, coming toward him. "There's only one thing I
want in the world--you know very well."

"Yes, you want it so much that you won't even take it when it's pressed
on you. How long do you seriously expect me to bear it?" Nick repeated.

"I never asked you to do anything base," she said as she stood in front
of him. "If I'm not clever about throwing myself into things it's all
the more reason you should be."

"If you're not clever, my dear Julia--?" Nick, close to her, placed his
hands on her shoulders and shook her with a mixture of tenderness and
passion. "You're clever enough to make me furious, sometimes!"

She opened and closed her fan looking down at it while she submitted to
his mild violence. "All I want is that when a man like Mr. Macgeorge
talks to you you shouldn't appear bored to death. You used to be so
charming under those inflictions. Now you appear to take no interest in
anything. At dinner to-night you scarcely opened your lips; you treated
them all as if you only wished they'd go."

"I did wish they'd go. Haven't I told you a hundred times what I think
of your salon?"

"How then do you want me to live?" she asked. "Am I not to have a
creature in the house?"

"As many creatures as you like. Your freedom's complete and, as far as
I'm concerned, always will be. Only when you challenge me and overhaul
me--not justly, I think--I must confess the simple truth, that there are
many of your friends I don't delight in."

"Oh _your_ idea of pleasant people!" Julia lamented. "I should like once
for all to know what it really is."

"I can tell you what it really isn't: it isn't Mr. Macgeorge. He's a
being almost grotesquely limited."

"He'll be where you'll never be--unless you change."

"To be where Mr. Macgeorge is not would be very much my desire.
Therefore why should I change?" Nick demanded. "However, I hadn't the
least intentio