and that you have told
her your thoughts."

"Nobody in London knows anything of the kind. I never said a word to
her that her husband mightn't have heard."

"Jack!"

"I never did."

"I wonder you are not ashamed to confess such simplicity, even to me."

"I am not a bit ashamed of that, though I am ashamed of having in some
sort contributed to do her an injury. Of course I love her."

"Rather,--as I said before."

"Of course you intended that I should."

"I intended that you should amuse yourself. As long as you are good to
me, I shall be good to you."

"My dear Adelaide, nobody can be so grateful as I am. But in this
matter the thing hasn't gone quite as you intended. You say that she is
meaningless."

"Vapid, flabby, childish, and innocent as a baby."

"Innocent I am sure she is. Vapid and flabby she certainly is not. She
is full of fun, and is quite as witty as a woman should be."

"You always liked fools, Jack."

"Then how did I come to be so very fond of you." In answer to this she
merely made a grimace at him. "I hadn't known her three days,"
continued he, "before I began to feel how impossible it would be to say
anything to her that ought not to be said."

"That is just like the world all over," said Mrs. Houghton. "When a man
really falls in love with a woman he always makes her such a goddess
that he doesn't dare to speak to her. The effect is that women are
obliged to put up with men who ain't in love with them,--either that,
or vouchsafe to tell their own little story,--when, lo, they are
goddesses no longer."

"I dare say it's very ridiculous," said Jack, in a mooning despondent
way. "I dare say I'm not the man I ought to be after the advantages I
have had in such friends as you and others."

"If you try to be severe to me, I'll quarrel with you."

"Not severe at all. I'm quite in earnest. A man, and a woman too, have
to choose which kind of role shall be played. There is innocence and
purity, combined with going to church and seeing that the children's
faces are washed. The game is rather slow, but it lasts a long time,
and leads to great capacity for digesting your dinner in old age. You
and I haven't gone in for that."

"Do you mean to say that I am not innocent?"

"Then there is the Devil with all his works,--which I own are, for the
most part, pleasant works to me. I have always had a liking for the
Devil."

"Jack!"

"Of all the saints going he is certainly the most popular.