“Do you find me very beautiful?”
“Is not the term misapplied? It would be more applicable to Vestné.”
“And Vestasian?”
“Well, perhaps so. He seemed to me a very curious combination.”
“Yes. That is his chief charm. No matter how ill-tempered I may be (and you will have perceived I occasionally get that way), he always has the power to convert me once again to sublimity.”
“Do you appreciate Vestasian’s wife?” I queried.
“Oh! I see. You mean that pretty creature who comes to stay with him sometimes. Have you met her?”
“No. He simply told me of her.”
“Ah! Yes. I appreciate her very much. If I had my way I’d put her outside the gates, to go back as best she could, where she could. That is another peculiarity of his. If anybody else had played the trick on him that she did he would have followed him like the avenging angel to the end of time. But because she cries and frets and generally makes a disturbance every time she comes down here, he invariably gives in to her, and thinks it’s a laughing matter.”
He looked over to me and smiled.