"Is there? I never knew it existed. I only wish I could cram the twelve hours of the day with twenty-four of pleasure."
"Have you ever had everything you wished for, Lady James?"
"No!" said Leah, promptly. "I'd have the sun as well as the moon, and the stars thrown in, if I had my way."
"Only to be bored by the acquisition of the lot."
"Me bored--oh dear no! I am too stupid. It is only clever people like yourself who suffer from ennui. I only wish I were a Roman empress, with provinces for a dowry. Those dear women knew how to live."
"But in the majestic pages of Gibbon----"
"Who? Oh, that man who came to think he was the Roman Empire. Now his work would bore me--I'm not stupid enough to appreciate him."
"Julia"--this was Lady Hengist--"Julia and I read Gibbon during the honeymoon, and received much instruction."
"Oh, Lord!" said Lady Jim; "as though honeymoons were not disagreeable enough without that!" The idea made her laugh consumedly. In her mind's eye she saw this new Paolo and Francesca reading heavy prose in ten volumes. But Hengist did not even smile--he had absolutely no sense of humour. Besides, he considered his companion's chatter painfully frivolous, and sighed to think that she had such a light nature. Leah, still laughing, glanced sideways. "I shall begin to think you are discontented, Lord Hengist."
"I am, that I cannot do the good I should like to do. Both Julia and I wish to benefit mankind."