"Flurscheim is hardly the sort of person who deserves to possess beautiful things," he hazarded.
"There seems something incongruous in the idea," she said smiling her reply. "But there can be no doubt but that he has a very real love for them."
"Can't believe it," said Guy emphatically. "The capacity to acquire beautiful things and the capacity to see their beauties rarely go together."
"I should think that your argument would rather apply to the burglar who stole Mr. Flurscheim's valuables than to Mr. Flurscheim," replied Meriel merrily.
"Not necessarily," answered Guy. "It might be that the person in whose possession they are now is far more capable of appreciating the Greuze or of the miniature which he declares is so like yourself, than he is, and if such should happen to be the case hasn't the present possessor as much right as Flurscheim to the enjoyment of them?"
He spoke lightly and Meriel replied in the same tone.
"Isn't that an argument which might apply to anything of the nature of personal possessions?" she asked.
"Certainly," he responded quickly. "Is the man or woman, who wants a thing, to go without it when somebody else has more of the same article than he knows what to do with? Look at that fat old woman over there"—the disrespectful allusion referred to the maternal relative of the latest American addition by marriage to the list of British peeresses—"she's so loaded up with jewels that she absolutely clanks as she walks. She has enough on her to satisfy the aspirations of a hundred ordinary women. Why should she have all those pretty stones and trinkets and lots of other women go without?"
"She certainly is wearing far too much jewellery for a garden party," replied Meriel, her eyes twinkling.
"Yet if any other woman were to relieve her of even the smallest of her extraneous adornments the mere possession of which would probably give her far more pleasure than it does to the present possessor, there's not a man or woman here who would not cry 'to gaol with the thief,'" said Guy.