"And still you refuse to go to their houses? I hear that Mrs. Hammond wanted to give a dinner for you—to all her set—and that's quite extraordinary of her—even for a lion—"
"But I couldn't eat them, you know—"
"But you could let them watch you eat—"
"I wouldn't have eaten. You see, magnificence of that sort takes my appetite away."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I suppose I'm a crank. They speak another language—those people. I don't understand them. I find that no exertion of the legs brings my mind and theirs any closer together. They bore me stiff and I bore them. What's the use?"
"You have no social ambitions?"
"None whatever—in the sense you mean. I like my fellow men stripped to the bone. That's indecent when one dines out."
"And your fellow woman?"
He shrugged and laughed.