"Something in the positive way he spoke pleased her again for she smiled bewitchingly, effacing me completely. I think we're going to be very good friends,' she said, moving up on the divan a little nearer to him. 'Of course, it takes more than the aesthetic appeal to bring two sensible people together,' she murmured. 'It is not the eye which must catch the reflection, but the mind. You've thought a good deal—and studied? Men are so vapid nowadays.' She sighed. 'I hope some day you will think I'm clever enough for you to talk to me about things.'
"She was playing up to him, you see, I think that Jerry is the most extraordinary male animal that has ambled into her vision this winter.
"'I'd be glad to. Of course you're different from anything I ever saw before,' said Jerry. 'I've always thought of nature as the most beautiful thing in the world. Now I seem to be just as sure that art is.'
"That rather took her aback, but she didn't turn a hair.
"'You think all this—superfluous?'
"'Not superfluous, perhaps. Merely artificial.'
"'Am I artificial?'
"'Yes,' bluntly! 'I don't understand it at all. But it's singularly effective. It's like night with only one star visible—'
"'The more visible,' I put in, 'for being Venus.'
"She looked at me slantways. 'I'm sorry you said that, Mr. Ballard. Venus is not my goddess. Diana—'