"Well, Aurelia—we'll call her Aurelia—brings up a far-reaching train of reflections, and, if you've got a patient waiting, you'd better come again."
"I'm the only patient waiting."
Mason ignored the lame old pun and proceeded:
"Aurelia lives in Springfield. You know the kind of home the wealthy politician builds in a western town—combination of jail and court-house. I attended a reception there last winter and saw Aurelia for the first time. She was as beautiful as an acrobat—"
"I don't want to interrupt, Mason, but I notice all your heroines are beautiful."
"They must be; my taste will not permit me to tolerate unsymmetrical heroines. I started in as an architect and I've done a little paddling in clay, and my heroines must be harmonious of structure—glamour comes only with beauty, to me."
"Largely physical, then."
"Certainly! I believe in the physical, the healthy, wholesome physical. In the splendor of the tiger's wooing is no disease."
"Well, well, she was beautiful as an acrobat—"
Mason looked sour. "One more interruption, and the rest of my heart-tragedy will remain forever alien to your ear."