"Mephistopheles!"—and he stopped again with the point of this.
"Pray then whom do you call Margaret? May I ask if your failure of interest in the political situation is the cause of this change in your personal one?" Nash went on. Nick signified that he mightn't; whereupon he added: "I'm not in the least devilish—I only mean it's a pity you've altered your minds, since Miriam may in consequence alter hers. She goes from one thing to another. However, I won't tell her."
"I will then!" Nick declared between jest and earnest.
"Would that really be prudent?" his companion asked more completely in the frolic key.
"At any rate," he resumed, "nothing would induce me to interfere with Peter Sherringham. That sounds fatuous, but to you I don't mind appearing an ass."
"The thing would be to get Sherringham, out of spite," Nash threw off, "to entangle himself with another woman."
"What good would that do?"
"Ah, Miriam would then begin to think of him."
"Spite surely isn't a conceivable motive—for a healthy man."
The plea, however, found Gabriel ready. "Sherringham's just precisely not a healthy man. He's too much in love."