‘I don’t know what you think, but I feel to want more excitement than most people, and I get less. Last night, if I could have been sure that Michael would not have misunderstood me, I would have danced every dance with Otho Askam, if the result had been that not a woman would have spoken to me at the end of the evening. That’s the kind of feeling I have.’
‘I can quite understand it. I wish you would have tried the experiment—say with me.’
‘That would not have been at all the same thing. You are a very good young man, and Otho Askam is considered rather a bad one.’
‘Michael is the best of us all.’
‘It is not that I like bad people, but I like to sing in a different key from that used by all the rest. I should like to see them all looking as if the world were coming to an end.... By the way, Gilbert, are you such a very good young man? They say you are too great a friend of that timid creature we have been talking about, who only dances with engaged girls, to be very good.’
Gilbert started—within himself, not outwardly, stirred his tea, and said carelessly—
‘Perhaps I cultivate him for reasons like your own—because I am dull, and it makes people vexed.’
‘Perhaps. He is very rich, of course. Gilbert, you have wished me such good wishes about Michael, it is only fair that I should wish you well in return. I wish Otho Askam would relieve you of those factories that I have heard you speak of. Then there would be more money in your coffers, and perhaps more chance of that marriage coming off, of which you have been speaking so kindly.’
‘You are very good,’ said Gilbert, laying down his empty cup; ‘but gentlemen are not in the habit of twisting their friends’ pockets inside out, for their own advantage.’
‘Oh no! But if the friend had a leaning towards commercial enterprise—a speculative spirit. It would be an amusement for him.’