"Has Everard anything against you?"
"A whole litany of crimes."
"What's wrong with Everard?"
"He was born the night of the first big wind, and he has had it in for the whole world ever since. He's perverse. Nothing but another big wind will turn him round."
Seeing Arthur puzzled over these allusions, Grahame explained.
"Think of such a man having children like the twins, little lumps of sweetness ... like Louis ... heavens! if I live to be the father of such a boy, life will be complete ... like my Mona ... oh!"
He stalked about the room throwing himself into poses of ecstasy and adoration before an imaginary goddess to the delight of the Senator.
"I've been there myself," Arthur commented unmoved. "To the question: how do you hope to woo and win Everard?"
"First, by my book. It's the story of just such a fool as he: a chap who wears the American flag in bed and waves it at his meals, as a nightgown and a napkin; then, he is a religious man of the kind that finds no religion to his liking, and would start one of his own if he thought it would pay; finally, he is a purist in politics, believes in blue glass, drinks ten glasses of filtered water a day, which makes him as blue as the glass, wears paper collars, and won't let his son be a monk because there are too many in the world. Now, Everard will laugh himself weak over this character. He's so perverse that he will never see himself in the mirror which I have provided."
"Rather risky, I should think."