"Your profound thought contradicts itself. It declares me brutal and charming with the same breath."
"Profound thought always contradicts itself. I know it for a fact, because I've been looking up Hegel. The nice things and nasty things I say about you arise equally from my love for you, which is thus the unifying principle. The apparent contradictoriness, therefore, disappears in a higher synthesis."
"Quarter! A man can't stand having philosophers hurled at his head."
"But I kiss your head sometimes. I'm sure I'd much prefer that always, only you goad me into the other thing."
"I goad?"
"Yes. By your masterly inactivity when I am concerned. I have to force myself into your life, and after we've been chums for three years, you, left to yourself, ignore my existence. You have such a terrible power of negative resistance against poor, strong-willed me. But, after all, you admire me tremendously, don't you, dear Morgan?"
"I have told you scores of times you are the cleverest woman in the kingdom."
"I am the only woman who understands your poetry. I don't mean that as a bit of sarcasm at the expense of your compliment—I merely want to show you I deserve it."
He made no reply. For a few moments there was a silence.
"How reticent you are to-night!" she said at length. "You usually have quite a deal to tell me. Are the sentimental chapters preying on your mind? I do so much want to know about those sentimental chapters, but you always evade the subject. Tell me, are there any in your life?"