“Sir Maurice Harpenden knows me better than you do, my friend. Ah, he is very clever, is Sir Maurice! But you will see. We are driving into the country, let me tell you, to meet my fear. And when we meet it I shall not mock, nor tremble, nor quail, but I shall be a very Saint George for steadfastness. That is the programme, so far. And you, will you be my esquire?”
“You speak of darkness, of sun-dials, of fear, of Sir Maurice Harpenden, whom I do not know, of Saint George of Cappadocia, whom, alas, one sees only too little of these days. I think that you, too, must have dined alone. And you have gone mad. Else why must we drive into the country?”
“But we go to keep high company to-night, that’s why! Are you afraid of that? The captains and the kings of the countryside are our adversaries. Sweet, you and I shall stand arrayed against the warriors of conduct.”
“Not I, Iris! I am for conduct.”
“You lie, dear. You are for love! Oh, why do you lie?”
“Because one must be reasonable, Iris.”
“Oh, because this, because that, because of the persecution of men, the savagery of beasts, the malice of gods! Free me of your becauses! Lies, all lies! One must be truthful, there is no other law, all other laws are lies. We are educated by lies, we live with lies, we worship lies, we fight for lies, we die bearded with lies. God made men out of clay, countries out of mud, and what can the son of a marriage between clay and mud be but Master Lie? Oh, let us have just one look at the Demoiselle Truth!”
“Unfortunately, Iris, that demoiselle shows a different figure to all of us. Now I may like her with a trivial ankle, tawny hair, boyish breasts, but another may like her with golden hair and spacious loins, as Rubens painted women——”
“I will say this for you, that when you insult one you do it with kindness. It is kind of you to have described me as your idea of the demoiselle. I am proud of my breasts, because they are so beautiful. Life is generally so rude to a woman’s breasts, but it has only kissed mine——”
“Iris, you are shocking the girl at the exchange!”