'Of all your many conquests, perhaps you have had none more flattering than the adoration and amazement of this child,' whispered Béthune to her.
She smiled.
'And I should not think,' she answered, 'that she was by nature easily daunted or easily impressed. She has reigned here, the innocent Alcina of a bucolic paradise. She has character, whether she have genius or no. Look how coolly she puts poor Loswa aside! As he discovered Alcina, it will be hard on him if he be not her Rinaldo!'
'You are kinder to him than to her,' said Béthune.
'You always think ill of him.'
'I think of his character much as I do of his art.'
'Surely his art is admirable?'
'It is clever; it is not sincere.'
'My dear Duke, is not that a little hypercritical? You mean that it is a mannerism.'
'And what is a mannerism but an affectation? And what is an affectation but a want of truth?'