"Well, I am certainly not a novel reader. But, were I a young lady, I daresay I should be. You like love-stories, of course?"
"Yes; love-stories. Having had no experience in that line myself, it is only natural that I should like to read about it in others."
"I thought that all young ladies nowadays could graduate and take honours in the Art of Love long before they were twenty."
"A rule is proved by its exceptions. I am one of the exceptions."
"How nice it must be to be able to write love-stories that you know will be read by some thousands of young ladies!"
"But if an author in every case writes only from his own experience, what a fearful experience must his be!"
"I apprehend that in such a case a writer is like a clever violinist. He may play to the public on one string as long as he likes, if only his variations are sufficiently amusing not to weary them."
"Yes, I daresay there is really a very great sameness in such matters," said Miriam, with well-feigned simplicity.
"And yet I suppose it hardly matters how poor a love-story may be; the vivid imagination of your sex supplies all deficiencies, and clothes it with whatever warmth and colour it may otherwise lack."
"I am not so sure on that point. But I am afraid you are getting beyond my depth, Mr. Van Duren. For my own part, I have not much imagination. I am very, very matter-of-fact."