Agnes paused and looked round. Every one was listening, and it was with difficulty she was induced to speak again.... Then in answer to her mother's questions, she said: 'We have our occupations and our interests. They would seem trivial enough to you, but they interest us and we are happy.' 'There must be,' said Lilian, 'satisfaction in having something definite to do, to know where you are going and what you are striving for. We don't know what we are striving for or where we are going. And the trouble we give ourselves! Say what you will, it is something to be spared all that.' 'Yet if we asked the ordinary man,' said Harding, 'what he'd do if he had ten thousand a year, he would answer that he would do nothing. But he may not. The only man who does nothing is the man who suddenly acquires ten thousand a year; he tries to live on his income; he doesn't, he dies of it.' 'And those who are born rich?' asked Moulton. 'They work hard enough, and their work is the hardest of all, their work is amusement. For by some strange misunderstanding all the most tedious and unsatisfactory means of distraction, are termed amusement, betting, gambling, travelling, dinner-parties, love-making. Whereas the valid and sufficient form of distraction, earning your livelihood by the sweat of your brow, is designated by the unpleasant word Labour.' 'But if you are fortunate in love, you're happy,' said old Lady Castlerich, 'I think I have made my lovers happy.' Harding laughed. 'Happy! for how long?' 'That depends. Love is not a joy that lasts for ever,' the old lady added with a chuckle. 'But did no woman make you happy, Mr. Harding?' asked Lilian, and she fixed her round, prominent eyes upon him. 'The woman who gives most happiness gives most pain. The man who leaves an adoring mistress at midnight suffers most. A few minutes of distracted happiness as he drives home. He falls asleep thanking God that he will see her at midday. But he awakes dreading a letter putting him off. He listens for the footstep of a messenger boy.' 'If she doesn't disappoint him?' 'She will disappoint him sooner or later.' 'I have never disappointed you,' said Lilian, still looking at Harding. 'But you have not been to see me.' 'No; I've not been to see you,' she replied, and played distractedly with some dried fruit on her plate. 'These are confessions,' said Lady Castlerich, laughing. 'Confessions of missed opportunities,' said Moulton. 'So, then, your creed is that love cannot endure,' said Lord Chadwick. 'The love that endures is the heaviest burden of all,' Harding replied incautiously. A silence fell over the lunch table, and all feared to raise their eyes lest they should look at Mrs. Lahens and Lord Chadwick.