“At last, knowing that she liked the hunt, I asked her if she was going to the meet on the following Saturday, saying that I intended to follow, having been offered a horse. With a steely ring to her voice, and a further brightening of the eyes, she said: ‘You are a stout little sportsman, Marmy. Yes, I am going on Major Karney’s big horse, Carbine.’ “Valiant looked up, half sneering, half doubtful, I thought, and rejoined: ‘Carbine is a valuable horse, and the fences are stiff in the Garston country.’ “She smiled gravely, then, with her eyes fixed on her husband, said: ‘Carbine is a perfect gentleman. He will do what I ask him. I have ridden him.’ “‘The devil you have!’ he replied. “‘I am sure,’ said I, as I hoped, bravely, and not a little enthusiastically, ‘that Carbine would take any fence you asked him.’ “‘Or not, as the case might be. Thank you, Marmy, for the compliment,’ she said. “‘A Triton among minnows,’ remarked Valiant, not entirely under his breath; ‘horses obey, and students admire, and there is no end to her greatness.’ “‘There is an end to everything, Edward,’ she remarked a shade sadly and quietly. “He turned to me and said: ‘Science is a great study, Marmion, but it is sardonic too; for you shall find that when you reduce even a Triton to its original elements--’ “‘Oh, please let me finish,’ she interrupted softly. ‘I know the lecture so well. It reads this way: “The place of generation must break to give place to the generated; but the influence spreads out beyond the fragments, and is greater thus than in the mass--neither matter nor mind can be destroyed. The earth was molten before it became cold rock and quiet world.” There, you see, Marmy, that I am a fellow-student of yours.’ “Valiant’s eyes were ugly to watch; for she had quoted from a lecture of his, delivered to us that week. After an instant he said, with slow maliciousness: ‘Oh, ye gods, render me worthy of this Portia, and teach her to do as Brutus’s Portia did, ad eternum!’ “She shuddered a little, then said very graciously, and as if he had meant nothing but kindness: ‘Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks.’ I will leave you now to your cigarettes; and because I must go out soon, and shall not, I fear, see you again this afternoon, good-bye, Marmy, till Saturday--till Saturday.’ And she left us. “I was white and trembling with anger. He smiled coolly, and was careful to choose me one of his best cigars, saying as he handed it: ‘Conversation is a science, Marmion. Study it; there is solid satisfaction in it; it is the only art that brings instant pleasure. Like the stage, it gets its immediate applause.’