"Yes, I was just arranging it in my head in beautiful language," he said, "but the beautiful language won't come, so you will have to hear it plain, not coloured. It's just this. I don't think one does any good by pulling oneself open to see what's inside--oh, yes, rosebud, that's part of the beautiful language--like a rosebud. One flowers best, I expect, by leaving oneself alone, by just living. Surely life is good enough! I suppose some people are naturally analytical, people who write books, for instance, about other people's moral insides. But I'm quite certain that I'm not like that. I paint pictures, you see, of other people's outsides. And if I went on painting your face for years, Madge, I should never get to the end of all it is, or all it is to me. Well, that's Evelyn Dundas: I beg to introduce him. And you are Evelyn Dundas, let me tell you. You are me; you can't get away from that. So don't make either the best or the worst of me; don't let us regard our relations like that. They are what they are, and want no interpretation or examination. Let them just burn, and not examine their light under a spectroscope. Dear me, there's more beautiful language. I apologise." She could not help laughing at this conclusion; his earnestness, for he was absolutely earnest, was all of one piece with utter flippancy, and from one he passed to the other without break or transition. How that could be she did not know, only it was all he. And as far as any one person can convince any other, she was convinced. Indeed, it was tearing flowers open to behave and to think as she had been doing, and she answered him in his own manner. "Take care of the habit of beautiful language, dear," she said. "It grows on you without your knowing it. And surely it's dinner time." Evelyn cast a tragic glance round. "Ah, there it is," he cried. "I really had completely forgotten--you needn't believe it unless you like--about the dividend we are going to drink. I suppose a little ice now wouldn't be possible? I would go and get it." "Yes, but I don't officially know about it," said she. * * * * *