"Then there is a very comfortable sofa not too far from the fire, where we could sit down and discuss what we have learned." They walked to it. As long as he was being of some use to her Katherine Bush desired his company. So they talked uninterruptedly until dusk fell, and the footmen would soon be coming to close shutters and draw curtains. They flitted from subject to subject, Gerard Strobridge exerting his brain to interest and amuse her, in a way that he had seldom done with Englishwomen, even of his own class. Her receptive power was exceptional, and she was completely frank. She was honestly and deeply interested in all he had to say, and the subtle flattery of this was eminently soothing. He began to take pride in his pupil. They touched upon the spirit of the Renaissance and its origin--and upon all the glorious flood of light which it brought to art and learning. He was astonished to find her so advanced in certain branches of literature, and absolutely ignorant of the names even of others--showing that it had merely been chance and no helping hand which had guided her. "I must send you some books upon the Renaissance," he said, "if you will let me." "That will be very kind--If I had had some master to give me an idea what to read, as a kind of basis to go upon, it would have been much better, but I had no guide--only if I saw one subject that I did not know about mentioned in what I was reading, I looked it up, but of course with really educated people there must be some plan." "Well, shall we begin upon the Renaissance; that is rather a favourite period of mine?" "Yes--do you not wonder if we shall ever have another?--What a lot of good it would do us, would it not?" "Probably--some learned professors think that we must go through a second series of dark ages first; when we shall get back to primitive ideas--and primitive passions." "It may be,--nearly everything natural is distorted now; the world seems so tired to me, just looking on." He stretched himself and threw out his arms--as it were to break some imaginary bonds. "Yes--we have been coerced into false morals and manners--and we have suppressed most things which make life worth having--sometimes I envy the beasts." "I never do that--it is only weaklings who are coerced; the strong do what they please, even in these days--but however strong a beast may be, he always finds, as Jack London shows with his wonderful _Buck_ in 'The Call of the Wild,' that there is invariably 'the man with the club.'" "You mean to conquer fate, then?" "I shall do my very best to obtain my desires, and of course shall have to pay for all my mistakes."