"Without a doubt," replied the other. "You'll pardon my ignorance, Mr. Lovely, but of what does the entertainment before us consist?" Charles' face grew clear again at once--at any rate, the man did not claim omniscience. "The entertainment, sir, is composed of fiddles and country dances enjoyed by the light of tallow-dips in an old barn. There will be some ploughboys, shepherds and farmers, with a few milkmaids and farm wenches, and the whole will resemble a painted Dutch interior." "And you propose to join the merrymaking?" "We do." "It should be a diverting experience." "I hope so indeed. My friend Clare vows he has discovered a Venus masquerading in fustian." "His maiden-aunt in short?" "The same. Like all small societies, sir, we have our intimate jests which to a stranger must seem excessively threadbare." "On the contrary," said Vernon, "they possess an engaging spontaneity which flatters me with the suggestion that my own youth has not vanished irreclaimably. And yet," he sighed, "I am a man whom the world insults by claiming as its own." "You have travelled?" inquired Charles. "I have made the Grand Tour." "That is a pleasure which I still owe to myself and to my country." "You lack energy?" "Of the kind expressed in gold." "An hour's good luck at the tables." "I've enjoyed some dozens," interrupted Lovely. "Almost enough to pay for twice as many less fortunate periods." "Then why continue to play?" "Why fall in love? Why die in a consumption? Why live this life of ours at all? Your question, sir, takes little account of mankind's innate perversity, and no account at all of his tastes and disposition of mind." "On the contrary," argued Vernon, "I esteem all these at their greatest effect, but regard with equal reverence the doctrine of free will. I myself--but why should I fatigue you with personal anecdotes?" "Pray continue," said Charles eagerly. He was always alert at a confidence and plumed himself on his ability to read human character. In this case curiosity outran discernment, and he failed to see the improbability of a man like Vernon exposing his temperament without securing a compensatory advantage. "I myself, Mr. Lovely, was once addicted to the equally expensive habit of intrigue, but I found it led me into so many cursed situations that I forced myself to enjoy less compromising pastimes. I chose cards." "Ah! cards!" commented Charles. "But here again," Vernon continued, "I found the introduction of a passionate element ruined at once my pleasure and my skill. I was confounded. To be sure there remained wine, but whoever heard of a man's will exercised by wine? To be frank, Mr. Lovely, I was unwilling to take the risque of defeat." "So I am to regard you as a disappointed voluptuary, a hedonist philosopher whose premisses induced him to a false conclusion. No, no, sir, keep your logick for speculations upon the soul, not the body."