"I'll do whatever you tell me," Overt said, deeply attentive. "But pardon me if I say I don't understand how you've been reading my book," he added. "I've had you before me all the afternoon, first in that long walk, then at tea on the lawn, till we went to dress for dinner, and all the evening at dinner and in this place."St. George turned his face about with a smile. "I gave it but a quarter of an hour.""A quarter of an hour's immense, but I don't understand where you put it in. In the drawing-room after dinner you weren't reading -you were talking to Miss Fancourt."
"It comes to the same thing, because we talked about 'Ginistrella.'
She described it to me - she lent me her copy.""Lent it to you?"
"She travels with it."
"It's incredible," Paul blushed.
"It's glorious for you, but it also turned out very well for me.
When the ladies went off to bed she kindly offered to send the book down to me. Her maid brought it to me in the hall and I went to my room with it. I hadn't thought of coming here, I do that so little. But I don't sleep early, I always have to read an hour or two. I sat down to your novel on the spot, without undressing, without taking off anything but my coat. I think that's a sign my curiosity had been strongly roused about it. I read a quarter of an hour, as I tell you, and even in a quarter of an hour I was greatly struck.""Ah the beginning isn't very good - it's the whole thing!" said Overt, who had listened to this recital with extreme interest.
"And you laid down the book and came after me?" he asked.
"That's the way it moved me. I said to myself 'I see it's off his own bat, and he's there, by the way, and the day's over and Ihaven't said twenty words to him.' It occurred to me that you'd probably be in the smoking-room and that it wouldn't be too late to repair my omission. I wanted to do something civil to you, so Iput on my coat and came down. I shall read your book again when Igo up."
Our friend faced round in his place - he was touched as he had scarce ever been by the picture of such a demonstration in his favour. "You're really the kindest of men. Cela s'est passe comme ca? - and I've been sitting here with you all this time and never apprehended it and never thanked you!""Thank Miss Fancourt - it was she who wound me up. She has made me feel as if I had read your novel.""She's an angel from heaven!" Paul declared.
"She is indeed. I've never seen any one like her. Her interest in literature's touching - something quite peculiar to herself; she takes it all so seriously. She feels the arts and she wants to feel them more. To those who practise them it's almost humiliating - her curiosity, her sympathy, her good faith. How can anything be as fine as she supposes it?""She's a rare organisation," the younger man sighed.
"The richest I've ever seen - an artistic intelligence really of the first order. And lodged in such a form!" St. George exclaimed.
"One would like to represent such a girl as that," Paul continued.
"Ah there it is - there's nothing like life!" said his companion.
"When you're finished, squeezed dry and used up and you think the sack's empty, you're still appealed to, you still get touches and thrills, the idea springs up - out of the lap of the actual - and shows you there's always something to be done. But I shan't do it - she's not for me!""How do you mean, not for you?"
"Oh it's all over - she's for you, if you like.""Ah much less!" said Paul. "She's not for a dingy little man of letters; she's for the world, the bright rich world of bribes and rewards. And the world will take hold of her - it will carry her away.""It will try - but it's just a case in which there may be a fight.
