“I think he said something once, but he did not tell me what it was about.  He can speak of nothing now but a nun whom he has persuaded to leave her convent.  I had thought of having some articles written about convents, and we went to Roehampton.  While I was talking to my cousin, who is at school there, he got into conversation with one of the sisters.  I don’t know how he managed it, but he has persuaded her to leave the convent, and she is coming to see him to-morrow.”

“You don’t mean to say,” cried John, “that he has persuaded one of the nuns to leave the convent and to come and see him in Temple Gardens?  Such things should not be permitted.  The Reverend Mother or some one is in fault.  That man has been the ruin of hundreds, if not in fact, in thought.  He brings an atmosphere of sensuality wherever he goes, and all must breathe it; even the most virtuous are contaminated.  I have felt the pollution myself.  If the woman is seventy she will look pleased and coquette if he notices her.  The fascination is inexplicable!”

“We all experience it, and that is why we like Mike,” said Harding.  “I heard a lady, and a woman whose thoughts are not, I assure you, given to straying in that direction, say that the first time she saw him she hated him, but soon felt an influence like the fascination the serpent exercises over the bird stealing over her.  We find but ourselves in all that we see, hear, and feel.  The world is but our idea.  All that women have of goodness, sweetness, gentleness, they keep for others.  A woman would not speak to you of what is bad in her, but she would to Mike; her sensuality is the side of her nature which she shows him, be she Messalina or St. Theresa; the proportion, not the principle is altered.  And this is why Mike cannot believe in virtue, and declares his incredulity to be founded on experience.”

“No doubt, no doubt!”

Fresh brandies-and-sodas were poured out, fresh cigars were lighted, and John descended the staircase and walked with his friends into Pump Court, where they met Mike Fletcher.

“What have you been talking about to-night?” he asked.

“We wanted Norton to read us the pessimistic poem he is writing, but he says it is in a too unfinished state.  I told him you were at work on one on the same subject.  It is curious that you who differ so absolutely on essentials should agree to sink your differences at the very point at which you are most opposed to principle and practice.”

After a pause, Mike said—­

“I suppose it was Schopenhauer’s dislike of women that first attracted you.  He used to call women the short-legged race, that were only admitted into society a hundred and fifty years ago.”

“Did he say that?  Oh, how good, and how true!  I never could think a female figure as beautiful as a male.  A male figure rises to the head, and is a symbol of the intelligence; a woman’s figure sinks to the inferior parts of the body, and is expressive of generation.”