‘Are you not his friend?’

‘Is it not sufficient to be yours?’

‘No,—­who is against Paul is against me.’

‘That is hard.’

’How is it hard?  Who is against the husband can hardly be for the wife,—­when the husband and the wife are one.’

‘But as yet you are not one.—­Is my cause so hopeless?’

’What do you call your cause?—­are you thinking of that nonsense you were talking about last night?’

She laughed!

‘You call it nonsense.—­You ask for sympathy, and give—­so much!’

’I will give you all the sympathy you stand in need of,—­I promise it!  My poor, dear Sydney!—­don’t be so absurd!  Do you think that I don’t know you?  You’re the best of friends, and the worst of lovers,—­as the one, so true; so fickle as the other.  To my certain knowledge, with how many girls have you been in love,—­and out again.  It is true that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, you have never been in love with me before,—­but that’s the merest accident.  Believe me, my dear, dear Sydney, you’ll be in love with someone else tomorrow,—­if you’re not half-way there to night.  I confess, quite frankly, that, in that direction, all the experience I have had of you has in nowise strengthened my prophetic instinct.  Cheer up!—­one never knows!—­Who is this that’s coming?’

It was Dora Grayling who was coming,—­I went off with her without a word,—­we were half-way through the dance before she spoke to me.

’I am sorry that I was cross to you just now, and—­disagreeable.  Somehow I always seem destined to show to you my most unpleasant side.’

’The blame was mine,—­what sort of side do I show you?  You are far kinder to me than I deserve,—­now, and always.  ’That is what you say.’

’Pardon me, it’s true,—­else how comes it that, at this time of day, I’m without a friend in all the world?’

’You!—­without a friend!—­I never knew a man who had so many!—­I never knew a person of whom so many men and women join in speaking well!’

‘Miss Grayling!’

’As for never having done anything worth doing, think of what you have done.  Think of your discoveries, think of your inventions, think of—­but never mind!  The world knows you have done great things, and it confidently looks to you to do still greater.  You talk of being friendless, and yet when I ask, as a favour—­as a great favour!—­to be allowed to do something to show my friendship, you—­well, you snub me.’

‘I snub you!’

‘You know you snubbed me.’

‘Do you really mean that you take an interest in—­in my work?’

‘You know I mean it.’

She turned to me, her face all glowing,—­and I did know it.

‘Will you come to my laboratory to-morrow morning?’

‘Will I!—­won’t I!’

‘With your aunt?’

‘Yes, with my aunt.’

’I’ll show you round, and tell you all there is to be told, and then if you still think there’s anything in it, I’ll accept your offer about that South American experiment,—­that is, if it still holds good.’