"Well, then, I don't care a button what you think!"

"Bravo! That 's the way a man should talk," cried Longueville.

Gordon indulged in another fit of meditation, and then he said--

"Now that leaves you at liberty to say what you please."

"Ah, my dear fellow, you are ridiculous!" said Bernard.

"That 's precisely what I want you to say. You always think me too
reasonable."

"Well, I go back to my first assertion. I don't know Miss Vivian--I mean
I don't know her to have opinions about her. I don't suppose you wish
me to string you off a dozen mere banalites--'She 's a charming
girl--evidently a superior person--has a great deal of style.'"

"Oh no," said Gordon; "I know all that. But, at any rate," he added,
"you like her, eh?"

"I do more," said Longueville. "I admire her."

"Is that doing more?" asked Gordon, reflectively.

"Well, the greater, whichever it is, includes the less."

"You won't commit yourself," said Gordon. "My dear Bernard," he added,
"I thought you knew such an immense deal about women!"