the matter freely, but the other shrank from it.

"I am grievously impatient of domestic arrangements," Waymark said.
"I fancy it would never do for me to marry, unless I had limitless
cash, and my wife were as great a Bohemian as myself. By the by, I
have another letter from Maud. Her pessimism is magnificent. This
intense religiousness is no doubt a mere phase; it will pass, of
course; I wonder how things would arrange themselves if she came
back to London. Why shouldn't she come here to sit and chat, like
you do?"

"That would naturally lead to something definite," said Casti,
smiling.

"Oh, I don't know. Why should it? I'm a believer in friendship
between men and women. Of course there is in it the spice of the
difference of sex, and why not accept that as a pleasant thing? How
much better if, when we met a woman we liked, we could say frankly,
'Now let us amuse each other without any _arriere pensee_. If I
married you to-day, even though I feel quite ready to, I should ten
to one see some one next week who would make me regret having bound
myself. So would you, my dear. Very well, let us tantalise each
other agreeably, and be at ease in the sense that we are on the
right side of the illusion.' You laugh at the idea?"

Julian laughed, but not heartily. They passed to other things.

"I'm making an article out of Elm Court," said Waymark.
"Semi-descriptive, semi-reflective, wholly cynical Maybe it will pay
for my summer holiday. And, apropos of the same subject, I've got