om beginning to end!..."

"It'll be a failure," said Ninian.

"Oh, from the box-office point of view, no doubt!..."

"No, from the common sense point of view. I'm on the side of Quinny in
this matter, and I'm as much of an authority on women as you are,
Gilbert. I've loved three different barmaids and a young woman in a
tobacconist's shop, and I say, what the hell is the good of talking all
this rubbish about men and women trotting round as if male and female He
had not created them. When I see a woman, if she's got any femininity
about her at all, I want to hug her and kiss her, and I do so, if I can,
and so does any man if he is a man. I belong to the masculine gender and
she belongs to the feminine ... and that's all there's to be said about
it. If we were neuters, we'd be characters in your play, Gilbert...."

"I don't want to kiss every girl I meet," said Gilbert.

They howled at him in derision. "Oh, you liar!" said Henry, forgetting
his anger.

"You hug women all day long, you Mormon!" Ninian roared, "or you would
if they'd let you!"

"That's why you react so strongly from love in your plays," Roger said
judicially. "You can't leave them alone in real life...."

"I don't mean to say I haven't kissed a girl or two," Gilbert admitted.

"_A girl or two!_ Listen to him!" Ninian went on. "Oh, listen to the
innocent babe and suckling. A girl or two! Look here, let's make a
census of 'em. What was the name of that girl whose brother got sent
down? Lady Something?..."

"Lady Cecily!..."

"Shut up!" Gilbert shouted at them, and his voice was full of rage. He
stood over them, glaring at them fiercely....

"I say, Gilbert!" said Henry, "what's up?"

He recovered himself. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to lose my
temper!"

"That's all right, Gilbert," Ninian murmured. "It was my fault. I
oughtn't to have rotted you like that!"

"It doesn't matter," Gilbert answered.

5

They were silent for a while, disconcerted by Gilbert's strange outburst
of anger, and for a few moments it seemed as if their argument must end
now. Ninian began to yawn again, and he was about to propose once more
that they should go to bed, when Gilbert resumed the discussion.

"You make no allowance for reticence," he said to Henry. "That's what
Roger really wants in politics ... reticence!"

"In everything," Roger exclaimed

"I know," Gilbert went on. "When I first went in to the _Daily Echo_
office, I saw a notice in th