Pray go on with your tasteful pleasantries,' he said; 'I'm
thinking I've heard your voice before.' Upon which I shut my mouth and
dusted down the opera-house on Italo's arm. I was crazy that evening, I
guess, with the crowd and excitement and all. When I get to training, I
can't resist the impulse; I don't know where to stop. But that wasn't
enough to make him want to stick a knife in me, was it? It was only fun.
It was true. He had seemed to be trying to manage me so's I'd take a
fancy to Landini, and I couldn't for the life of me see what it mattered
to him."

"I tell Aurora," came in Estelle, "that a little joke like that would
rankle terribly in any but a real goodnatured man."

"My dear Aurora," said Gerald, excited and darkly flushed, "your little
joke would not have had to contain a sting nearly as sharp to rouse
against you such vanity as Hunt's, unless, let me add, there were some
counterweight of self-interest to keep him back. It is known that
Charlie has only some parts and habits of a human being, not all. One
almost, in pure justice, cannot blame him. But scorn him--oh, as for
that!... He could be with you day after day, and take all you would
give, and at the end of a year feel no tie; he could hear you slandered,
and not take your defence; he could make a joke at your expense, if one
came into his mind that he thought sufficiently witty, and never have a
sense of meanness! He would have had nothing to overcome. He would only
learn better if he perceived some loss of consideration, and consequent
advantage to himself. That would make him more cautious, but not make
him more aware. And you cannot call him wicked any more than upon any
occasion you could call him good. But he's damnable!"

Consuming anger lighted up Gerald's face, his voice trembled with
intensity of feeling, his vehemence now and then by jerks lifted his
heels off the floor. "He is not properly a man at all," he went on to
characterize his old schoolmate; "he is just an insect _en grand_.
He satisfies his instincts precisely as an insectivorous insect
does--the rest are there to furnish something to his life. Nothing else,
he knows nothing outside. Now that you have offended him he probably
won't do you any great harm. He's not a devil, and the world he lives in
does not tolerate anything very black. He'd injure himself in trying to
injure you. But he'll do you what harm he easily and safely can. He's
nothing big, he could do nothing bi