affably at Hamil.

"I say," he began, "hope you'll overlook my rotten behaviour last time
we met. I'd been dining at random, and I'm usually a brute when I do
that."

"Oh, it's all right," said Hamil, looking at the row of tiny Chinese
idols on the mantel.

"No rancour?"

"No. Only--why do you do it, Malcourt?"

"Why do I do which? The wheel or the lady?"

"Oh, the whole bally business? It isn't as if you were lonely and put to
it. There are plenty of attractive girls about, and anybody will take
you on at Bridge. Of course it's none of my affair--but we came
unpleasantly close to a quarrel--which is my only excuse."

Malcourt looked at him thoughtfully. "Hamil, do you know, I've always
liked you a damn sight better than you've liked me."

Hamil said, laughing outright: "I never saw very much of you to like or
dislike."

Malcourt smiled, stretched his limbs lazily, and lighted a cigarette.

"As a matter of fact," he said, "you think I'm worse than I am, but I
_know_ you are worse than you think, because I couldn't even secretly
feel friendly toward a prig. You've had a less battered career than I;
you are, in consequence, less selfish, less ruthless, less cynical
concerning traditions and illusions. You've something left to stick to;
I haven't. You are a little less intelligent than I, and therefore
possess more natural courage and credulity. Outside of these things we
are more or less alike, Hamil. Hope you don't mind my essay on man."

"No," said Hamil, vastly amused.

"The trouble with me," continued Malcourt, "is that I possess a streak
of scientific curiosity that you lack; which is my eternal undoing and
keeps me poor and ignobly busy. I ought to have leisure; the world
should see to it that I have sufficient leisure and means to pursue my
studies in the interest of social economy. Take one of my favourite
experiments, for example. I see a little ball rattling around in a
wheel. Where will that ball stop? You, being less intellectual than I,
don't care where it stops. _I_ do. Instantly my scientific curiosity is
aroused; I reason logically; I evolve an opinion; I back that opinion;
and I remain busy and poor. I see a pretty woman. Is she responsive or
unresponsive to intelligently expressed sentiment? I don't know. _You_
don't care. _I_ do. My curiosity is piqued. She becomes to me an
abstract question which scientific experiment alone can elucidate--"

Hamil, leaning on the footboard of the bed,