my
clothes made for the purpose of walking in Hyde Park, well--"

"But don't you see," said Lavender, "that one must meet one's friends,
especially when one is married; and when you know that at a certain
hour in the forenoon they are all to be found in a particular place,
and that a very pleasant place, and that you will do yourself good
by having a walk in the fresh air, and so forth, I really don't see
anything very immoral in going down for an hour or so to the Park!"

"Don't you think the pleasure of seeing one's friends might be
postponed till one had done some sort of good day's work?"

"There now!" cried Lavender, "that is another of your delusions. You
are always against superstitions, and yet you make work a fetish. You
do with work just as women do with duty: they carry about with them
a convenient little god, and they are always worshiping it with
small sacrifices, and complimenting themselves on a series of little
martyrdoms that are of no good to anybody. Of course, duty wouldn't be
duty if it wasn't disagreeable, and when they go nursing the sick--and
they could get it better done for fifteen shillings a week by somebody
else--they don't mind coming back to their families with the seeds of
typhus about their gowns; and when they crush the affections in order
to worship at the shrine of duty, they don't consider that they may be
making martyr of other folks, who don't want martyrdom and get no sort
of pleasure out of it. Now, what in all the world is the good of work
as work? I believe that work is an unmistakable evil, but when it is
a necessity I suppose you get some sort of selfish satisfaction in
over-coming it; and doubtless if there was any immediate necessity in
my case--I don't deny the necessity may arise, and that I should like
nothing better than to work for Sheila's sake--"

"Now you are coming to the point," said Ingram, who had been listening
with his usual patience to his friend's somewhat chaotic speculations.
"Perhaps you may have to work for your wife's sake and your own; and
I confess I am surprised to see you so content with your present
circumstances. If your aunt's property legally reverted to you, if
you had any sort of family claim on it, that would make some little
difference; but you know that any sudden quarrel between you might
leave you penniless to-morrow."

"In which case I should begin to work to-morrow, and I should come to
you for my first commission."

"And you sh