t exactly isolated, but unable to get close
to--to Kathleen, for example. Do you know, Duane, it might be very good
for me to have you to talk to."

"People usually like to talk to me. I've noticed it. But the curious
part of it is that they have nothing to give me in exchange for my
attention."

"What do you mean?"

He laughed. "Oh, nothing. I amuse people; I know it. You--and
everybody--say I am all cleverness and froth--not to be taken seriously.
But did it ever occur to you that what you see in me you evoke.
Shallowness provokes shallowness, levity, lightness, inconsequence--all
are answered by their own echo.... And you and the others think it is I
who answer."

He laughed, not looking at her:

"And it happens that you--and the others--are mistaken. If I appear to
be what you say I am, it is merely a form of self-defence. Do you think
I could endure the empty nonsense of a New York winter if I did not
present to it a surface like a sounding-board and let Folly converse
with its own echo--while, behind it, underneath it, Duane Mallett goes
about his own business."

Astonished, not clearly understanding, she listened in absolute silence.
Never in all her life had she heard him speak in such a manner. She
could not make out whether bitterness lay under his light and easy
speech, whether a maliciously perverse humour lurked there, whether it
was some new mockery.

He said carelessly: "I give what I receive. And I have never received
any very serious attention from anybody. I'm only Duane Mallett,
identified with the wealthy section of society you inhabit, the son of a
wealthy man, who went abroad and dabbled in colour and who paints
pictures of pretty women. Everybody and the newspapers know me. What I
see of women is a polished coquetry that mirrors my fixed smirk; what I
see of men is less interesting."

He looked out through the dusk at the darkening water:

"You say you are beginning to feel isolated. Can anybody with any
rudiment of intellect feel otherwise in the social environment you and I
inhabit--where distinction and inherited position count for absolutely
nothing unless propped up by wealth--where any ass is tolerated whose
fortune and lineage pass inspection--where there is no place for
intelligence and talent, even when combined with breeding and lineage,
unless you are properly ballasted with money enough to forget that you
have any?"

He laughed.

"So you feel isolated? I do, too. And I'