them. "I mean--how could I say a word of
any sort? Could I complain of any parents, for trying to stop their girl
linking her life to mine? And such a life as hers! And yet if it were
all to do again, how could I act otherwise than as I did a few hours
since. Is there a man so strong anywhere that he could put a curb on his
heart and choke down his speech to convention-point, if he thought that
a girl like Gwen ... I don't know how to say what I want. All speech
goes wrong, do what I will."

"If he thought that a girl like Gwen was waiting for him to speak out?
Is that it?... Oh--well--not exactly that! But something of the sort,
suppose we say?" For Adrian's manner had entered a protest. "Anyhow I
assure you I quite understand my Gwen is--very attractive. But nobody is
blaming anybody. After all, what would the alternative have been? Just
some hypocritical beating about the bush to keep square with the
regulations--to level matters down to--what did you call
it?--convention-point! Nothing gained in the end! Let's put all that on
one side. What _we_ have to look at is this--meaning, of course, by
'we,' my wife and myself:--Is Gwen really an independent agent? Is she
not in a sense the slave of her own imagination, beyond and above the
usual enthralment that one accepts as part of the disorder. I myself
believe that she is, and that the whole root and essence of the business
may be her pity for yourself, and also I should say an exaggerated idea
of her own share in the guilt...."

"There _was_ none," Adrian struck in decisively. "But I understand your
meaning exactly. Listen a minute to this. If I had thought what you
think possible--well, I would have bitten my tongue off rather than
speak. Why, think of it! To ask a girl like that to sacrifice herself to
a cripple--a half-cripple, at least...."

"Without good grounds for supposing she was waiting to be asked," said
the Earl; adding, to anticipate protest:--"Come now!--that's what we
mean. Let's say so and have done with it," to which Adrian gave tacit
assent. His lordship continued:--"I quite believe you; at least, I
believe you would rather have held your tongue than bitten it off. I
certainly should. But--pardon my saying so--I cannot understand ... I'm
not finding fault or doubting you ... I _cannot_ understand how you came
to be so--so ... I won't say cocksure--let's call it sanguine. If there
had been time I could have understood it. But I cannot see where the