"It's a dull trade," said Ascher, "very dull. Some day I shall give it
up and devote the rest of my time to----"

"Don't say art," said Gorman.

Ascher opened his eyes and looked at Gorman with a mild kind of wonder.

"Of course," he said, "I can never be an artist. I haven't got the
temperament, the soul, the capacity for abandon. But I might find
enjoyment, the highest pleasure, in understanding, in appreciating,
perhaps even in encouraging----"

"Sort of Mecenas," said Gorman. "I wonder if Mecenas was a banker. He
seems to have been a rich man."

"He was a descendant of kings," I said, "but that's no reason why he
shouldn't have made money."

"Anyhow," said Gorman, "you'd find art just as dull as banking if you
went in for it systematically."

"But artists----!" said Ascher, "genuine artists! Men with inspiration!"

"Selfish conceited swine," said Gorman.

"Well," I said, "you ought to know. You're an artist yourself. Ascher
told me so yesterday."

"I remember your two novels," said Ascher, "and I recognised in them the
touch, the unmistakable touch."

"Let's go down to lunch," said Gorman.

He left the deck as he spoke. Even Gorman does not like to stand
self-convicted of being a selfish conceited swine. Ascher laid his hand
on my arm as we went down to the saloon.

"What a brilliant fellow he is," he whispered. "I never realised before
how magnificently paradoxical your Irish minds are. That pose of abject
self depreciation which is in reality not wholly a pose but a vehement
protest against the shallow judgment of a conventionalised culture----"

Ascher's language was a little confusing to me, but I could guess at
what he meant. Gorman appeared to him to be an unappreciated Oscar
Wilde, one of those geniuses--I am bound to admit that they are mostly
Irish--who delude the world into thinking they are uttering profound
truths when they are merely outraging common sense.

It would be going too far perhaps to say that Ascher fawned on Gorman
during luncheon. He certainly showed his admiration for him very
plainly.

During the afternoon we talked finance again. Ascher did it because he
wanted to please Gorman. I listened and learned several things which
interested me very much. I got to understand, for instance, why a
sovereign is sometimes worth more, sometimes less, when you try to
exchange it for dollars or francs; a thing which had always puzzled me
before. I learned why gold has to be shippe