entist has been making experiments
to test the effect of thought on the body, and has found that a
continuous train of evil thought injures the health and spoils the
personal appearance, but high and holy thoughts have a beautifying
effect. Be a man and embrace a manly creed. _Live for others, live
openly._ Deceit is treachery, and treachery is cowardice of the most
despicable kind. Life has to be lived. It might as well be lived
earnestly. Life is better lived when it is held earnestly. Personally
I detest all flippancy and cynicism, all cheapening of serious
subjects by lack of reverence. Irreverence portends defects of
character and poverty of intellect. All serious subjects are sacred
subjects, and to treat them with levity or insincerity is to prove
yourself a person to be avoided."

Alfred Cayley Pounce was stooping forward with his elbows on his knees
and his face between his hands, gazing blankly into the fire. The
light shone on his bald forehead and accentuated the lines which
wounded vanity, petty purposes thwarted, and an ignoble life had
written prematurely on his face, and his attitude emphasised the
attenuation of his body. He looked a poor, peevish, neurotic specimen;
and although he had only himself to thank for it, Beth, remembering
the promise of his youth, felt a qualm of pity.

"What a mistake my marriage has been!" he ejaculated at last. "But I
doubt if I should ever have found a woman who would have understood me
enough to be all in all to me. For a man of my temperament there is
nothing but celibacy."

"I don't believe in celibacy at all," Beth said cheerfully. "Celibacy
is an attempt to curb a healthy instinct with a morbid idea. He is the
best man and the truest gentleman who honourably fulfils every
function of life. And I don't believe your marriage was of necessity a
mistake either. But if you must be miserable, be loyal as well. You
will find that the best in the end. If, being miserable, we are also
disloyal, then we are insensibly degraded--so insensibly, perhaps,
that we are not conscious of any part of the process, and only become
aware of what has been going on when we have to face a crisis, and
find ourselves prepared to act ignobly, and to justify the act with
specious excuses." She glanced up at the mantelpiece. "Come," she
said, "it is four o'clock, and I am sleepy. I must go to bed."

He started to his feet. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed, "you can talk of
being sleepy when I--