The Penny Dreadfuls
Page 144
“I could not use it. It is too true.”
“You need not be afraid. Our countrymen never recognize a description.”
“They are practical.”
“They are more cunning than practical. When they make up their ledger, they balance stupidity by wealth, and vice by hypocrisy.”
“Still, we have done great things.”
“Great things have been thrust on us, Gladys.”
“We have carried their burden.”
“Only as far as the Stock Exchange.”
She shook her head. “I believe in the race,” she cried.
“It represents the survival of the pushing.”
“It has development.”
“Decay fascinates me more.”
“What of art?” she asked.
“It is a malady.”
“Love?”
“An illusion.”
“Religion?”
“The fashionable substitute for belief.”
“You are a sceptic.”
“Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith.”
“What are you?”
“To define is to limit.”
“Give me a clue.”
“Threads snap. You would lose your way in the labyrinth.”
“You bewilder me. Let us talk of some one else.”
“Our host is a delightful topic. Years ago he was christened Prince Charming.”
“Ah! don’t remind me of that,” cried Dorian Gray.
“Our host is rather horrid this evening,” answered the duchess, colouring. “I believe he thinks that Monmouth married me on purely scientific principles as the best specimen he could find of a modern butterfly.”
“Well, I hope he won’t stick pins into you, Duchess,” laughed Dorian.
“Oh! my maid does that already, Mr. Gray, when she is annoyed with me.”