’Of course.  But that was your finesse.  Ha-ha!—­capital!  Yet why not struggle against such slavery?  It is regularly pulling you down.  What’s a woman’s beauty, after all?’

‘Well you may say so!  A thing easier to feel than define,’ murmured Ladywell.  ’But it’s no use, Neigh—­I can’t help it as long as she repulses me so exquisitely!  If she would only care for me a little, I might get to trouble less about her.’

’And love her no more than one ordinarily does a girl by the time one gets irrevocably engaged to her.  But I suppose she keeps you back so thoroughly that you carry on the old adoration with as much vigour as if it were a new fancy every time?’

‘Partly yes, and partly no!  It’s very true, and it’s not true!’

’’Tis to be hoped she won’t hate you outright, for then you would absolutely die of idolizing her.’

’Don’t, Neigh!—­Still there’s some truth in it—­such is the perversity of our hearts.  Fancy marrying such a woman!’

’We should feel as eternally united to her after years and years of marriage as to a dear new angel met at last night’s dance.’

’Exactly—­just what I should have said.  But did I hear you say “We,” Neigh?  You didn’t say “We should feel?"’

’Say “we"?—­yes—­of course—­putting myself in your place just in the way of speaking, you know.’

’Of course, of course; but one is such a fool at these times that one seems to detect rivalry in every trumpery sound!  Were you never a little touched?’

’Not I. My heart is in the happy position of a country which has no history or debt.’

‘I suppose I should rejoice to hear it,’ said Ladywell.  ’But the consciousness of a fellow-sufferer being in just such another hole is such a relief always, and softens the sense of one’s folly so very much.’

’There’s less Christianity in that sentiment than in your confessing to it, old fellow.  I know the truth of it nevertheless, and that’s why married men advise others to marry.  Were all the world tied up, the pleasantly tied ones would be equivalent to those at present free.  But what if your fellow-sufferer is not only in another such a hole, but in the same one?’

‘No, Neigh—­never!  Don’t trifle with a friend who—­’

‘That is, refused like yourself, as well as in love.’

’Ah, thanks, thanks!  It suddenly occurred to me that we might be dead against one another as rivals, and a friendship of many long—­days be snapped like a—­like a reed.’

‘No—­no—­only a jest,’ said Neigh, with a strangely accelerated speech.  ’Love-making is an ornamental pursuit that matter-of-fact fellows like me are quite unfit for.  A man must have courted at least half-a-dozen women before he’s a match for one; and since triumph lies so far ahead, I shall keep out of the contest altogether.’

’Your life would be pleasanter if you were engaged.  It is a nice thing, after all.’