A conversation of two people is, under certain
circumstances, more complete than a conversation of three, however
delightful the third may chance to be. Julian placed Valentine before
all the rest of the world. Nevertheless, to-night he was glad that
Valentine had gone home to bed. It seems sometimes as if affection
contributes to the making of a man self-conscious. Julian had a
vague notion that the presence of his greatest friend to-night might
render him self-conscious. He scarcely knew why. Then he looked at the
mastiffs, and wondered at the extraordinary difference between men and
the companion animals whom they love and who love them. What man,
however natural, however independent and serene, could emulate the
majestic and deliberate _abandon_ of a big dog courted and caressed
by a blazing fire and a soft rug? Man has not the dignity of soul to
be so grandly natural. Yet his very pert self-consciousness, the fringed
petticoats of affectation which he wears, give him the kennel, the
collar, the muzzle, the whip, weapons of power to bring the dog to
subjection. And Julian, as he watched Rupert and Mab wrapped in large
lethargic dreams, found himself pitying them, as civilized man vaguely
pities all other inhabitants of the round world.
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