"That is it exactly. I am putting life through its paces. After all, no
man is worth his salt if he shuts himself up from that which is placed in
the world for him to see, to know, and perhaps--but only after he has
seen and known it--to reject. To do that is like living in the midst of
a number of people who may be either very agreeable or the reverse, and
declining ever to be introduced to them on the ground that they must all
be horrible and certain to do one an infinity of harm."
"Yes, yes, I see. Then you think that Cuckoo is jealous of me?--that that
was all she meant?"
Julian again returned to the old question. Valentine replied:
"I feel sure of it. Women are always governed by their hearts. So much so
that my last sentence is a truism, scarcely worthy the saying. Besides,
my dear Julian, what would it matter if she were not? What could the
attitude of such a woman on any subject under the sun matter to you?"
The words were not spoken without intentional sarcasm. They stung Julian
a little, but did not lead him, from any sense of false shame, to a
feeble concealment of his real feeling.
"It does seem absurd, I dare say," he said. "But she's--well, she's not
an ordinary woman, Val."
"Let us hope not.
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