"Great things have been thrust on us, Gladys."

"They are practical."

Chapter 17

"I give the truths of to-morrow."

"Love?"

"I am not even singed. My wings are untouched."

"Sphinxes without secrets."

"If he were not, there would be no battle."

"Decay fascinates me more."

He was carried at once into the blue drawing-room and laid upon one of the sofas. After a short time, he came to himself and looked round with a dazed expression.

"Especially when one has been wounded by it," answered Lord Henry.

"Courage has passed from men to women. It is a new experience for us."

"My dear Gladys!" cried Lord Henry. "How can you say that? Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible."

"You bewilder me. Let us talk of some one else."

"And does his philosophy make you happy?"

"They were defeated."

"Ugliness is one of the seven deadly sins, then?" cried the duchess. "What becomes of your simile about the orchid?"

"In the Parthian manner?"

"Romanticists! You have all the methods of science."

"I am on the side of the Trojans. They fought for a woman."

"What?"

"His name is Prince Paradox," said Dorian.

He laughed. "Lady Narborough," he whispered. "She perfectly adores him."

"Describe us as a sex," was her challenge.

"Often. Too often."

"What has happened?" he asked. "Oh! I remember. Am I https://read.99csw.comsafe here, Harry?" He began to tremble.

"That a burnt child loves the fire."

He went to his room and dressed. There was a wild recklessness of gaiety in his manner as he sat at table, but now and then a thrill of terror ran through him when he remembered that, pressed against the window of the conservatory, like a white handkerchief, he had seen the face of James Vane watching him.

"Give me a clue."

"And what does she get annoyed with you about, Duchess?"

"Of your shield, Harry, not of your spear."

"You gallop with a loose rein."

"You use them for everything, except flight."

"You fill me with apprehension. The appeal to antiquity is fatal to us who are romanticists."

"No, I will come down," he said, struggling to his feet. "I would rather come down. I must not be alone."

She shook her head. "I believe in the race," she cried.

"What are you?"

"I could not use it. It is too true."

"Royalties may not abdicate," fell as a warning from pretty lips.

"Only as far as the Stock Exchange."

"Ah! then, you never really love, Mr. Gray," answered the duchess with mock sadness.

"Who?"

"It seems to me that we never do anything else," murmured Dorian.

"That would be a premature surrender."

"Then what should we call you, Harry?" she asked.

"Let me get you some orchids, Duchess," cried Dorian, starting to his feet and walking down the conservatory.

"It has development."

"My dear Gladys, I would not alter either name for the world. They are both perfect. I was thinking chiefly of flowers. Yesterday I cut an orchid, for my button-hole. It was a marvellous spotted thing, as effective as the seven deadly sins. In a thoughtless moment九九藏書 I asked one of the gardeners what it was called. He told me it was a fine specimen of Robinsoniana, or something dreadful of that kind. It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. That is the reason I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for."

"That is your error, Harry, believe me. You value beauty far too much."

"You are a sceptic."

"I wont hear of it," laughed Lord Henry, sinking into a chair. "From a label there is no escape! I refuse the title."

"Ugliness is one of the seven deadly virtues, Gladys. You, as a good Tory, must not underrate them. Beer, the Bible, and the seven deadly virtues have made our England what she is."

"You disarm me, Gladys," he cried, catching the wilfulness of her mood.

"You wish me to defend my throne, then?"

"But I dont want to be rechristened, Harry," rejoined the duchess, looking up at him with her wonderful eyes. "I am quite satisfied with my own name, and I am sure Mr. Gray should be satisfied with his."

"I recognize him in a flash," exclaimed the duchess.

"I give it to you."

"We have carried their burden."

"Would you have me take the verdict of Europe on it?" he inquired.

A week later Dorian Gray was sitting in the conservatory at Selby Royal, talking to the pretty Duchess of Monmouth, who with her husband, a jaded-looking man of sixty, was amongst his guests. It was tea-time, and the mellow light of the huge, lace-covered lamp that stood on the table lit up the delicate china and hammered silver of the service at which the duchess was presiding. Her white hands hｔtpｓ://ｒeaｄ•99ｃsw•ｃomwere moving daintily among the cups, and her full red lips were smiling at something that Dorian had whispered to her. Lord Henry was lying back in a silk-draped wicker chair, looking at them. On a peach-coloured divan sat Lady Narborough, pretending to listen to the dukes description of the last Brazilian beetle that he had added to his collection. Three young men in elaborate smoking-suits were handing tea-cakes to some of the women. The house-party consisted of twelve people, and there were more expected to arrive on the next day.

"Ah! dont remind me of that," cried Dorian Gray.

"Women are not always allowed a choice," he answered, but hardly had he finished the sentence before from the far end of the conservatory came a stifled groan, followed by the dull sound of a heavy fall. Everybody started up. The duchess stood motionless in horror. And with fear in his eyes, Lord Henry rushed through the flapping palms to find Dorian Gray lying face downwards on the tiled floor in a deathlike swoon.

"Still, we have done great things."

"You dont like your country, then?" she asked.

"How unreasonable of her! You should give her warning."

The duchess sighed. "I am searching for peace," she said, "and if I dont go and dress, I shall have none this evening."

"There are worse things than capture," she answered.

"I prefer the mistakes of to-day," she answered.

"My dear Dorian," answered Lord Henry, "you merely fainted. That was all. You must have overtired yourself. You had better not come down to dinner. I will take your place."

"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.hｔtｐs://ｒeａd.9９ｃsｗ.com"

"That Tartuffe has emigrated to England and opened a shop."

"How can you say that? I admit that I think that it is better to be beautiful than to be good. But on the other hand, no one is more ready than I am to acknowledge that it is better to be good than to be ugly."

"That you may censure it the better."

"But not explained you."

"Not with women," said the duchess, shaking her head; "and women rule the world. I assure you we cant bear mediocrities. We women, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you ever love at all."

"What are you two talking about?" said Lord Henry, strolling over to the table and putting his cup down. "I hope Dorian has told you about my plan for rechristening everything, Gladys. It is a delightful idea."

"Pace gives life," was the riposte.

"Even when one has been wounded by it, Harry?" asked the duchess after a pause.

"You have a rival."

"And found it, Mr. Gray?"

"Our host is a delightful topic. Years ago he was christened Prince Charming."

"You are flirting disgracefully with him," said Lord Henry to his cousin. "You had better take care. He is very fascinating."

"Is that yours, Harry?"

"Ah! you must suit your frock to his flowers, Gladys."

"Oh! my maid does that already, Mr. Gray, when she is annoyed with me."

"It represents the survival of the pushing."

"Like all good reputations, Gladys," interrupted Lord Henry. "Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity."

"What of art?" she asked.

"I must keep an opportunity for retreat."

"I shall write it in my diary to-night."

"Religion?"

"Threads sna九九藏書p. You would lose your way in the labyrinth."

"An illusion."

"I never tilt against beauty," he said, with a wave of his hand.

"Even when he is wrong?"

Dorian hesitated for a moment. Then he threw his head back and laughed. "I always agree with Harry, Duchess."

"To define is to limit."

"I have never searched for happiness. Who wants happiness? I have searched for pleasure."

"Greek meets Greek, then?"

"Well, I hope he wont stick pins into you, Duchess," laughed Dorian.

"Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith."

"Harry is never wrong, Duchess."

"It is a malady."

"You need not be afraid. Our countrymen never recognize a description."

"Romantic art begins with its climax."

"They found safety in the desert. I could not do that."

"Yes.

"I darent, Mr. Gray. Why, she invents hats for me. You remember the one I wore at Lady Hilstones garden-party? You dont, but it is nice of you to pretend that you do. Well, she made if out of nothing. All good hats are made out of nothing."

"I live in it."

She looked at him, smiling. "How long Mr. Gray is!" she said. "Let us go and help him. I have not yet told him the colour of my frock."

The duchess turned and looked at Dorian Gray with a curious expression in her eyes. "What do you say to that, Mr. Gray?" she inquired.

"For the most trivial things, Mr. Gray, I assure you. Usually because I come in at ten minutes to nine and tell her that I must be dressed by half-past eight."

"They are more cunning than practical. When they make up their ledger, they balance stupidity by wealth, and vice by hypocrisy."

"Men have educated us."

"The fashionable substitute for belief."

"What do they say of us?"