"And what thin trickle of curds-and-whey verse do you imagine can be born in leisure hours, while in unctuous enjoyment of a tremendous screw?"
"Better verse than if I were a starving rhymester, peddling my sweated wares, with chilblains on all my toes. I don't believe in the uses of adversity?"
--"And to-morrow," spouted Sebastian, unheeding the ironic syllable, "to-morrow I buy her the most wonderful ermine in all the regions of snow, to wrap round her throat when I whirl her by night to this desolate shore. That's poetry, isn't it?--when I whirl her by night to this desolate shore!--Lord, man! her throat is softer and whiter than foam ... when she lifts her head to the moonlight--when she lifts her head to look at me--she's such a little wee thing--then the curve of it makes me delirious ... as perfect as the curve of that wave--look! before it breaks. Her throat----"
"Would you mind," broke in Stuart very politely, "not talking about throats?"
The lad glanced at him--then quickly away. "I'm sorry," he jerked out.
"And as for what you are pleased to consider the partiality of the gods towards you," continued Stuart, goaded to an inexplicable heat of anger; "let me tell you that you merely figure as their sport. I can't conceive of a greater sign of disfavour than to be thus loaded with gifts. In time you will come to regard the love which has been yours so easily, as a matter of course, as something which has always been there. The wealth that you have gained without effort, will cause you presently to fold fat podgy hands over your smug waistcoat, too richly embroidered for good taste, and give thanks that you are not as other men----"
"You're wrong there," interrupted Sebastian, even his placidity giving way beneath this unforeseen attack; "I mean to do a lot of good with my money----"
"And what can be more unpardonably priggish than to do anybody good without doing yourself any harm thereby? It's like Father Xmas; I never believed in the bountiful generosity of Father Xmas; his sacks were too swollen, and his coat too heavily trimmed--like the waistcoat of your future obesity. Oh, yes, you will be a good man, and a generous man, and a prig, and probably an alderman, and certainly Lord Mayor, and perhaps also High Admiral of Spain. And you'll forget that Letty's throat was white as foam, and curved like the curve of a wave,--because Letty will be yours, throat and all, whenever you want her. You'll never know fun, hard perilous fun, because you'll never seek peril; you'll say that you have too many responsibilities, as a husband and a citizen and a philanthropist, to expose yourself unnecessarily. You'll never be splendidly weary with battle, nor yet know the leanness of spirit which comes from desire unfulfilled, nor will you grow breathless with the exhilaration of a race against your own luck. The best things you are bound to miss forever, my fortunate young friend, because the gods have thought them beyond you--and have sent you instead prosperity, domestic happiness, the course of true love running indecently smooth. And therefore it is that I regard you as damned, body and soul, and you regard me as a lunatic----"
