"I do it for several reasons," he answered. "First, because
misanthropy is a luxury in which I cannot afford to indulge. Secondly,
because I am really curious to know whether the time will ever return
when I shall feel the slightest shadow of interest in any human being.
I can only discover this by affecting a toleration for these people's
society, which I can assure you, if you are curious about the matter,
is wholly assumed."
Aynesworth shrugged his shoulders.
"Surely," he said, "you find Mrs. Travers entertaining?"
Wingrave reflected for a moment.
"You mean the lady with a stock of epigrams, and a green veil?" he
remarked. "No! I do not find her entertaining."
"Your neighbor at table then, Miss Packe?"
"If my affections have perished," Wingrave answered grimly, "my taste,
I hope, is unimpaired. The young person who travels to improve her
mind, and fills up the gaps by reading Baedeker on the places she
hasn't been to, fails altogether to interest me!"
"Aren't you a little severe?" Aynesworth remarked.
"I suppose," Wingrave answered, "that it depends upon the point of
view, to use a hackneyed phrase. You study people with a discerning
eye for good qualities. Nature--and circumstances have ordered it
otherwise with me. I see them through darkened glasses."
"It is not the way to happiness," Aynesworth said.
"There is no highroad to what you term happiness," Wingrave answered.
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