The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (6.1895)

By Evelyn Sharp 143
“Since I saw you? I hardly remember; I think not—no.
Why do you ask r ”
She laughed.
“ How absurd of me ! For the moment I forgot that of course
you did not pay conventional calls after dinner-parties like every
one else.”
He paused just long enough to give weight to his answer.
“I should not so far dishonour a charmingly unconventional
dinner-party. When I have made a friendship with a woman I
never spoil it by afternoon calls.”
“ That sounds rather interesting. But staying away altogether
is an odd kind of substitute, don’t you think ? ”
“It is the only substitute for a man who is afraid of what may
result from an interview.”
“Afraid ? You r After all your experience ? I often wonder
whether you have the same formula of conversation for all your
lady friends, Mr. Marks.”
“Well, no. There is the attractive formula for the timid and
the reticent for the bold ; the intellectual for the young and the
playful for the old ; the decorous for the matron and the indecorous
for the maiden ; and so on.”
“ And to which class do I belong r ”
“ To no class, my dear lady. You are unique.”
“ You said that so fluently that I shall suspect you of a common
formula after all.”
“ True fluency is never the result of study, and my remark was
a spontaneous one. Won’t you acknowledge that you gave me
an excuse for spontaneity ?”
Cynthia looked into the depths of the plane-tree across the
road, and yawned lazily.
“ We are being dreadfully brilliant, and I am always afraid of
you