Waymark bore this with impatience,
and even did his best to alter it. One Sunday afternoon, about three
weeks after the marriage, he called and carried Julian off to his
room across the street. Harriet's face sufficiently indicated her
opinion of this proceeding, and Julian had difficulty m appearing at
his case. Waymark understood what was going on, and tried to discuss
the matter freely, but the other shrank from it.
"I am grievously impatient of domestic arrangements," Waymark said.
"I fancy it would never do for me to marry, unless I had limitless
cash, and my wife were as great a Bohemian as myself. By the by, I
have another letter from Maud. Her pessimism is magnificent. This
intense religiousness is no doubt a mere phase; it will pass, of
course; I wonder how things would arrange themselves if she came
back to London. Why shouldn't she come here to sit and chat, like
you do?"
"That would naturally lead to something definite," said Casti,
smiling.
"Oh, I don't know. Why should it? I'm a believer in friendship
between men and women. Of course there is in it the spice of the
difference of sex, and why not accept that as a pleasant thing? How
much better if, when we met a woman we liked, we could say frankly,
'Now let us amuse each other without any _arriere pensee_.
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