If I
married you to-day, even though I feel quite ready to, I should ten
to one see some one next week who would make me regret having bound
myself. So would you, my dear. Very well, let us tantalise each
other agreeably, and be at ease in the sense that we are on the
right side of the illusion.' You laugh at the idea?"
Julian laughed, but not heartily. They passed to other things.
"I'm making an article out of Elm Court," said Waymark.
"Semi-descriptive, semi-reflective, wholly cynical Maybe it will pay
for my summer holiday. And, apropos of the same subject, I've got
great ideas. This introduction to such phases of life will prove
endlessly advantageous to me, artistically speaking. Let me get a
little more experience, and I will write a novel such as no one has
yet ventured to write, at all events in England. I begin to see my
way to magnificent effects; ye gods, such light and shade! The fact
is, the novel of every-day life is getting worn out. We must dig
deeper, get to untouched social strata. Dickens felt this, but he
had not the courage to face his subjects; his monthly numbers had to
lie on the family tea-table. Not _virginibus puerisque_ will be my
book, I assure you, but for men and women who like to look beneath
the surface, and who understand that only as artistic material has
human life any significance.
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