' Come, come, make a stand. We are friends. Let us help one
another against our besetting foibles. Let us practice antique wisdom;
let us 'know ourselves,' and leave Homburg to-morrow, instead of
Tuesday."
Severne looked sullen, but said nothing; then Vizard gave him too hastily
credit for some of that sterling friendship, bordering on love, which
warmed his own faithful breast: under this delusion he made an
extraordinary effort; he used an argument which, with himself, would have
been irresistible. "Look here," said he, "I'll--won't you have a
cigar?--there; now I'll tell you something: I have a mania as bad as
yours; only mine is intermittent, thank Heaven! I'm told a million women
are as good, or better, than a million men. It may be so. But when I, an
individual, stake my heart on lovely woman, she always turns out
unworthy. With me, the sex avoids alternation. Therefore I rail on it
wholesale. It is not philosophical; but I don't do it to instruct
mankind; it is to soothe my spleen. Well--would you believe it?--once in
every three years, in spite of my experience, I am always bitten again.
After my lucid interval has expired, I fall in with some woman, who seems
not like the rest, but an angel.
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