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 FLAMING

YOUTH

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on: “I’m very fond of Pat, Mr. Scott. Most of my money will go to her eventually, unless I marry.” “Which is inevitable,” he put in. “Which is the most improbable thing in the world. And I want to see her happy. She has great possibilities of happiness, and great possibilities of tragedy. It is a tragic face, rather; have you noticed that?” “It is a face impossible to analyse.” “True enough. It has the mysterious quality that quite outdoes beauty. Men go mad over that type of face, though one doesn’t find it in poetry or painting. I wonder why? Is it because genius doesn’t dare that far, because it is untransferable even for genius? Perhaps it is genius in itself. Didn’t some poet say that beauty of a kind is genius? ... What are you going to do with Pat, Mr. Scott?”

“Nothing. What is there to do?” “Laissez faire? There’s danger in letting things take their course too. There is danger everywhere in this sort of affair. Let me interpret a little of Pat’s mind for you. She is a combination of instinctive shrewdness, ignorance, false standards and beliefs, and straight thinking. There’s an innocence about her that is appalling, an innocence as regards life as it really is. One might say that her ideas of the more intimate phases of life are formed mainly from the trashy, sexy-sentimental plays and the more trashy motion pictures that she loves. She believes that sin is always punished in the direct and logical way. If she should surrender to a man she would expect first, ta have a baby at once; second, that the man would naturally despiserand abandon her; that’s what the modern drama

teaches, on the ground, one supposes, that it’s an influence for safety. And perhaps,” continued the analyst