Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/137

 quite grant you: oysters and Maurices and cotillon and poker are so very easy to be got"

"And men like women who like them!"

"That I grant too; poker and cotillons don't exact any very fine manners, and men nowadays always like to be, metaphorically, in their smoking-coats. Only you see we are not always all constituted of the same fortunate disposition; poker and cotillons only bore me. You should think it my misfortune not my fault. I am sure it must be charming to drink a quantity of champagne, and whirl round like a South-sea islander, and play pranks that pass in a palace though the police would interfere in a dancing garden, and be found by the sun drinking soup at a supper-table: I am sure it must be quite delightful. Only you see it doesn't amuse me;—no more than scrambling amongst a pack of cards flung on their faces, which you say is delightful too; or keeping a Maurice in your pocket, like your cigar-case and your handkerchief, which you say is most delightful of all. But good bye, my dear, we shall quarrel if we talk much longer like this; and we must not