"I knew you'd be down on me. I wouldn't have said a word if I'd
known that you were here," said Cashel, dejectedly. "Lie down and be
walked over; that's what you think I'm fit for. Another man would
have twisted his head off."
"Is it possible that you do not know that gentlemen never twist one
another's heads off in society, no matter how great may be the
provocation?"
"I know nothing," said Cashel with plaintive sullenness. "Everything
I do is wrong. There. Will that satisfy you?"
Lydia looked up at him in doubt. Then, with steady patience, she
added: "Will you answer me a question on your honor?"
He hesitated, fearing that she was going to ask what he was.
"The question is this," she said, observing the hesitation. "Are you
a simpleton, or a man of science pretending to be a simpleton for
the sake of mocking me and my friends?"
"I am not mocking you; honor bright! All that about science was only
a joke--at least, it's not what you call science. I'm a real
simpleton in drawing-room affairs; though I'm clever enough in my
own line."
"Then try to believe that I take no pleasure in making you confess
yourself in the wrong, and that you cannot have a lower opinion of
me than the contrary belief implies."
"That's just where you're mistaken," said Cashel, obstinately. "I
haven't got a low opinion of you at all. There's such a thing as
being too clever."
"You may not know that it is a low opinion. Nevertheless, it is so."
"Well, have it your own way. I'm wrong again; and you're right."
"So far from being gratified by that, I had rather that we were both
in the right and agreed. Can you understand that?"
"I can't say I do. But I give in to it. What more need you care
for?"
"I had rather you understood. Let me try to explain. You think that
I like to be cleverer than other people. You are mistaken. I should
like them all to know whatever I know."
Cashel laughed cunningly, and shook his head. "Don't you make any
mistake about that," he said. "You don't want anybody to be quite as
clever as yourself; it isn't in human nature that you should. You'd
like people to be just clever enough to show you off--to be worth
beating. But you wouldn't like them to be able to beat you. Just
clever enough to know how much cleverer you are; that's about the
mark. Eh?"