You will be
recognised, Miss Dora, as the new writer for modern English
girls.'
The subject of this panegyric coloured a little and laughed.
Unmistakably she was pleased.
'Look here, Whelpdale,' said Jasper, 'I can't have this; Dora's
conceit, please to remember, is, to begin with, only a little
less than my own, and you will make her unendurable. Her tale is
well enough in its way, but then its way is a very humble one.'
'I deny it!' cried the other, excitedly. 'How can it be called a
humble line of work to provide reading, which is at once
intellectual and moving and exquisitely pure, for the most
important part of the population--the educated and refined young
people who are just passing from girlhood to womanhood?'
'The most important fiddlestick!'
'You are grossly irreverent, my dear Milvain. I cannot appeal to
your sister, for she's too modest to rate her own sex at its true
value, but the vast majority of thoughtful men would support me.
You yourself do, though you affect this profane way of speaking.
And we know,' he looked at Dora, 'that he wouldn't talk like this
if Miss Yule were present.
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