 agree. That is the worst of writing your opinions; you
make people agree with you.«
    This speech renewed a slight suspicion in Mrs. Arrowpoint, and again her
glance became for a moment examining. But Gwendolen looked very innocent, and
continued with a docile air.
    »I know nothing of Tasso except the Gerusalemme Liberata, which we read and
learned by heart at school.«
    »Ah, his life is more interesting than his poetry. I have constructed the
early part of his life as a sort of romance. When one thinks of his father
Bernardo, and so on, there is so much that must be true.«
    »Imagination is often truer than fact,« said Gwendolen, decisively, though
she could no more have explained these glib words than if they had been Coptic
or Etruscan. »I shall be so glad to learn all about Tasso - and his madness
especially. I suppose poets are always a little mad.«
    »To be sure - the poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling; and somebody says of
Marlowe -
 
For that fine madness still he did maintain,
Which always should possess the poet's brain.«
 
»But it was not always found out, was it?« said Gwendolen, innocently. »I
suppose some of them rolled their eyes in private. Mad people are often very
cunning.«
    Again a shade flitted over Mrs. Arrowpoint's face; but the entrance of the
gentlemen prevented any immediate mischief between her and this too quick young
lady, who had over-acted her naïveté.
    »Ah, here comes Herr Klesmer,« said Mrs. Arrowpoint, rising; and presently
bringing him to Gwendolen, she left them to a dialogue which was agreeable on
both sides, Herr Klesmer being a felicitous combination of the German, the
Sclave, and the Semite, with grand features, brown hair floating in artistic
fashion, and brown eyes in spectacles. His English had little foreignness except
its fluency; and his alarming cleverness was made less formidable just then by a
certain softening air of silliness which will sometimes befall even Genius in
the desire of being agreeable to Beauty.
    Music was soon begun. Miss Arrowpoint and Herr Klesmer played a four-handed
piece on two pianos which convinced the company in general that it was long, and
Gwendolen in particular that the neutral, placid-faced Miss Arrowpoint had a
mastery of the instrument which put her own execution out of the question -
though she was not discouraged as to her often-praised touch and style. After
this every one became anxious to hear Gwendolen sing; especially
