what have you told me? Simply that you felt
that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment.«
    »It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have
made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put
one's worship into words.«
    »It was a very disappointing confession.«
    »Why, what did you expect, Dorian? You didn't see anything else in the
picture, did you? There was nothing else to see?«
    »No; there was nothing else to see. Why do you ask? But you mustn't talk
about worship. It is foolish. You and I are friends, Basil, and we must always
remain so.«
    »You have got Harry,« said the painter, sadly.
    »Oh, Harry!« cried the lad, with a ripple of laughter. »Harry spends his
days in saying what is incredible, and his evenings in doing what is improbable.
Just the sort of life I would like to lead. But still I don't think I would go
to Harry if I were in trouble. I would sooner go to you, Basil.«
    »You will sit to me again?«
    »Impossible!«
    »You spoil my life as an artist by refusing, Dorian. No man came across two
ideal things. Few come across one.«
    »I can't explain it to you, Basil, but I must never sit to you again. There
is something fatal about a portrait. It has a life of its own. I will come and
have tea with you. That will be just as pleasant.«
    »Pleasanter for you, I am afraid,« murmured Hallward, regretfully. »And now
good-bye. I am sorry you won't let me look at the picture once again. But that
can't be helped. I quite understand what you feel about it.«
    As he left the room, Dorian Gray smiled to himself. Poor Basil! How little
he knew of the true reason! And how strange it was that, instead of having been
forced to reveal his own secret, he had succeeded, almost by chance, in wresting
a secret from his friend! How much that strange confession explained to him! The
painter's absurd fits of jealousy, his wild devotion, his extravagant
panegyrics, his curious reticences - he understood them all now, and he felt
sorry. There seemed to him to be something tragic in a
