But  am  I  entitled,  I,  who  can  lose  nothing,  am  I  en-
titled to  play  with  other  men's  fortunes?  Am  I  all
this  time  deceiving  myself  with  some  wretched
sophistry?  Am  I,  then,  an  intellectual  Don  Juan,
reckless  of  human  minds,  as  he  was  of  human  bodies;
a  spiritual  libertine  ?  But  why  this  wild  declamation  ?
Whatever  I  have  done,  it  is  too  late  to  recede;  even
this  very  moment  delay  is  destruction,  for  now  it  is
not  a  question  as  to  the  ultimate  prosperity  of  our
worldly  prospects,  but  the  immediate  safety  of  our
very  bodies.  Poison!  O  God!  O  God!  Away  with
all  fear,  all  repentance,  all  thought  of  past,  all  reckon-
ing of  future.  If  I  be  the  Juan  that  I  fancied  myself,
then  Heaven  be  praised!  I  have  a  confidant  in  all
my  trouble;  the  most  faithful  of  counsellors,  the
craftiest  of  valets;  a  Leporello  often  tried  and  never
found  wanting:  my  own  good  mind.  And  now,  thou
female  fiend!  the  battle  is  to  the  strongest;  and  I  see
right  well  that  the  struggle  between  two  such  spirits
will  be  a  long  and  a  fearful  one.  Woe,  I  say,  to  the
vanquished!  You  must  be  dealt  with  by  arts  which
even  yourself  cannot  conceive.  Your  boasted  knowl-


VIVIAN   GREY  165

edge  of  human  nature  shall  not  again  stand  you  in
stead;  for,  mark  me,  from  henceforward  Vivian  Grey's
conduct  towards  you  shall  have  no  precedent  in
human  nature.'

As  Vivian  re-entered  the  drawing-room  he  met  a
servant  carrying  in  the  globe  of  gold  and  silver  fish.
