And by nature I am averse to challenging comparisons.

There are, however, feelings of which the symbols are not flowers, and amongst them we must reckon friendship between man and woman.

Passion, we know, has its passion flower, but the friendship I am speaking of has its symbol too'-- he paused impressively--'and that symbol is cold boiled mutton.' Mrs.Willoughby laughed awkwardly.

'What nonsense!' she said.
'A mere _jeu d'esprit_, I admit,' said he, and he waved his hand to signify that he could be equally witty every day in the week if he chose.
His satisfaction, indeed, blinded him to the fact that his speech might be construed as uncommonly near to a proposal of marriage.

He thought, with a cast back to his old dilettante spirit, that it would be amusing to repeat it, especially to a woman of the sentimental kind--Clarice Mallinson, for instance.