It's megalomania--_la folie des grandeurs_." "It's the divinest folly in the world," said he.
He threw a cigar stump into the fireplace and poured himself out and drank a stiff whisky and soda.

Then he laughed in imitation of his familiar self.
"You dear prim old prig of a Hilary, don't worry.

It's all going to come straight.

When the novel of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries is published I guess you'll be proud of me.

And now, good-night." He laughed, waved his arm in a cavalier gesture and went from the room, slamming the door masterfully behind him..