Conjurer. I don't know whether you have any

notion of what it means to a man like me to talk to

a lady like you, even on false pretences. I am an

adventurer. I am a blackguard, if one can earn the

title by being in all the blackguard societies of the

world. I have thought everything out by myself,

when I was a guttersnipe in Fleet Street, or, lower

still, a journalist in Fleet Street. Before I met you

I never guessed that rich people ever thought at all.
Well, that is all I have to say. We had some good

conversations, didn't we ? I am a liar. But I told

you a great deal of the truth.
[He tv/ms and resumes the arrangement ofths
table.
t'ATRiGiA. \Thinking.'\ Yes, you did tell me a great
deal of the truth. You told me hundreds and
thousands of truths. But you never told me the
truth that one wants to know.
CoKJUBEB. And what is that ?
Patbicia. ITwming back into the room.'] You never



36 MAGIC ACT n

told me the truth about yourself. You never told me
you were only the conjurer.
CoNJUEBE. I did not tell you that because I do not
even know it. I do not know whether I am only the
conjurer . . ,

Pateicia. "What do you mean ?

CoNJUEEB. Sometimes I am afraid I am something
worse than the conjurer.
Patricia. [Seriously.] I cannot think of anything
worse than a conjurer who does not call himself a
conjurer.
CoNJUEEB. {jSrloomiiy.] There is something worse.
