Aaron's rod

HIGH UP OVER THE CATHEDRAL SQUARE 279
"Very much, indeed! She is quite eprise. I, too, shall have
to learn to play it."
"And run the risk of spoiling the shape of your mouth
like Alcibiades."
"Is there a risk? Yes! Then I shan't play it. My mouth
is too beautiful. But Mr. Sisson has not spoilt his mouth."
"Not yet,"
said Lilly. "Give him time."
"Is he also afraid like Alcibiades?"
"Are you, Aaron?" said Lilly.
"What?"
"Afraid of spoiling your beauty by screwing your mouth to
the flute?"
"I look a fool, do I, when I'm playing?" said Aaron.
"Only the least little bit in the world," said Lilly. "The
way you prance your head, you know,
like a horse."
"Ah, well," said Aaron. "I've nothing to lose."
"And were you surprised, Lilly, to find asked Del Torre.
your friend here?"
"I ought to have been. But I wasn't really."
"Then you expected him?"
"No.
Aaron?
It came naturally, though. But why did you come,
What exactly brought you?"
"Accident," said Aaron.
"Ah, no! No!
said the Italian.
There is
"A man is
no such thing as accident,"
drawn by his fate, where he
goes."
"You are right," said Argyle, who came now with the tea-
pot. "A man is drawn or driven. Driven,
I've found it.
Ah, my dear fellow, what is life but a search for a friend? A
search for a friend that sums it up."
"Or a lover," said the Marchese, grinning.
"Same thing. Same thing. My hair is white but that is
the sum of my whole experience. The search for a friend."
There was something at once real and sentimental in Argyle's
tone.
"And never finding?" said Lilly, laughing.
"Oh, what would you? Often finding. Often finding. And