22
men treat art as if it were meant to be an autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. If I live I will show the world what it is, and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray."
"I think you are wrong, Basil, but I won't argue with you. It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue. Tell me; is Dorian Gray very fond of you?"
Hallward considered for a few moments. "He likes me," he answered after a pause; "I know he likes me. Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shallwill be sorry for having said. I give myself away. I tell him that beauty like his is genius, is higher indeed than genius, as it needs no explanation, and is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or what you once described as the reflection in dark waters of that thin silver shell we call the moon. As a rule, he is charming to me, and we walk home together, from the club, arm in arm, or sit in the studio before each other and talk of a thousand things. Now and then, however, he is and petulant, and however, he is horribly thoughtless, and
