"I used to think archery was a great bore," Grandcourt began. He spoke with a fine accent, but with a certain broken drawl, as of a distinguished personage with a distinguished cold on his chest.
"Are you converted to-day?" said Gwendolen.
(Pause, during which she imagined various degrees and modes of opinion about herself that might be entertained by Grandcourt.) "Yes, since I saw you shooting. In things of this sort one generally sees people missing and simpering."
"I suppose you are a first-rate shot with a rifle."
(Pause, during which Gwendolen, having taken a rapid observation of Grandcourt, made a brief graphic description of him to an indefinite hearer.) "I have left off shooting."
"Oh then you are a formidable person. People who have done things once and left them off make one feel very contemptible, as if one were using cast- off fashions. I hope you have not left off all follies, because I practice a great many."
(Pause, during which Gwendolen made several interpretations of her own speech.) "What do you call follies?"
"Well, in general I think, whatever is agreeable is called a folly. But you have not left off hunting, I hear."
(Pause, wherein Gwendolen recalled what she had heard about Grandcourt's position, and decided that he was the most aristocratic-looking man she had ever seen.) "One must do something."
"And do you care about the turf?--or is that among the things you have left off?"
(Pause, during which Gwendolen thought that a man of extremely calm, cold manners might be less disagreeable as a husband than other men, and not likely to interfere with his wife's preferences.) "I run a horse now and then; but I don't go in for the thing as some men do. Are you fond of horses?"
"Yes, indeed: I never like my life so well as when I am on horseback, having a great gallop. I think of nothing. I only feel myself strong and happy."
(Pause, wherein Gwendolen wondered whether Grandcourt would like what she said, but assured herself that she was not going to disguise her tastes.) "Do you like danger?"
"I don't know. When I am on horseback I never think of danger. It seems to me that if I broke my bones I should not feel it. I should go at anything that came in my way."
(Pause during which Gwendolen had run through a whole hunting season with two chosen hunters to ride at will.) "You would perhaps like tiger-hunting or pig-sticking. I saw some of that for a season or two in the East. Everything here is poor stuff after that."