After to-morrow . ld despise me! (Aloud)I never think about death. There are somany other things to think about: The Dolly Dialogues, for instance,and who will manage to avoid beingthe next Laureate, and why peoplethink they are daring if they go to amusic hall. Mrs. D.—Yes, life is full of interest. A. L.—And of music halls. I some-times feel inclined to avoid both. 6o Mrs. D.—From laziness? A. L.—Suppose I said from coward-ice? Mrs. D.—I should not believe you. A. L.—It is always difficult to believethe truth. -^ That is why no one believesin anything. We are so surrounded bya crowd of truth
After to-morrow . ld despise me! (Aloud)I never think about death. There are somany other things to think about: The Dolly Dialogues, for instance,and who will manage to avoid beingthe next Laureate, and why peoplethink they are daring if they go to amusic hall. Mrs. D.—Yes, life is full of interest. A. L.—And of music halls. I some-times feel inclined to avoid both. 6o Mrs. D.—From laziness? A. L.—Suppose I said from coward-ice? Mrs. D.—I should not believe you. A. L.—It is always difficult to believethe truth. -^ That is why no one believesin anything. We are so surrounded bya crowd of truths that we can scarcelymove, or fetch enough breath to utterour painful and eternal parrot cry, Lifeis full of shams. Mrs. D. (aside)—This is very unlikehis usual cynicism. (Aloud) Yet reali-ties seem few and far between. Weare very like crying shadows. A. L.—Shadows that seem to havevoices, because there is some great ven-triloquist somewhere. I wish the voicesvaried a little more, though. They all. •GOOD-BY. MAY I TELL OUR SECRET TO—THEMORNING POST? Puffe T^. 63 say the same thing. The only thingthat is never monotonous is silence. Mrs. D. (laughing)—Then why doyou come here and talk to me? A. L.—Because I enjoy feeling thatif we sat in silence we could still befriends. We speak because we neednot. Such conversation is people talk, as the birds are saidto sing, because they must. We talkbecause we can. There is the differ-ence. Mrs. D.—It is very difficult to be si-lent. A. L.—So difficult that a clergymanonce talked to me in church. Mrs. D.—What did he say.^ A. L.—He said, I think it extremelywrong to talk in church. 64 Mrs. D.—The story sums up the vir-tue of most of us. A. L.—And the vice of all of us. Weall talk in church, in order to tell otherpeople that it is wrong. Mrs. D.—When we go there. A. L.—Even when we stay away. Wedo^e very thing in the spirit that we do notdo in the flesh. Please, one cup more. Mrs. D.—
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