"Why do you make them play, then?"
"To keep them in health. We have the Upsidonian race to think of. We can't afford to deteriorate bodily as a nation."
"And do you mean to say that the rich and healthy young man really dislikes exercising his body and amusing his mind by playing games, simply because nothing comes of it?"
"Not, perhaps, when he is quite young. But to look forward to a life of it—! Besides, he can seldom afford to do even that for long."
"Can't afford it?"
"No. It isn't expensive enough. He has to set about his business of spending money, sometimes—if his parents are very rich—at an early age, and the desire for healthy exercise soon leaves him. Why, after a day of idleness it is sometimes as much as he can do to drag himself to bed, and then very often he can't sleep."
"But surely there is nothing very difficult about spending money, if you really set out to do it! In my country rich men buy fine pictures, and things of that sort."
"Well, unless the fine pictures in your country cost more than the poor ones, I don't see how that's to help them."
"They do cost more. They cost enormous sums."