The Disagreeable Man was standing by his camera again: his decision was made.
"Don't think about those questions," he said kindly. "Don't worry and fret too much about the philosophy of life. Leave philosophy alone, and take to photography instead. Here, I will lend you my old camera."
"Do you mean that?" she asked, glancing at him in astonishment.
"Of course I mean it," he said.
He looked remarkably pleased with himself, and Bernardine could not help smiling.
He looked just as a child looks when he has given up a toy to another child, and is conscious that he has behaved himself rather well.
"I am very much obliged to you," she said frankly. "I have had a great wish to learn photography."
"I might have lent my camera to you before, mightn't I?" he said thoughtfully.
"No," she answered. "There was not any reason."
"No," he said, with a kind of relief, "there was not any reason. That is quite true!"