RIDGEON [in low tones, still embarrassed] He has been fortunate.
JENNIFER. Very fortunate. His life has been spared.
RIDGEON. I mean that he has been made a Medical Officer of Health. He cured the Chairman of the Borough Council very successfully.
JENNIFER. With your medicines?
RIDGEON. No. I believe it was with a pound of ripe greengages.
JENNIFER [with deep gravity] Funny!
RIDGEON. Yes. Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
JENNIFER. Dr Blenkinsop said one very strange thing to me.
RIDGEON. What was that?
JENNIFER. He said that private practice in medicine ought to be put down by law. When I asked him why, he said that private doctors were ignorant licensed murderers.