"Better, no doubt."
"You take a very discontented view of things; your traveling has made you cynical, I think."
"Not my traveling?"
This is almost a challenge, and she accepts it.
"What then?" she asks, a little coldly.
"Shall I tell you?" retorts he, with an unpleasant smile. "Well, no; I will spare you; it would certainly not interest you. Let us return to our subject; you are wondering why I am not in raptures about Egypt; I am wondering why I should be."
"No; I was finding fault with you because you gave me the impression that all places on earth are alike indifferent to you."
"Perhaps that is true. I don't defend myself. But I know there was a time when certain scenes were dear to me."
"There was?"
"Yes; I've outgrown it, I suppose; or else memory, rendering all things bitter, is to blame. It is our cruelest enemy, I dare say we might all be pretty comfortable forever if we could only 'Quaff the kind Nepenthe, and forget our lost Lenores!'"