"Good answer! Not the answer. And you?" he asked the second man.
"Newspaper space—not to you."
"Still better answer. But not the answer."
He looked at the third man, who promptly said: "Opinions!"
"Excellent. But not the answer. And you, young man?"
The accusation of youth is never successfully repulsed. Young Mr. Barrett, ingeniously admitting his youth to remove the sting from his humor, replied triumphantly, "Smallpox!"
"The tendency of American youth is toward the clown. It keeps us in an attitude of perennial apology toward the perennial juvenility of our nation. What none of you can sell me is—"
He paused. They were looking at him with the intentness with which all men look at an armed lunatic—or at their master.
After the second minute of suspense they exclaimed in chorus:
"What?"