“Schopenhauer says that women are—” “Shut up about that old Dutch heathen, for God’s sake,” said John Hogan, testily.
“There is a good deal of truth in what he says about women,” put in Toby.
“How in God’s name could a heathen tell the truth?” asked Hogan, as he refilled his pipe.
“Do you know,” said Fuller, “that I’ve been reading A. Kempis’ ‘Life of Christ,’ and it is the best life of Him that I ever read. He was a humorist, wasn’t He?”
“He was that, as well as every other thing,” said John Hogan, approvingly.
“I have never heard Him spoken of as a humorist before,” put in Higgins. Iky Gillstein grunted.
“Wasn’t it humorous of Him that time the Sheenies were going to stone that Merry Widow to death, when He said, ‘Prepare,’ and they all got ready with their little pile of rocks, and they stood scratching their heads, waiting for Christ to speak, and when He spoke He said, as the Merry Widow knelt at His feet, ‘Let ye that are without fault throw the first stone,’ and the devil a rock they threw, and the Merry Widow went her way in peace and behaved herself ever after?”
“The Merry Widow gave the gang the wink,” said Iky, cynically.
“That’s like something the Colonel would do,” said Percy. “In fact, he done something slick like that to me once. It was when I was living at Empire with my first wife, before she got the divorce and I married my darling that has just left me.
“I was an inspector then, and my job was to look after women that were supposed to be a little bit shady. My wife was jealous of me, and I had to pretend that I didn’t like the work.