“That sort of uncle is a monster; he misappropriates existence.”
“Then,” the speaker on uncles went on, “tell him, while he is digesting it, that his banker has failed.”
“How if he bears up?”
“Let loose a pretty girl on him.”
“And if——?” asked the other, with a shake of the head.
“Then he wouldn’t be an uncle—an uncle is a gay dog by nature.”
“Malibran has lost two notes in her voice.”
“No, sir, she has not.”
“Yes, sir, she has.”
“Oh, ho! No and yes, is not that the sum-up of all religious, political, or literary dissertations? Man is a clown dancing on the edge of an abyss.”