"How is it better? Oh, as long as one is young one can do what one wants to do—one can walk about, and carry things, and not be dependent upon other folk. Is not that the best way?"
"I do not know. At all events I care not whether I be young or old."
"What makes you say that? Surely you cannot mean it?"
"No? Well, think of what my youth means to me. I am a lonely man, a man without home or—"
"But all depends upon yourself."
"No, it does not. I only wish that some one would take pity upon my loneliness!"
She glanced at him, but said nothing. After a pause she resumed:
"What is that book of yours?"
"This? It is a learned, scholarly work."
"How you study! Do you never grow tired of it? By this time, I should think, you must know everything."