"Do you read much?"
"Hardly at all. I sometimes dip into an old author."
"But what do you do then?" she asked, suddenly, querulously.
"Nothing," he answered, calmly, with a glance of humility. "I do nothing, I exist."
"Do you think that a good mode of life?"
"No."
"Then why don't you adopt another?"
"As I might buy a new coat or a new bicycle?"
"You're not speaking seriously," she said, crossly.
"Why are you so vexed with me?"