"Then I'm bound to say I don't know what you find to laugh at."
"For a man who has spent so much time in psychical research you seem to have a rather material outlook upon—"
"Mr. Harding?"
"And all that he represents."
"Suppose we stick to Mr. Harding," said the professor, grittily. "He is typical enough, even if you are not."
"In what respect do you consider Mr. Harding typical?"
"I am speaking of the Harding before the fall into the abysses of nervous dyspepsia."
"Very well. In what respects was Mr. Harding typical?"
"In the sublime self-confidence with which he proclaimed as facts, things that have never been proved to be facts."
"Do men want facts?" said Chichester, almost as one speaking alone to himself.