“‘But ’tisn’t every one can tell you the time of day by it,’ ses I.
“‘I know that,’ ses he. ‘And ’tisn’t every one who can tell you all the other things they should know, and ’tisn’t every one who can forget all the things not worth remembering,’ ses he.
“‘That’s true,’ ses I, ‘and if we could only remember all that is good for us, and forget all that is bad for us, we needn’t go to any one for advice. But we either remember too much, or forget too much, and that’s why there is so much discontent and trouble everywhere. However, be that as it may, I’d like to know how you manage to enjoy yourself in this eerie place without any one to keep you company,’ ses I.
“‘I don’t want company,’ ses he, ‘because I came here to get rid of myself.’
“‘Are you a married man?’ ses I.
“‘No,’ ses he, ‘I escaped.’
“‘That’s a strange state of affairs,’ ses I. ‘Sure I always thought that the only way a man could get rid of himself was to get lost, so to speak, in the highways and byways of matrimony, and that he would be so busy trying to please his wife and children that he wouldn’t have any time to think of himself.’
“‘There are more ways of killing a dog than by making him commit suicide,’ ses he.
“‘That’s so,’ ses I. ‘And there are more ways of getting drunk than paying for what you drink. And many a man can’t feel natural at all, until he is so blind drunk that he don’t know what he does be saying.’
“‘Yes,’ ses he, ‘and a man might live without working if he could get any one to support him. But no matter what happens, time and the world rolls by as indifferently as though there was nothing worth bothering about. And after all,’ ses he, ‘what is the world but a whirling mass of inconsistencies, and everything changes but man. He has no more sense now than ever he had. And more’s the pity, for women are as deceitful as ever.’