"Just before we got to Poughkeepsie, don't you remember?"
"No," said Norton laughing. "I don't, of course. What was it, Pink? The idea of remembering a question!"
"Don't you remember, you asked me if I didn't like poverty and poor people, for the same reason I liked other things?"
But here Norton's amusement became quite unmanageable.
"How should you like poverty and poor people for the same reason you like other things, you delicious Pink?" he said. "How should you like those smoky coats in the omnibus, for the same reason that you like a white hyacinth or a red tulip?"
"That is what I was puzzling about, Norton; you don't recollect; and I could not make it out; because I knew I didn't enjoy poverty and poor things, and you said I ought."
"Excuse me," said Norton. "I never said you ought, in the whole course of my rational existence since I have known you."
"No, no, Norton; but don't you know, I said I liked everything, waves of the river and all, because God made them? and you thought I ought to like poor people and things for the same reason."
"O, that!" said Norton. "Well, why don't you?"
"That is what I could not tell, Norton, and I was puzzling to find out; and now I know."