“You owe it to me not to be perverse.”
“I can’t pay any debt.”
Previous to going to bed Dr. Black and Osgood smoked several cigars.
“You strike me,” said the Doctor, “as growing to the dramatic just now. One event runs into another with monstrous rapidity among you Americans. How you differ from the English! How is it that you catch fortune by the hair so?”
“We are passionate and quick-witted.”
“And then you repudiate with ease.”
“Bah! you imitate Sydney Smith.”
“I did not mean in the sense of State bonds precisely.”
“I think,” Osgood groaned, “that I begin to feel like a snob again. What shall I do to be saved?”
“Go on in the groove that is making for you. I’ll stand by and be the chorus. When I hear thy plaints of misery I will let fall the tear; but remember that ‘laws determine even the fates.’”