"Most men live long enough to discover that every cloud has a silver lining," I began earnestly. "With perseverance you can do most things that are not beyond your powers, and after all, it's better to want what you have than to have what you want."
I thought her eyes were glazed with a sudden perplexity when I made this confident statement, but I daresay it was only my fancy, for she nodded vigorously.
"Of course, I see your point," she said. "We can't do more than we can."
But my blood was up now and I waved aside the interruption. I went on.
"Few people realise the profound truth that there are twenty shillings in every pound and twelve pence in every shilling. I'm sure it's better to see clearly to the end of your nose than indistinctly through a brick wall. If there's one thing we can be certain about it is that the whole is greater than the part."
When, with a hearty shake of the hand, firm and characteristic, she bade me farewell, she said:
"Well, we've had a most interesting chat. It does one good in a place like this, so far away from civilisation, to exchange ideas with one's intellectual equals."
"Especially other people's," I murmured.
"I always think that one should profit by the great thoughts of the past," she retorted. "It shows that the mighty dead have not lived in vain."
Her conversation was devastating.