"
Mr. Keith, true to his ancestral tenacity, was not easily put off. He
would begin again:
"George Gissing was a scholar and a man of refinement, like yourself.
You know what he says? 'Put money in thy purse, for to lack the current
coin of the realm is to lack the privileges of humanity.' The
privileges of humanity: you understand, Eames?"
"Does he say that? Well, I am not surprised. I have sometimes noticed
gross, unhealthy streaks in Gissing."
"I will tell you what is unhealthy, Eames. Your own state of mind. You
derive a morbid pleasure from denying yourself the common emoluments of
life. It's a form of self-indulgence. I wish you would open your
windows and let the sun in. You are living by candlelight. If you
analysed yourself closely--"
"I don't analyse myself closely. I call it a mistake. I try to see
soberly. I try to think logically. I try to live becomingly."
"I am glad you don't always succeed," Keith would reply, with a
horrible accent on the word "always." "Heaven shield me from a
clean-minded man!"
"We have touched on that subject once or twice already, have we not?
Your arguments will never entangle me, though I think I can be fair to
them.
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