‘He’s sick of life; he was just telling me so; going on fearfully about it,’ said Lord Warburton’s friend.

‘Is that true, sir?’ asked the old man gravely.

‘If it is, your son gave me no consolation. He’s a wretched fellow to talk to—a regular cynic. He doesn’t seem to believe in anything.’

‘That’s another sort of joke,’ said the person accused of cynicism.

‘It’s because his health is so poor,’ his father explained to Lord Warburton. ‘It affects his mind and colours his way of looking at things; he seems to feel as if he had never had a chance. But it’s almost entirely theoretical, you know; it doesn’t seem to affect his spirits. I’ve hardly ever seen him when he wasn’t cheerful—about as he is at present. He often cheers me up.’

The young man so described looked at Lord Warburton and laughed. ‘Is it a glowing eulogy or an accusation of levity? Should you like me to carry out my theories, daddy?’

‘By Jove, we should see some queer things!’ cried Lord Warburton.

‘I hope you haven’t taken up that sort of tone,’ said the old man.

‘Warburton’s tone is worse than mine; he pretends to be bored. I’m not in the least bored; I find life only too interesting.’

‘Ah, too interesting; you shouldn’t allow it to be that, you know!’

‘I’m never bored when I come here,’ said Lord Warburton. ‘One gets such uncommonly good talk.’

‘Is that another sort of joke?’ asked the old man. ‘You’ve no excuse for being bored anywhere. When I was your age I had never heard of such a thing.’

‘You must have developed very late.’

‘No, I developed very quick; that was just the reason. When I was twenty years old I was very highly developed indeed. I was working tooth and nail. You wouldn’t be bored if you had something to do; but all you young men are too idle. You think too much of your pleasure. You’re too fastidious, and too indolent, and too rich.’

‘Oh, I say,’ cried Lord Warburton, ‘you’re hardly the person to accuse a fellow-creature of being too rich!’

‘Do you mean because I’m a banker?’ asked the old man.

‘Because of that, if you like; and because you have—haven’t you?—such unlimited means.’

‘He isn’t very rich,’ the other young man mercifully pleaded. ‘He has given away an immense deal of money.’

‘Well, I suppose it was his own,’ said Lord Warburton; ‘and in that case could there be a better proof of wealth? Let not a public benefactor talk of one’s being too fond of pleasure.’

‘Daddy’s very fond of pleasure—of other people’s.’

The old man shook his head. ‘I don’t pretend to have contributed anything to the amusement of my contemporaries.’

‘My dear father, you’re too modest!’