PARTISAN REVIEW
"What are you ticking about?" asked Edmund Kish, knowing
very well that her answer would
be
an expression of unhappiness.
"0," said Laura, "That's just my life ticking away."
"Can't you stop being human for an evening?" asked Francis
French, who did not like to hear of unhappiness.
"No, I can't," said Laura, "I never can, no matter how hard
I try. I just keep thinking of the rotten truth, the dirty truth, and
nothing but the awful truth."
"We ought to remember," said Rudyard, who was able to enjoy
everything, "the profound insight stated in the sentence,
'Joy is our
duty.'"
"I don't feel joyous," said Laura, "and I don't feel like forcing
myself to be joyous, whether or not it is a duty. I don't like life, life
does not like me, and I am unhappy."
"Laura is right," said Edmund, seeking to show sympathy. "She
has a right to her feelings. When I used to get peevish as a child,
I would say: 'What should I do? I have nothing to do?' My mother
always used to have just one answer: 'Go knock your head against
the wall' was what my mother always said. She was a big help."
"Tick, tick, tick," said Laura, "that's just life passing away,
second by second."
II: "HOW MUCH MONEY DOES HE MAKE?"
During the week, Edmund Kish had been visited by Israel
Brown, the most admired of all the teachers known to the circle.
Israel Brown was a man of incomparable learning. He was lean,
tall, hollow-cheeked, and Christlike in appearance. When he con–
versed, he spoke with a passion and rush such that one might
suppose that the end of the world were in the offing. He did not
seem to belong to this world and this life, although he appeared
to all to know about everything in this world. He was a teacher of
philosophy, but he touched upon many other subjects, ancient coins,
legal codes, marine architecture, the writing of the American Consti–
tution, and the theology of the early Church Fathers. No matter
whom he met and no matter where he was, Israel Brown rushed to
tell his listener whatever his listener seemed to care about. He was
able to correct and contradict whatever his listener said to him
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