AN
INSIDE STORY
273
"Maybe this guy has something, and if he
does
have something,
maybe we can get rich overnight and get out of this dump."
"I am feeling no pain," said Paddles as he sat himself on the
bar stool next to Tobias, "but I am always open to new ideas and
always willing to learn. So now you tell us what is really wrong with
the whole world," he said in a friendly way to Tobias, "and I will
listen attentively. But it had better be good!"
"Look," said Tobias, in a patient tone, "I did not say that
1 knew what w,as really wrong with the world, all I said was that
1
thought
I knew one night when 1 was drunk."
"That's what's wrong with the whole world," said Gabriel in
a tone of contempt.
"What?" said Paddles.
"You can't stay drunk," Gabriel replied, pouring himself another
drink and looking toward the unhappy wives at the table near the
silent and gorgeous juke box, as if their appearance might have re–
cently improved.
"Now Gabriel," said Paddles, "keep your big mouth shut while
this
guy tells us what he
thought
was the trouble with the whole
world: how about it?" he added, looking at Tobias.
"The real trouble with the whole world," said Tobias slowly,
as if he were seeking to move back to the state of mind in which
he had been illuminated by passing and false insight, "is that A
is
in love with B, B is in love with C, C is in love with D, D
is
in
love with E-"
"We get it," said Paddles, impatiently. "You don't have to spell
it
out."
"X is in love with Y," said Gabriel who had become interested,
"Y
is
in love with Z, but who is Z in love with? A?"
"Yes," said Tobias, "that's often the case, Z is in love with A
who
is
in love with B-"
"We get it, we get it!" said Paddles impatient and annoyed. "I
may not
be
a master mind, but you don't have to talk as if this
were a kindergarten!"
"The older I get," said Tobias, wishing to appease Paddles
whom he saw he had somehow annoyed, "the more 1 think that the
whole world
is
a kindergarten. At best!" he added, sadly.
"I fell in love for the first time in kindergarten," said Gabriel,
a faint fond smile in his eyes.
