XVI 



Comfortable Books 



JONATHAN methodically tucked his bookmark 

 into &quot;The Virginians,&quot; and, closing the fat 

 green volume, began to knock the ashes out 

 of his pipe against the bricked sides of the 

 fireplace. 



&quot;The Virginians is a very comfortable 

 sort of book,&quot; he remarked. 

 &quot;Is it?&quot; I said. &quot;I wonder why.&quot; 

 He ruminated. &quot;Well, chiefly, I suppose, 

 because it s so good and long. You get to 

 know all the people, you get used to their 

 ways, and when they turn up again, after a 

 lot of chapters, you don i have to find out who 

 they are you just feel comfortably ac 

 quainted.&quot; 



I sighed. I had just finished a magazine 

 story condensed, vivid, crushing a whole 

 life-tragedy into seven pages and a half. In 

 that space I had been made acquainted with 

 sixteen different characters, seven principal 



