Essays on Life 



and plied him with whatever rhyming non- 

 sense I could call to mind, but it was no use ; 

 all of these things had an element of reality 

 that robbed them of half their charm, whereas 

 "Hey diddle diddle" had nothing in it that 

 could conceivably concern him. 



So again it is with the things that gall us 

 most. What is it that rises up against us at 

 odd times and smites us in the face again and 

 again for years after it has happened ? That 

 we spent all the best years of our life in learn- 

 ing what we have found to be a swindle, and 

 to have been known to be a swindle by those 

 who took money for misleading us ? That 

 those on whom we most leaned most betrayed 

 us ? That we have only come to feel our 

 strength when there is little strength left of 

 any kind to feel? These things will hardly 

 much disturb a man of ordinary good temper. 

 But that he should have said this or that 

 little unkind and wanton saying ; that he 

 should have gone away from this or that hotel 

 and given a shilling too little to the waiter ; 

 that his clothes were shabby at such or such 



a garden-party these things gall us as [a corn 



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