126 THE LAND'S END 



while on a visit to England, he looked me up and we 

 renewed our old friendship. 



His idea about drinking in England was that it was 

 indulged in to remedy a defect in us, a certain slow- 

 ness or dullness of thought or feeling from which we 

 desired at times to escape. He gave the following 

 illustration. Two British workmen, old friends, meet 

 by chance after a long interval and clasp hands 

 delightedly and each asks the other how he is. One 

 says " Just so so " or " Pretty well," the other says 

 " Mustn't grumble." They appear, then, to have 

 got to the end of their powers of speech, yet are con- 

 scious that there is more to be said if they are ever 

 to get back into the old comfortable intimacy. Sud- 

 denly one has an inspiration and proposes a drink. 

 The other agrees with a sense of relief, and they 

 incontinently repair to the nearest public, where, 

 after a glass or two, what they desired and tried to 

 get but could not is at once theirs : their tongues 

 are loosed, they laugh in pure joy at their new-found 

 freedom and ability to express themselves ; they talk 

 of their work, their families, of a hundred things 

 they had forgotten but remember now, and are glad 

 to feel in sympathy with each other. 



Now, he continued, we of another race and dispo- 

 sition in our country when we meet an old friend, 

 although it may not be very long since we last saw 

 him, feel no such restraint, but at once the joy of 

 meeting him sets us off. The pleasure is stimulus 

 enough of itself ; it sends the blood spinning through 

 our brains, and we are, in fact, almost intoxicated by 



