'
Reardon burst into a roar of laughter.
'There you are!' cried Biffen, with friendly annoyance. 'You take
the conventional view. If you wrote of these things you would
represent them as laughable.'
'They are laughable,' asserted the other, 'however serious to the
persons concerned. The mere fact of grave issues in life
depending on such paltry things is monstrously ludicrous. Life is
a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour
is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter.'
'That's all very well, but it isn't an original view. I am not
lacking in sense of humour, but I prefer to treat these aspects
of life from an impartial standpoint. The man who laughs takes
the side of a cruel omnipotence, if one can imagine such a thing.
I want to take no side at all; simply to say, Look, this is the
kind of thing that happens.'
'I admire your honesty, Biffen,' said Reardon, sighing. 'You will
never sell work of this kind, yet you have the courage to go on
with it because you believe in it.'
'I don't know; I may perhaps sell it some day.
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