now I'll tell you something. I do feel religious sometimes," Meats
declared solemnly. "And I do really want to lead a new life. But it
doesn't last. It's like love. Never mind, perhaps I'll be lucky enough
to die when I'm working off a religious stretch. I give you my word,
Fane, that often in these fits I've felt like committing suicide just to
cheat the devil. Would you believe that?"

"I don't think you're as bad as you make out," said Michael
sententiously.

"Oh, yes, I am," smiled the other. "I'm rotten bad. But I reckon the
first man I meet in hell will be my father, and if it's possible to hurt
anyone down there more than they're being hurt already, I'll do it. But
look here, I shall get the hump with this blooming conversation you've
started me off on. Come along, drink up and have another, and tell us
something about yourself."

"Oh, there's nothing to tell," Michael sighed. "My existence is pretty
dull after yours."

"I suppose it is," said Meats, as if struck by a new thought.
"Everything has its compensations, as they say."

"Frightfully dull," Michael vowed. "Why, here am I still at school! You
know I wouldn't half mind going down underneath, as you call it, for a
while. I believe I'd like it."

"If you knew you could get up again all right," commented Meats.

"Oh, of course," Michael answered. "I don't suppose AEneas would have
cared much about going down to hell, if he hadn't been sure he could
come up again quite safely."

"Well, I don't know your friend with the Jewish name," said Meats. "But
I'll lay he didn't come out much wiser than he went in if he knew he
could get out all right by pressing a button and taking the first lift
up."

"Oh, well, I was only speaking figuratively," Michael explained.

"So was I. The same here, and many of them, old chap," retorted Meats
enigmatically.

"Ah, you don't think I'm in earnest. You think I'm fooling," Michael
complained.

"Oh, yes, I think you'd like to take a peep without letting go of
Nurse's apron," sneered Meats.

"Well, perhaps one day you'll see me underneath," Michael almost
threatened.

"No offence, old chap," said Meats cordially. "It's no good my giving
you an address because it won't last, but London isn't very big, and
we'll run up against one another again, that's a cert. Now I've got to
toddle off and meet a girl."

"Have you?" asked Michael, and his enquiry was tinged with a faint
longing that the other noticed at once.