hatever else you do or do not do, keep sweet, David! Whom
the gods would destroy they first make mad! You take yourself and your
life too seriously, I tell you. Everything will go its own way whether
you want it to or not! I used to read the classics, once, and some
fragments of those old fellows' sublime philosophy are still fresh in
my memory. There is a scrap in one of the Greek tragedies--the Oedipus,
I think, that has always kept running through my head:

"'Why should we fear, when Chance rules everything,
And foresight of the future there is none?
'Tis best to live at random as we can!
But thou, fear not that marriage with thy mother!
Many, ere now, have dreamed of things like this,
But who cares least about them, bears life best!'

"There is wisdom for you! 'Who cares least about them bears life best!'
It's my philosophy in a nut-shell."

"Look here, Mantel," said David, "your philosophy may be all right,
provided a man has not done a--provided--provided a man has not
committed a-a crime! I don't care anything about your past in detail;
but unless you have done some deed that hangs around your neck like a
mill-stone, you don't know anything about the subject you are
discussing."

Mantel dropped his eyes, and sat in silence. For the first time since
David had known him, his fine face gave some genuine revelation of the
emotions of his soul. Great tears gathered in his eyes, and his lips
trembled. In a moment, he arose, took his hat, laid his hand gently upon
the arm of his friend, and said "David, my dear fellow, we are skating
on that thin ice again. We shall fall through if we are not careful, and
get that chill you were talking about. Let's go out and take a walk.
Life is too deep for either you or me to fathom. I gave it up as a bad
job long ago. What you just said about having a knife stuck into you
comes the nearest to my own notion. I feel a good deal as I fancy a
butterfly must when he has been intercepted in a gay and joyous flight
and stuck against the wall with a sharp pin, among a million other
specimens which the great entomologist has gathered for some purpose
which no one but himself can understand. All I try to do is to smile
enough to cover up my contortions. Come, let us go. We need the air."

They went down into the streets and lost themselves in the busy crowd of
care-encumbered men. Half unconscious of the throngs which jostled them,
they strolled along Broa