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tend it didn't. You see the idea? Now, the more of that business you do, the more ingenious your theory becomes, and the more ingenious your theory becomes, the more easily will people accept it as true. Half the statements which we regard as facts in history and criticism are statements made by critics, which are so ingenious that nobody has the heart to doubt them. And so the silly old world goes on. What if our forefathers are misjudged? We keep our mouths, not our ears, to the metaphone, and the honourable gentlemen get no opportunity to reply: and it doesn't matter much to them, because, like sensible people, they've dropped their end of the tube, and left us to talk into empty air."

"Do you know, Gordon, I believe you talk an awful lot of rot."

"I know. But it isn't all rot. Well, what are you proposing to do?"

"I am proposing to devote myself in future to the Game⁠—the Game, the whole Game, and nothing but the Game."