I have wrought my simple plan
If I give one hour of joy
To the boy who's half a man,
Or the man who's half a boy.
and yet there would have been no narrative without it
But who—who in all this wide world could ever have imagined the incredible shape which that deed was to take, or the strange steps by which I was led to the doing of it?
For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards of exchange.
THE LOST WORLD
I have wrought my simple plan
If I give one hour of joy
To the boy who's half a man,
Or the man who's half a boy.
Some day, perhaps, when you have won your place in the world, we shall talk it over again."
"But you shouldn't do it merely to please me.
"I'd have done it to please you."
I am not very clear yet why I am to interview this gentleman. What has he done?"
gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man, upon which he jumped from his chair, reproved me for my habitual levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the room to dress for a Masonic meeting.
