Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/77

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CHARM OF MANNER
65

a few new ones. I discoursed on the value of research, of acquaintance with the contents of the world's storehouse of thought. I enlarged upon the romance, the sense of high adventure that awaits one in the boundless fields of knowledge, and the fascination of being identified with progress, the unfolding scroll of the universe. I waxed quite eloquent for me, but I wasn't convincing. He wasn't convinced.

"But I read too," he exclaimed patiently. "There's scarcely a day I don't manage to get in an hour at the Public Library. My wife and I read together. Just now we are doing Huneker. Do you know Huneker? Now we've read nearly all of Wells—just finishing his Invisible King—my, but it's a fine book, ain't it, sets you thinking—and Howard Thompson and Tagore—I've read quite a few of Tagore's plays. And we hear the best concerts that come along, and we see our friends on Sundays. We generally get a nice jaunt away somewheres in the summer. My life, as you see, is full. I vary my interests. I don't waste myself, but I don't work all the time—I don't need to. I suppose I am what you might call a self-made man. My mother gave me what book-education I have, and the rest