At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly—the only lavishment of which he was ever guilty—on the floor.
"Such an outcome would be unusual?" / "Exceptional. But then there are exceptions. And I'm straining every nerve to make this one!" / "And the suffering — such as today's, for instance — is unavoidable?"
One taps any source of comfort — Leigh Ashton at Charleston yesterday for instance.
