"It takes me some time to recover from shocks; and Mr.Reffold's death was a sorrow to me.

What do you think about death?
Have you any theories about life and death, and the bridge between them?
Could you say anything to help one ?" "Nothing," he answered.

"Who could?
And by what means ?" "Has there been no value in philosophy," she asked, "and the meditations of learned men ?" "Philosophy!" he sneered.

"What has it done for us?
It has taught us some processes of the mind's working; taught us a few wonderful things which interest the few; but the centuries have come and gone, and the only thing which the whole human race pants to know, remains unknown: our beloved ones, shall we meet them, and how ?--the great secret of the universe.

We ask for bread, and these philosophers give us a stone.
What help could come from them: or from any one?
Death is simply one of the hard facts of life." "And the greatest evil," she said.
"We weave our romances about the next world," he continued; "and any one who has a fresh romance to relate, or an old one dressed up in new language, will be listened to, and welcomed.