"Are you never serious ?" she asked him.
"Is it worth while ?" he counter-questioned, and, whether intent or accident, he let her see something of himself.

"Is it even amusing--to be serious ?" "Is there in life nothing but amusement ?" "Oh, yes--but nothing so vital.

I speak with knowledge.

The gift of laughter has been my salvation." "From what, sir ?" "Ah--who shall say that?
My history and my rearing have been such that had I bowed before them, I had become the most gloomy, melancholy man that steps this gloomy, melancholy world.

By now I might have found existence insupportable, and so--who knows?
I might have set a term to it.