er now, but it _was_ very good when I
first thought of it."

He disappears, _i.e._, from a conversational point of view, in our
laughter. He is extinguished.

"What's he saying?" asks Mrs. Boodels.

Milburd takes up the trumpet. "He says," shouts Milburd, it being quite
unnecessary to shout, "that he's a very clever fellow."

"Ah," says Mrs. Boodels. "Mr. Chilvern's always joking."

"I never said anything of the sort," says the injured Chilvern to her,
defending himself through the ear-trumpet.

"Ah," observes Mrs. Boodels, perfectly satisfied. "I was sure he never
could have said that." Then she considers for a few seconds. After this
she remarks, "Cleverness, is not one of his strong points."

Whereupon she smiles amiably. Chilvern walks to the window.

"We were saying," says the Professor, who evidently has a whole
three-volume lecture ready for us, "that deaf people are happy. Now I
controvert that opinion. To be deaf, is not a blessing."

"Then," says Milburd, "a person who is deaf, is not a blessed old man,
or old woman, as the case may be."

"You misapprehend me, my dear Milburd. What I would say about deafness,
is this--" (_exit BELLA, quietly_,)--"is this--that the loss of the
sense of hearing----"

"Is seldom the loss of hearing sense," interrupts Boodels, at the door.

[_Exit BOODELS._

"To a certain extent," continues the Professor, who has Milburd, now, as
it were, in his grasp. "Boodels, although putting it lightly, was right.
Sense is uncommon--"

"'Specially common sense," I observe. Being my first remark for some
time. But I like the Professor; and his philosophic views have an
interest for me that they evidently do not possess for natures which
will be always butterflying about.

"You are right," says the Professor turning to me, whereupon Milburd
rises quietly, and gets to the door. (_Exit MILBURD._) "But common
sense, though, I admit, wrongly designated, does not convey to us a
positive pleasure. The question, which we are considering--namely,
whether to be deaf, is a happiness or not--should be treated in the
Socratic method, and the whole reasoning reduced to the simplest
syllogisms."

Through the window, I see Bella going out with Milburd. Adelaide is with
Boodels. Chilvern is pointing at me: they are all laughing. I smile _to_
them, and at them, as much as to say, "Bless you! I'm with you in
spirit, but the Professor has