The Grey Woman and the Thin Woman, however, held opinions quite contrary
to these, and their maxims also were different:

A secret is a weapon and a friend.

Man is God's secret, Power is man's secret, Sex is woman's secret.

By having much you are fitted to have more.

There is always room in the box.

The art of packing is the last lecture of wisdom.

The scalp of your enemy is progress.

Holding these opposed views it seemed likely that visitors seeking for
advice from the Philosophers might be astonished and captured by their
wives; but the women were true to their own doctrines and refused to
part with information to any persons saving only those of high rank,
such as policemen, gombeen men, and district and county councillors;
but even to these they charged high prices for their information, and a
bonus on any gains which accrued through the following of their advices.
It is unnecessary to state that their following was small when compared
with those who sought the assistance of their husbands, for scarcely a
week passed but some person came through the pine wood with his brows in
a tangle of perplexity.

In these people the children were deeply interested. They used to go
apart afterwards and talk about them, and would try to remember what
they looked like, how they talked, and their manner of walking or taking
snuff. After a time they became interested in the problems which these
people submitted to their parents and the replies or instructions
wherewith the latter relieved them. Long training had made the
children able to sit perfectly quiet, so that when the talk came to the
interesting part they were entirely forgotten, and ideas which might
otherwise have been spared their youth became the commonplaces of their
conversation.

When the children were ten years of age one of the Philosophers died. He
called the household together and announced that the time had come when
he must bid them all good-bye, and that his intention was to die as
quickly as might be. It was, he continued, an unfortunate thing that his
health was at the moment more robust than it had been for a long time,
but that, of course, was no obstacle to his resolution, for death did
not depend upon ill-health but upon a multitude of other factors with
the details whereof he would not trouble them.

His wife, the Grey Woman of Dun Gortin, applauded this resolution and
added as an amendment that it was high time he did something, that