You make my head ache."
"If all action, good and bad, spring from selfishness," replied Brown,
"then there must be good selfishness and bad selfishness: and your bad
selfishness is my plain selfishness, without any adjective, so we are
back where we started. I say selfishness--bad selfishness--is the root
of all evil, and there you are bound to agree with me."
"Not always," persisted Jephson; "I've known selfishness--selfishness
according to the ordinarily accepted meaning of the term--to be
productive of good actions. I can give you an instance, if you like."
"Has it got a moral?" asked MacShaughnassy, drowsily,
Jephson mused a moment. "Yes," he said at length; "a very practical
moral--and one very useful to young men."
"That's the sort of story we want," said the MacShaughnassy, raising
himself into a sitting position. "You listen to this, Brown."
Jephson seated himself upon a chair, in his favourite attitude, with his
elbows resting upon the back, and smoked for a while in silence.
"There are three people in this story," he began; "the wife, the wife's
husband, and the other man. In most dramas of this type, it is the wife
who is the chief character. In this case, the interesting person is the
other man.
"The wife--I met her once: she was the most beautiful woman I have ever
seen, and the most wicked-looking; which is saying a good deal for both
statements.
Pages:
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252