Howard
interested Segur who resolved to try to draw him out of his seclusion.
"I'm having some people to dinner at the Waldorf on Thursday," he said,
looking in at the door. "Won't you join us?"
"I'd be glad to," replied Howard, casting about for an excuse for
declining. "But I'm afraid I'd ruin your dinner. I haven't been out for
years. I've been too busy to make friends or, rather, acquaintances."
"A great mistake. You ought to see more of people."
"Why? Can they tell me anything that I can't learn from newspapers or books
more accurately and without wasting so much time? I'd like to know the
interesting people and to see them in their interesting moments. But I
can't afford to hunt for them through the wilderness of nonentities and
wait for them to become interesting."
"But you get amusement, relaxation. Then too, it's first-hand study of
life."
"I'm not sure of that. Yawning is not a very attractive kind of relaxation,
is it? And as for study of life, eight years of reporting gave me more of
that than I could assimilate. And it was study of realities, not of
pretenses. As I remember them, 'respectable' people are all about the same,
whether in their vices or in their virtues. They are cut from a few
familiar, 'old reliable' patterns.
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