"Why do you say so?"

"Life is sweet, brother."

"Do you think so?"

"Think so! there's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun,
moon and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise a wind on
the heath. Life is very sweet, brother: who would wish to die?"

"I would wish to die."

"You talk like a gorgio--which is the same as talking like a fool;
were you a Romany chal you would talk wiser. Wish to die, indeed! a
Romany chal would wish to live for ever."

"In sickness, Jasper?"

"There's the sun and stars, brother."

"In blindness, Jasper?"

"There's the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel that I
would gladly live for ever. Daeta, we'll now go to the tents and put
on the gloves, and I'll try to make you feel what a sweet thing it is
to be alive, brother."

Leaving Norwich and his legal trammels, a few weeks after his father's
death, in 1824, Lavengro reaches London--the scene of Grub Street