PARAMORE. No doubt.

CHARTERIS. For instance, you have a theory about Craven's liver, eh?

PARAMORE. I still believe that to be a true theory, though it has been
upset for the moment.

CHARTERIS. And you have a theory that it would be pleasant to be
married to Julia?

PARAMORE. I suppose so--in a sense.

CHARTERIS. That theory also will be upset, probably, before you're a
year older.

PARAMORE. Always cynical, Charteris.

CHARTERIS. Never mind that. Now it's a perfectly damnable thing for
you to hope that your liver theory is true, because it amounts to
hoping that Craven will die an agonizing death. (This strikes Paramore
as paradoxical; but it startles him.) But it's amiable and human to
hope that your theory about Julia is right, because it amounts to
hoping that she may live happily ever after.

PARAMORE. I do hope that with all my soul--(correcting himself) I mean
with all my function of hoping.

CHARTERIS. Then, since both theories are equally scientific, why not
devote yourself, as a humane man, to proving the amiable theory rather
than the damnable one?