““JENNET. Twilight, double, treble, in and out! If I try to find my way I bark my brain On shadows sharp as rocks where half a day Ago was a wild soft world, a world of warm Straw, whispering every now and then With rats, but possible, possible, not this, This where I'm lost. The morning came, and left The sunlight on my step like any normal Tradesman. But now every spark Of likelihood has gone. The light draws off As easily as though no one could die To-morrow. THOMAS Are you going to be so serious About such a mean allowance of breath as life is? We'll suppose ourselves to be caddis-flies Who live one day. Do we waste the evening Commiserating with each other about The unhygienic condition of our worm-cases? For God's sake, shall we laugh? V JENNET For what reason? THOMAS For the reason of laughter, since laughter is surely The surest touch of genius in creation. Would you ever have thought of it, I ask you, If you had been making man, stuffing him full Of such hopping greeds and passions that he has To blow himself to pieces as often as he Conveniently can manage it—would it also Have occurred to you to make him burst himself With such a phenomenon as cachinnation? That same laughter, madam, is an irrelevancy Which almost amounts to revelation. JENNET I laughed Earlier this evening, and where am I now? THOMAS Between The past and the future which is where you were Before. JENNET Was it for laughter's sake you told them You were the Devil? Or why did you? THOMAS Honesty, Madam, common honesty. JENNET Honesty common With the Devil? THOMAS Gloriously common. It's Evil, for once Not travelling incognito.””
