Page:Meanwhile (1927).pdf/129

 There must be something below it all, for no human being could exist without a foundation, certainly no human being as highly sensitized and discriminating as his companion, who, however languid he might appear to be, was curiously consistent.

"I suppose you mean that there's only the present," said Grover. "But how can you make that square with your recollection of the past? Think of yourself fifteen years ago, ten years ago, five years ago, and today; when you look back over it doesn't that period present itself to you in the light of a fraction of an always?"

"Not at all. It presents itself as a multitude of little presents flowing into a big present, just as each wave that leaves the shore of America flows into a next and a next till the water contained in it touches the shore of France; yet it's only one ocean. Each new present creates a situation to which one automatically adjusts oneself. The whole trick consists in keeping up, exactly, with the present. If one does that, there is no problem of a future. It's like paying all your moral bills in cash."

"Sufficient unto the day, in other words."

"What would Americans do without their Bible!"

This isn't getting us any nearer a clue to Art, thought Grover, and he came back to the charge. "It may be true that you have never worked, but it's equally true that you have developed a talent for