Page:My Dear Cornelia (1924).pdf/274

 Sometimes he says I am 'devoid' of humor. I am not! Am I devoid of humor?"

"No, Cornelia," I said. "But humor isn't your strong point. In your lighter vein, you incline rather toward a gleeful gayety. Humor, in Oliver, results from a skepticism regarding first principles; and you are not skeptical about first principles."

"I am not, thank goodness. I do like to see people gay and light-hearted and happy, and I like to be that way myself. But I am light-hearted and gay only because I am clear about what you call 'first principles.' Life hasn't any dignity, any decorum, or justification, even, if one is constantly questioning or mocking at everything there is in it that is axiomatic. Oliver has no axioms except derisive ones that he makes for himself. To me, it isn't endurable to be with people who refuse to take serious things seriously. When one jests at serious things, one not merely destroys their seriousness, but one takes all the joy out of the joyous and light-hearted things—all the bloom from life."

"I suspect," I said, "there is a good deal of truth in that."

"And so," she continued, "when this dreadful