Page:Path of Vision; pocket essays of East and West.djvu/82

 it's even relishable, they say, pickled as it is in anonymity. Yes, the work is interesting, though sometimes annoying and often amusing—to myself. An editorial writer is the Keeper, you might say, of the People's Conscience. And his work, from day to day, is a picture gallery of his mind. The variety is infinite and bewildering even to himself. For if he goes through the gallery after a month or two of copy-making, he could scarcely distinguish one picture from another. And yet, they are all his own, made by his hand, after his very image! Anonymity, of course, is his salvation. It's very interesting, very amusing, indeed. And conducive, as you see, of health and cheerfulness. Let's have another drink." The succession aroused in him a ruminating, reminiscing humor. And our little corner table, as soon as I mentioned the hills, became a confessional.

"We are made or marred," he said, "more often marred by an excess of affection, which develops in us a querulous, petulent, supersensitive nature. If our relatives and