VIII. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you!

[epigrammatical]

[AUDIO, public. The morning after the event ends and Tu Vishan starts moving again.]

I am not alone, I gather, in detecting a change in the air here. It is rather like waking on the very first day of the Season, with all the possibility that lies ahead—or waking the morning after the last day, with the happy knowledge that one need not be at home to anyone that day. We have, I suppose, escaped the fate of Des Esseintes's tortoise.

---

[AUDIO, private to Dorian Gray.]

I have finished Mr Findley's novel, Dorian. A most marvellous book; quite gorgeous and affecting.

But I must ask you, dear boy—is what he writes about Oscar true?

[He's already guessed that it is. This is less a real question than the confirmation of a sense of creeping dread.]

Comments

video;

[epigrammatical]

It was nothing but trivialities, my dear Gavroche—merely an expression of pleasure at matters being set right again.

video;

[chiot]

Why ain'tcha just say that, then? "boy, m'real glad things are better."

video;

[epigrammatical]

Ah, but where's the fun in that?

video;

[chiot]

It's funner 'cause it's easier to say, an' then you can have better talks with everyone, huh?

video;

[epigrammatical]

I see your point, dear boy. I do rather enjoy spinning airy fancies of words, but perhaps that is a selfish pleasure.

[As if he's going to change the way he talks. He might to Gavroche, though.]

video;

[chiot]

I ain't gonna knock nothin' y'like, I just can't understand it a lotta the time.

video;

[epigrammatical]

I beg your pardon, dear Gavroche; I mean no insult. I shall do my best in the future to be more plain.

video;

[chiot]

Well... Why don't we make a game of it, huh? If I can unnerstand what you're sayin' for a whole conversaton, you gimmie a sou--I mean, Juulan. So you can be as fancy as you want.

video;

[epigrammatical]

[Such wagers are a perfectly legitimate pastime for a gentleman! Henry is charmed.]

Very well. If you find me at Daowei's shop, we may even shake hands on it.

video;

[chiot]

Y'gotta spit on it, too. Then it's real.

video;

[epigrammatical]

Of course—just as I remember when I was a boy.

[Henry wouldn't take that from anyone else.]

video;

[chiot]

Yeah, see? Y'think you're so fancy, you're just onna us! That's why I think you're pretty good, huh?

video;

[epigrammatical]

I did not come into this world an adult fully-formed, you know; I was a boy once myself.