Not at all." "What for, then ?" asked the meek Bingham, suppressing an instinct meekly to tear his hair.

"How long is this endowment to run?
Not till his death?
Till the Judgement day ?" "No," said Basil, beaming, "but just what I said.

Till he has stopped dancing." And he lay back with satisfaction and his hands in his pockets.
Bingham had by this time fastened his eyes keenly on Basil Grant and kept them there.
"Come, Mr Grant," he said.

"Do I seriously understand you to suggest that the Government pay Professor Chadd an extraordinarily high salary simply on the ground that he has (pardon the phrase) gone mad?
That he should be paid more than four good clerks solely on the ground that he is flinging his boots about in the back yard ?" "Precisely," said Grant composedly.
"That this absurd payment is not only to run on with the absurd dancing, but actually to stop with the absurd dancing ?" "One must stop somewhere," said Grant.

"Of course." Bingham rose and took up his perfect stick and gloves.
"There is really nothing more to be said, Mr Grant," he said coldly.
"What you are trying to explain to me may be a joke--a slightly unfeeling joke.