There was poor Allen, who lost the most valuable opportunity of his life because he hadn't a clean shirt to put on; and Williamson, who would probably have married that rich girl but for the grain of dust that got into his eye, and made him unable to say or do anything at the critical moment.' Reardon burst into a roar of laughter.
'There you are!' cried Biffen, with friendly annoyance.

'You take the conventional view.

If you wrote of these things you would represent them as laughable.' 'They are laughable,' asserted the other, 'however serious to the persons concerned.

The mere fact of grave issues in life depending on such paltry things is monstrously ludicrous.

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter.' 'That's all very well, but it isn't an original view.