"Ladies like to see it, I know," said the major.

"You think, we cannot understand it?"

"I don't see how you should."

"I am going to try, Major Fairbairn. And notwithstanding your
hopeless tone, I expect you to give me all the help you can."

"I think, the less you understand of it, the better," said the
major.

"Pray why?"

"Doesn't seem comfortable knowledge, for those who cannot use
it."

"Men think that of many things," I said. "And they are much
mistaken. Knowledge is always comfortable. I mean, it is
comfortable to have it, rather than to be ignorant."

"I don't know -" said the major. "Where ignorance is bliss -"

"Ignorance never is bliss!" I said energetically.

"Then the poet must be wrong."

"Don't you think poets may be wrong as well as other people,
Major Fairbairn?"