Professions of trust, and confidence, and unselfishness, and all
that! Bah, bah, bah! We see what they're worth. But, you mustn't
laugh at life; you've got a game to play; a very serious game
indeed! Everybody's playing against you, you know, and you're
playing against them. Oh! it's a very interesting thing. There
are deep moves upon the board. You must only laugh, Dr. Jeddler,
when you win - and then not much. He, he, he! And then not much,'
repeated Snitchey, rolling his head and winking his eye, as if he
would have added, 'you may do this instead!'

'Well, Alfred!' cried the Doctor, 'what do you say now?'

'I say, sir,' replied Alfred, 'that the greatest favour you could
do me, and yourself too, I am inclined to think, would be to try
sometimes to forget this battle-field and others like it in that
broader battle-field of Life, on which the sun looks every day.'

'Really, I'm afraid that wouldn't soften his opinions, Mr. Alfred,'
said Snitchey. 'The combatants are very eager and very bitter in
that same battle of Life. There's a great deal of cutting and
slashing, and firing into people's heads from behind. There is
terrible treading down, and trampling on. It is rather a bad
business.'

'I believe, Mr. Snitchey,' said Alfred, 'there are quiet victories
and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acts of heroism,
in it - even in many of its apparent lightnesses and contradictions
- not the less difficult to achieve, because they have no earthly
chronicle or audience - done every day in nooks and corners, and in
little households, and in men's and women's hearts - any one of