"
"That shows that you were nervous as to how they would turn out," said
Clovis. "Now, my mother never bothered about bringing me up. She just
saw to it that I got whacked at decent intervals and was taught the
difference between right and wrong; there is some difference, you know,
but I've forgotten what it is."
"Forgotten the difference between right and wrong!" exclaimed Mrs.
Eggelby.
"Well, you see, I took up natural history and a whole lot of other
subjects at the same time, and one can't remember everything, can one? I
used to know the difference between the Sardinian dormouse and the
ordinary kind, and whether the wry-neck arrives at our shores earlier
than the cuckoo, or the other way round, and how long the walrus takes in
growing to maturity; I daresay you knew all those sorts of things once,
but I bet you've forgotten them."
"Those things are not important," said Mrs. Eggelby, "but--"
"The fact that we've both forgotten them proves that they are important,"
said Clovis; "you must have noticed that it's always the important things
that one forgets, while the trivial, unnecessary facts of life stick in
one's memory. There's my cousin, Editha Clubberley, for instance; I can
never forget that her birthday is on the 12th of October. It's a matter
of utter indifference to me on what date her birthday falls, or whether
she was born at all; either fact seems to me absolutely trivial, or
unnecessary--I've heaps of other cousins to go on with.
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