[originaltext]M: Thanks a lot, Jean. Thank you for your timely advice during th

M: Thanks a lot, Jean. Thank you for your timely advice during that company trip last week. Otherwise I would end up buying that worthless piece of so-called souvenir and regretting my purchasing all day long.
W: My pleasure, Tom. Anyway, I hate wasting money on worthless things.
M: That’s an extremely attractive point in your character. My wife used to waste a lot of money. Stick to that, and you will get married in no time.
W: Oh, I have had plenty of offers. But you know, it’s a terrible thing to be a poor man’s wife, when you have been accustomed to a clean, decent job. I have seen so many bright jolly girls turn into dirty old drudges through getting married.
M: Don’t be afraid of dirt. Mine is a clean job. But I often wish I weren’t so set on clean collars, that they make their sons clerks when they would be stronger, and earn more money as navies, those road construction workers, you know. Nowadays, they earn more than we office clerks do. I wish I were a navy instead of writing guide books.
W: Well, what’s there to prevent you?
M: I am not trained to manual work. Half an hour of it would make me wish myself dead. And five minutes of my work would produce a strike among the navies. I am only a writing machine, just as a navy is a digging machine.
W: I don’t think the world is fair and rightly arranged, do you?
M: We must take the world as we find. It’s we that are not rightly arranged.