Jack, Knave and Fool (47 page)

Later, years later in fact, when we were fast friends, I had the chance to ask Clarissa what it was that attached her so to her father. “Probably,” said she, “it was that with my mother gone, he was all I had.” I told her that he had said the same thing of her. “But there was something more,” she added, “something quite especial that my mother often commented upon. No matter what our state, no matter how low our condition, he could always make us laugh.” Let that, then, be his epitaph: He could always incite laughter.