"Well, dear," he continued, "I'll proceed to point out to you that, on the grounds of psychology and mental science, it isn't that it matters a bit whether a person who is writing and thinking _sees_ a little more or less distinctly or not, it's the snuffers and the snuff that he can't get out of his head, and they get behind his spiritual legs, trip up his ideas, and stop him, just as a log does a horse hobbled to it. For even when you've only just snuffed the candle, and I'm in the full enjoyment of the light, I begin to look out for the instant when you'll do it next. Now, this watching being in itself neither visible nor audible, can be nothing but a thought, or idea; and as every thought has the property of occupying the mind to the exclusion of all others, it follows that all an author's other and more valuable ideas are sent at once to the dogs. But this is by no means the worst of the affair. I, of course, _ought_ not to have had to occupy my head with the idea of candle-snuffing any more than with that of snuff-taking; but when the ardently longed-for snuffing never comes off at all, the black smut on the ripe ear of light keeps growing longer--the darkness deepening--a regular funereal torch feebly casting its ray upon a half-dead writer, who can't drive from his head the thought of the conjugal hand which could snap all the fetters asunder with one single snip;--then, my dearest Lenette, it's not easy for the said writer to help writing like an ass, and stamping like a dromedary. At least, I express my own opinion and experience on the subject!" On this, she assured him that, if he were really serious, she would take great care to do it properly next evening. And, in truth, this story must give her credit for keeping her word, for she not only snuffed much oftener than the night before, but, the fact is, she _hardly ever left off_ snuffing, particularly after he had nodded his head once or twice by way of thanks. "Don't snuff _too_ often, darling," he said, at length, but very, very kindly. "If you attempt _too_ fine sub-sub-subdivisions (fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions) of the wick, it'll be almost as bad as ever--a candle snuffed too short gives as little light as one with an overgrown wick which you may apply to the lights of the world and of the Church, that's to say if you _can_. It's only for a short while _before_ and _after_ the snuffing, _entre chien et loup_ as it were, that that delicious middle-age of the soul prevails when it can see to perfection; when it is truly a life for the gods, a just proportion of black and white, both in the candle and on the book."