Joly moves back enough to allow for the very important Acquiring of More Drink. "Um." Eloquence! He laughs at himself. "You're better at that sort of thing than me-- speeches and all, I don't know. I...listen, I was talking to this fellow Will today, while I was out, and he was telling me about his brother, who'd had tuberculosis-- well, we called it consumption in our time but that's what it is. And he, he just had some medicine from the Infirmary and--that was it, it was cured." Joly waves; poof!

"And that's wonderful, if I were at home and I'd seen that I'd think, oh, it's a miracle, because it is, and I'd tell everyone I knew, and there'd be celebrations and -- and here it doesn't even matter to anyone. Everyone just says oh, that's Milliways, and it's nothing. But it's not nothing! But no one will act like any of it matters! And, and I can't go around shouting at people that there's nothing wrong, but it's--everyone acts like everything is just normal and it's not and I--" he breaks off for a moment,and picks up his glass, and huffs out a laugh. "I don't know. There's no problem at all, and I don't know what to do about it. I don't know what I'm doing."

He turns the glass around, fretting."It does feel like there must be something wrong. I almost wish I could believe I had an imbalance of humors. I'm afraid I'll soon have to start suspecting a complex, or perhaps some sort of nervous disorder." Yes, he's smiling as he says it.