But the five
men who were at table with Harrington that night immediately and sharply
disagreed with him.
Harding was the first to protest. He said the belief that all men are
afraid of death is just as false as the belief that all women are afraid
of mice. It is not the big facts that humanity is afraid of, but the
little things. For himself, he could honestly say that he was not
afraid of death. He defied it every morning when he ran for his train,
although he knew that he thereby weakened his heart. He defied it when
he smoked too much and read too late at night, and refused to take
exercise or to wear rubbers when it rained. All men, he repeated, are
afraid of little things. Personally, what he was most intensely and most
enduringly afraid of was a revolving storm-door.
Harding confessed that he approaches a revolving door in a state of
absolute terror. To see him falter before the rotating wings, rush
forward, halt, and retreat with knees trembling, is to witness a
shattering spectacle of complete physical disorganisation. Harding said
that he enters a revolving door with no serious hope of coming out
alive.
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