‘You’ll forgive any indiscretion on my part. None intended, I assure you, but this is the first time I’ve noticed this establishment and the words on the front of the building rather took me aback. I’d very much like to know what goes on here.’

He gave a smile of satisfaction before replying:

‘My dear Monsieur, for those who wish to die, we provide a clean … I hesitate to say agreeable, but at any rate an easy death.’

I was in no way shocked by this. It seemed to me the fairest and most natural thing in the world. What did surprise me was that such an enterprise, reflecting as it seemed to me a highly developed level of civilization, should have come to exist on this planet of ours which I knew to be base, materialistic and self-interested and whose principles I knew to be far from embracing any notion of real freedom. I went on: ‘How did you manage to bring such a thing into existence?’

‘The rate of suicides, Monsieur,’ he replied, ‘had increased so much in the five years following the Great Exhibition of 18893 that the situation became urgent. People were killing themselves all over the place – in the street, at parties, in restaurants, at the theatre, on trains, and even at presidential receptions, everywhere, in fact. It was not only a rather unedifying spectacle to those who, like myself, are actually rather keen on living, but also it gave a bad example to children. So it became necessary to, as it were, centralize the procedure.’

‘Why had the rate gone up so dramatically?’

‘I’ve no idea really. I suppose people are a bit more mature these days. They’ve only just begun to see what it’s all about when they realize they can’t come to terms with life. Fate, the government, it’s all the same nowadays I suppose. People realize it’s a big con and once they’ve realized that they decide to chuck it in. When they see that providence is just as likely to lie, to trick, to steal and betray human beings as their elected representatives, they get mad. They can’t give a new kind of providence a trial period of three months, and then change it as they could their embers of parliament, if you’ll forgive my little joke, so they get the hell out of what they see as a pretty wretched situation.’

‘Really!’

‘Well, it’s not my own view, as I say, but …’

‘Would you mind telling me how this institute of yours actually functions?’

‘It would be a great pleasure, Monsieur. You could yourself join, of course, any time you liked. It’s just like any other club.’

‘Club?’

‘Absolutely, Monsieur. Founded by some of the most eminent men in the country. The most generous of souls. The finest minds.’