"—My dear fellow, tell me how I can serve you."
"By dispatching yourself, Mr. Popinjay-of-the-world, into the heart of the Lunar Mountains. You are another of them. Out of my sight!" (24,10-11)
Nothing like a shove-off when someone offers you his or her goodwill. Pitch is just not having a friendship with Frank. Worse, by telling Frank to go to the Lunar Mountains, Pitch is at once saying, "I want you as far away as outer space," and calling him a lunatic. How rude.
"Been eaves-dropping, eh?"
"Why, a soliloquist in a crowd can hardly but be overheard, and without much reproach to the hearer." (24, 15-16)
You can't technically have isolation unless there's a crowd out there you're not a part of. Maybe. Anyway, here Pitch is rocking the Shakespearean soliloquizing aside. Thing is, people can still hear you when you're talking to yourself, so you may be "alone," but you're not invisible. On the other hand, if people know you're there, does this make you more or less alone?
Quote 3
"To the devil with your principles! Bad sign when a man begins to talk of his principles. Hold, come back, sir; back here, back, sir, back! I tell you no more boys for me. Nay, I'm a Mede and Persian. In my old home in the woods I'm pestered enough with squirrels, weasels, chipmunks, skunks. I want no more wild vermin to spoil my temper and waste my substance. Don't talk of boys; enough of your boys; a plague of your boys; chilblains on your boys! As for Intelligence Offices, I've lived in the East, and know 'em. Swindling concerns kept by low-born cynics, under a fawning exterior wreaking their cynic malice upon mankind. You are a fair specimen of 'em." (22, 18)
These lines are actually kind of funny. We know Pitch isn't here to make friends, but even as he's putting in a plug for being a loner, he can't overcome the human desire to communicate. He calls the dude from the Philosophical Intelligence Office (PIO) back several times just to explain to him why he doesn't want his services. Translation: I will break through my isolation in order to tell you why isolation is the bee's knees.