Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/171

IX] "And most of the men killed!" murmured the pompous man, who was evidently hopelessly bewildered.

"Certainly," Arthur assented. "Till at last there will be fewer lunatics than sane men. Then we come out: they go in: and things return to their normal condition!"

The pompous man frowned darkly, and bit his lip, and folded, his arms, vainly trying to think it out. "He is jesting!" he muttered to himself at last, in a tone of withering contempt, as he stalked away.

By this time the other guests had arrived; and dinner was announced. Arthur of course took down Lady Muriel: and I was pleased to find myself seated at her other side, with a severe-looking old lady (whom I had not met before, and whose name I had, as is usual in introductions, entirely failed to catch, merely gathering that it sounded like a compound-name) as my partner for the banquet.

She appeared, however, to be acquainted with Arthur, and confided to me in a low voice her opinion that he was "a very argumentative young man." Arthur, for his part, seemed well