Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/211

XI] Lady Muriel was passing at the moment, and caught the last word. "Nobody's going to be punished here!" she said, taking Bruno in her arms. "This is Liberty-Hall! Would you lend me the children for a minute?"

"The children desert us, you see," I said to Mein Herr, as she carried them off: "so we old folk must keep each other company!"

The old man sighed. "Ah, well! We're old folk now; and yet I was a child myself, onceat least I fancy so."

It did seem a rather unlikely fancy, I could not help owning to myselflooking at the shaggy white hair, and the long beardthat he could ever have been a child. "You are fond of young people?" I said.

"Young men," he replied. "Not of children exactly. I used to teach young menmany a year agoin my dear old University!"

"I didn't quite catch its name?" I hinted.

"I did not name it," the old man replied mildly. "Nor would you know the name if I did. Strange tales I could tell you of all the changes I have witnessed there! But it would weary you, I fear."