Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/236

198 "And the Merchant answered him 'I could let thee have that lot at ten thousand piastres the dozen.'

"And the Man chuckled inwardly, and said 'Ten piastres the dozen I offer thee, and no more, oh descendant of a distinguished grandfather!'

"And the Merchant stroked his beard, and said 'Hum! I will await the coming of thy friends.' So he waited. And the Man waited with him. And they waited both together."

"The manuscript breaks off here," said Mein Herr, as he rolled it up again; "but it was enough to open our eyes. We saw what simpletons we had beenbuying our Scholars much as those ignorant savages bought their eggsand the ruinous system was abandoned. If only we could have abandoned, along with it, all the other fashions we had borrowed from you, instead of carrying them to their logical results! But it was not to be. What ruined my country, and drove me from my home, was the introductioninto the Army, of all placesof your theory of Political Dichotomy!"