Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/248

210 "By examining him at the end of his thirty or forty yearsnot at the beginning," he gently replied. "On an average, the knowledge then found is about one-fifth of what it was at firstthe process of forgetting going on at a very steady uniform rateand he, who forgets least, gets most honour, and most rewards."

"Then you give him the money when he needs it no longer? And you make him live most of his life on nothing!"

"Hardly that. He gives his orders to the tradesmen: they supply him, for forty, sometimes fifty, years, at their own risk: then he gets his Fellowshipwhich pays him in one year as much as your Fellowships pay in fiftyand then he can easily pay all his bills, with interest."

"But suppose he fails to get his Fellowship? That must occasionally happen."

"That occasionally happens." It was Mein Herr's turn, now, to make admissions.

"And what becomes of the tradesmen?"

"They calculate accordingly. When a man appears to be getting alarmingly ignorant, or