Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/382

344 The Professor looked at his watch. "Well, I think a thousand years will do to begin with," he said. "Then we will cautiously unhook the weight: and, if it still shows (as perhaps it will) a slight tendency to fall, we will hook it on to the chain again, and leave it for another thousand years."

Here the Empress experienced one of those flashes of Common Sense which were the surprise of all around her. "Meanwhile there'll be time for another Experiment," she said.

"There will indeed!" cried the delighted Professor. "Let us return to the platform, and proceed to the Fourth Experiment!"

"For this concluding Experiment, I will take a certain Alkali, or AcidI forget which. Now you'll see what will happen when I mix it with Some" here he took up a bottle, and looked at it doubtfully, "when I mix it with with Something"

Here the Emperor interrupted. "What's the name of the stuff?" he asked.

"I don't remember the name," said the Professor: "and the label has come off" He emptied it quickly into the other bottle, and,