Page:The Quest Volume 13 (1921-22).djvu/110

 voice. "Incalculable, terrible! Imagine: man endowed with the power to tap out Kultur through the whole cosmos!

"What do you think, most reverend Sir, the moon would be like in a fortnight? Velodromes in every crater-circle and round them fields irrigated with sewage-water! Provided they had not first of all dragged in dramatic 'art,' and thereby once for all soured the ground against any possibility of future vegetation!

"Or do you perhaps long to see the planets connected by telephone during exchange business hours? Or do you fancy the double stars in the Milky Way being obliged to produce legal marriage-certificates?

"No, no, my dear Sir, for a while the universe will still have to put up with the old jog-trot way.

"But let us turn to a more agreeable subject, my dear Doctor. By the by, it's high time for you to wane, I should have said to depart. Well, till we meet again at Magister Wirtzigh's in August, 1914! That's the date of the beginning of the great finish, and we shall certainly not fail to celebrate this catastrophe for mankind in a worthy manner, shall we?"

Already before the last words of Monseigneur were uttered, I had hurried into my livery so as to help the Rev. Dr. Haselmayer with his packing and escort him to his carriage. A moment later I stood in the hall.

But what a sight awaited me there!—his lordship coming out of the library alone, in his arms the Dutch waistcoat, buckle-shoes, silk breeches and tall hat of the Rev. Dr. Haselmayer. The latter had vanished without leaving the slightest trace! Monseigneur entered his bedroom without deigning so much as to look at me, and quietly shut the door behind him.