"And tell him, moreover, what you and
the old female Bridgeman have been about together?"
"Nothing, sir; I swear that Mrs. Bridgeman and myself have never--"
"Never made investigations into the possibility of there being oxygen in
many of the holy stars? Do you affirm that, sir?"
"I do!" cried Mr. Sagittarius. "I am an outside broker."
"Do you affirm that you are no astronomer, sir? Do you declare that you
are not a man of science?"
"I do! I do!"
"Not an astronomer of remarkable attainments, but very modest and
retiring withal? Oh-h-h!"
"Modest and retiring, sir?" cried Mr. Sagittarius, suddenly illumined
by a ray of hope. "That's just it! I am a modest and retiring outside
broker, sir."
And he violently endeavoured to prove the truth of the words by escaping
forthwith into obscurity.
"There never was a modest and retiring outside broker!" bellowed Sir
Tiglath. "There never was, and there never will be. The old--"
"What's that?" interrupted Mr. Sagittarius. "Whatever's that?"
For at this moment an extraordinary hum of voices made itself audible
above the fifty guitars, and a noise of many feet trampling eagerly upon
Mrs.
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