The last book of wonder . ng walk backto Persia. 94 The Last Book of Wonder And all this happened thirty years ago,and Shep is an old man now and Shooshanolder, and many mouths have bit with theteeth of Shep (for he has a knack of gettingthem back whenever his customers die),and they have written again to Ali away inthe country of Persia with these words,saying: O Ali. The devil has indeed begottena devil, even that spirit Petrol. And theyoung devil waxeth, and increaseth in lusti-hood and is ten years old and becoming liketo his father. Come therefore and help uswith the ineffable seal. For t
The last book of wonder . ng walk backto Persia. 94 The Last Book of Wonder And all this happened thirty years ago,and Shep is an old man now and Shooshanolder, and many mouths have bit with theteeth of Shep (for he has a knack of gettingthem back whenever his customers die),and they have written again to Ali away inthe country of Persia with these words,saying: O Ali. The devil has indeed begottena devil, even that spirit Petrol. And theyoung devil waxeth, and increaseth in lusti-hood and is ten years old and becoming liketo his father. Come therefore and help uswith the ineffable seal. For there is nonelike AH. And Ah turns where his slaves scatterrose-leaves, letting the letter fall, and deeplydraws from his hookah a puff of the scentedsmoke, right down into his lungs, and sighsit forth and smiles, and lolling round on tohis other elbow speaks comfortably and says,And shall a man go twice to the help of adog? And with these words he thinks no moreof England but ponders again the inscru-table ways of God. 95. The BureauD EchangeDe Maux Soften think of the BureauidEchange de Maux and thejiwondrously evil old man that| sate therein. It stood in aS little street that there is inParis, its doorway made ofthree brown beams of wood, the top oneoverlapping the others like the Greek letterpi, all the rest painted green, a house farlower and narrower than its neighbours andinfinitely stranger, a thing to take onesfancy. And over the doorway on the oldbrown beam in faded yellow letters thislegend ran, Bureau Universel dEchangesde Maux. I entered at once and accosted the listlessman that lolled on a stool by his counter. Idemanded the wherefore of his wonderfulhouse, what evil wares he exchanged, with 96 The Last Book °f Wonder many other things that I wished to know,for curiosity led me; and indeed had it notI had gone at once from the shop, for therewas so evil a look in that fattened man, inthe hang of his fallen cheeks and his sinfuleye, that you would have said he had
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