“I did not hear all the words,” said the learned gentleman. “I wonder would you recite them to me?”
So they all said together—
“How many miles to Babylon?
Three score and ten!
Can I get there by candle light?
Yes, and back again!”
“I wish one could,” the learned gentleman said with a sigh.
“Can’t you?” asked Jane.
“Babylon has fallen,” he answered with a sigh. “You know it was once a great and beautiful city, and the centre of learning and Art, and now it is only ruins, and so covered up with earth that people are not even agreed as to where it once stood.”
He was leaning on the banisters, and his eyes had a far-away look in them, as though he could see through the staircase window the splendour and glory of ancient Babylon.
“I say,” Cyril remarked abruptly. “You know that charm we showed you, and you told us how to say the name that’s on it?”
“Yes!”
“Well, do you think that charm was ever in Babylon?”