Rosalie looked dubious, and her eyes travelled to the imposing-looking book-shelves.
“I never found anyone quite to come up to Ally Krimjo,” she replied regretfully.
“You refuse my offer?”
“Not if you give me something interesting. But as a rule I don’t like biographies, because the people always die. Now, Ally Krimjo—”
“You’re quite right,” said Mr. Barringcourt grimly. “Ally Krimjo hasn’t died, so he deserves to live. Have you the Book of Divine Inspiration?”
“Oh, yes! I don’t suppose there’s anyone without that?”
“Here’s one with pictures; look at it.”
He took down from a shelf a heavy and ponderous volume of the Book of Divine Inspiration, as written and compiled in the planet Lucifram, and carried it without the least apparent effort to the table.
“Now come and look at the pictures. I’ll show you a few, and then you can take it away with you and look at the rest.”
He opened it at the first page—the frontispiece. It was a picture of the Golden Serpent, so lifelike that its appearance was most startling. The book, likewise, must have possessed the property of magnifying all contained in it, for suddenly the head and coils and tails seemed to enlarge to the same gigantic size as that within the temple.