Beaumont looked in astonishment at the old man, glibly running off this fantastic list.
"And since the pauper stage?" he asked, smothering a smile.
"I have been re-incarnated in this present form," responded the squire, gravely; "it is because I experienced poverty in my last existence that I am saving money now."
"I don't understand."
"To keep myself during my next incarnation."
The artist was becoming quite bewildered at hearing this farrago of nonsense uttered in such a serious tone. However the conversation was so extraordinary that he could not forbear humouring the madman.
"A very laudable intention," he said, quietly, "but as you will be someone else in your next incarnation, how are you going to claim Squire Garsworth's money?"
"Ah!" responded the squire, with a cunning smile, "that is my secret; I have arranged all that in a most admirable way. I can claim my own money without any trouble."
"But suppose you are born a savage?"
"I will not be born a savage--that would be retrogression, and spirits never retrograde."