"Aramæic, Chaldaic, Syriac, Mesopotamic, Hindoostanee, Gangobramaputric, Sanscrit----"
"For Heaven's sake! Why, that is horrible! What for?"
"Because I was firmly convinced that there must be, somewhere in the convents of Armenia, in the catacombs of Egypt, or elsewhere in the East, a Manuscript which explains the matter. When I had learnt to speak all these languages as fluently as French and German, I began three years ago my great journey to the East. In passing through Italy I searched all the libraries there. In Rome I met the Barnewitz party. This meeting was very disagreeable to me, to tell the truth. I had to accompany them to Sicily, as a matter of politeness. But in Palermo I escaped as soon as I could."
"Ah, that explains your sudden disappearance--the 'Interrupted Sacrifice,' great opera, and so forth."
"'Interrupted Sacrifice?' You never recollected that expression, Cloten?"
"No--'pon honor--an invention of Hortense's; I mean of the Baroness Barnewitz," the young man corrected himself. "She insists upon it--entre nous, baron--that your meeting in Rome was not quite so accidental on your part, and the whole journey from Rome to Palermo--is not that the name of the place--was a perfect triumph for the Berkow; Sacrifice--'Interrupted Sacrifice.' Ha, ha, ha!"
"But I do not understand you, Cloten?"
"Well, entre nous, Hortense has a good deal to say about that journey. For instance, a scene during the passage from Ciproda----"
"Procida, you mean," said Oldenburg.
"Procida, I don't care which. I can't remember all those absurd names. Well, from Procida to Naples."