“This city,” said Frank Gray, “was the scene of the grand military ball before the Battle of Waterloo.
“‘There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium’s capital had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and—’”
“And please don’t quote the reading book,” said Tommy Toby. “The city is full of dog-carts. Dog-carts heaped full of vegetables and women to lead about the dogs! What a comical sight!”
“They are probably country people with produce to sell,” said Wyllys. “What curious head-dresses! What odd jackets! The scene does not much remind one of Byron’s poetry; but it is poetic, after all!”
“I understood that we came here to study the associations of history,” said Frank, “and not dog-carts.”
“I came to see what I could see,” said Tommy, “and not to imagine battles in the air.”
