"You want me to be serious?"
"I've been in London for five days. Last night I was at a theatre. Then a woman spoke to me in the street. I don't understand it."
"What don't you understand?"
"I don't understand anything."
The bookman began to be interested.
"Have you any money?" he briefly inquired.
Peter pulled out a bundle of notes. "Are these any good?" he asked.
The bookman looked at the notes, and at Peter with added interest.
"This is remarkable," he decided. "You seem to be in good health, and you carry paper money about with you as if it were rejected manuscript. Yet you want to know what's wrong with the world. Have you read anything?"