'Would you commit suicide?' demanded Menin.
'Be guilty of treason?' hiccoughed Atub, who had swallowed some smoke the wrong way.
'Good gracious!' was all that poor Yellow-cap was able to reply.
'Allow me to explain,' interposed Gyp courteously. 'The Seven Brethren are the outcome of an artificial civilisation. It is our strength and also our weakness that we never seem to be what we are. Our laws are binding because they are irrational. Our power is great because it is an imposition. Our respectability is perfect because it is a fraud. We gain our ends because our ends are ourselves. Our union is strong because it depends on mutual distrust. In a word, we are the Everlasting Unreality! Have you understood me?'
'Not in the least,' replied Yellow-cap.
''Tis well. No one of us understands either himself or his brother. He who understands or is understood is anathema.'
'Dear me!' ejaculated Yellow-cap.
'You have heard of the cap of invisibility?'
'I believe so.'
'The yellow cap is more wondrous yet—it is only when you put it on that you can be seen—at all events by the world.'