'Dear me!' ejaculated Yellow-cap again.
Hereupon all the Brethren twisted their moustachios, knocked the ashes out of their pipes, refilled them, lighted them, and smoked in silence.
'By the way,' said Yellow-cap at length, 'about the signboard outside the inn-door. I recognise six of the portraits, but where is the seventh? He was the one whose face was the most ugly and disagreeable of all; but I don't see him here.'
'He is here,' said Ruba.
Yellow-cap was going to ask, 'Where?' but Gyp laid his hand upon his arm and whispered in his ear that he must not interrupt until the whole verse had run itself out.
'We have seen him,' continued Dubb.
'The likeness is good,' pronounced Dubsix.
'Flattering,' affirmed Menin.
'I can think of nothing to say,' confessed Atub.
'Come and look in our mirror,' said Gyp, taking Yellow-cap by the arm and leading him to the end of the room.