The boys looked round with less enthusiasm. "Number nine is the first with a card," said prosaic Lambert; but Balbus would not so soon awake from his dream of beauty.
"See, boys!" he cried. "Twenty doors on a side! What symmetry! Each side divided into twenty-one equal parts! It's delicious!"
"Shall I knock, or ring?" said Hugh, looking in some perplexity at a square brass plate which bore the simple inscription "RING ALSO."
"Both," said Balbus. "That's an Ellipsis, my boy. Did you never see an Ellipsis before?"
"I couldn't hardly read it," said Hugh, evasively. "It's no good having an Ellipsis, if they don't keep it clean."
"Which there is one room, gentlemen," said the smiling landlady. "And a sweet room too! As snug a little back-room——"
"We will see it," said Balbus gloomily, as they followed her in. "I knew how it would be! One room in each house! No view, I suppose?"
"Which indeed there is, gentlemen!" the landlady indignantly protested, as she drew up the blind, and indicated the back garden.
"Cabbages, I perceive," said Balbus. "Well, they're green, at any rate."
"Which the greens at the shops," their hostess explained, "are by no means dependable upon. Here you has them on the premises, and of the best."