"Like standing in the past, and looking into the present?" Craik romantically suggested.
"Yes, it's like that. But I mean the people, the way they look so far off and blue, as if they were under water. There's something else it reminds me of."
"A tank at an aquarium, when you look through the plate glass?"
"Yes, it is like that, really!"
"With Professors and Heads of Houses swimming about like old fat carp."
"Oh, Mr. Craik, how can you? For shame!"
She paused again when she got through the archway.
"Tell me, Mr. Craik," she said, "is this the tower you live in? And the gargoyle you told me about? I should so like to see him. He must be charming. That face up there, peering over the roof? Oh yes, I see. How too delightful! My! isn't that quaint? Just think, he looks back on the past, and on the present, and on the town; and it symbolizes—symbolizes—Life, doesn't it?"
"Yes,—perhaps it does," Craik said rather dubiously.
"He hasn't exactly a kind expression," said Miss Lamb, looking up again.