They sat down awhile on the side of the road, and Cæsar entertained himself deciphering the inscriptions written in charcoal on a mud-wall.
“Do you go in for modern epigraphy?” asked Kennedy.
“Yes. It is one of the things I take pleasure in reading, in the towns I go to; the advertisements in the newspapers and the writings on the wall.”
“It’s a good kind of curiosity.”
“Yes, I believe one learns more about the real life in a town from such inscriptions than from the guide- and text-books.”
“That’s possible. And what conclusions have you drawn from your observations?”
“They are not of much value. I haven’t constructed a science of wall-inscriptions, as that fake Lambroso would have done.”
“But you will construct it surely, when you have lighted on the underlying system.”
“You think my epigraphical science is on the same level as my financial science. What a mistake!”
“All right. But tell me what you have discovered about different towns.”