Lifting his glass,
"Your good health," he said, for all answer.
"Have you been in America, too?" went on the other. "No, I suppose not!"
"America? Yes, a few years back, when I was with Brown Bros., they sent
me over one time to buy plant. Nothing so surprising in that, is there?"
"No, no, of course not. I was only thinking--you went about there,
I daresay, and saw all the wonderful things--the miracles of science
they're always producing."
"My dear fellow, if you only knew how deadly sick I am of miracles
of science! What I'm longing for is a country watermill that takes
twenty-four hours to grind a sack of corn."
"What? What do you say?" Langberg bounced in his chair. "Ha-ha-ha!
You're the same old man, I can see."
"I'm perfectly serious," said Peer, lifting his glass towards the other.
"Come. Here's to our old days together!"
"Aye--thanks, a thousand thanks--to our old days together!--Ah,
delicious! Well, then, I suppose you've fallen in love away down there
in the land of the barbarians? Haven't you? Ha-ha-ha!"
"Do you call Egypt a land of barbarians?"
"Well, don't the fellahs still yoke their wives to their ploughs?"
"A fellah will sit all night long outside his hut and gaze up at the
stars and give himself time to dream. And a merchant prince in Vienna
will dictate business letters in his automobile as he's driving to the
theatre, and write telegrams as he sits in the stalls. One fine day
he'll be sitting in his private box with a telephone at one ear and
listening to the opera with the other.
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