Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/239

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XIII]
WHAT TOTTLES MEANT.
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"Excuse me for a moment," the old gentleman courteously replied, taking out his pocket-book. "I have a few memoranda here, of a correspondence I had with our tourist, and, if you will allow me, I'll just refresh my memory——although I quite agree with you——it is, as you say, one of the worst of human ills——" And, here Mein Herr began singing again:——

But oh, the worst of human ills
(Poor Tottles found) are 'little bills'!
And with no balance in the Bank,
What wonder that his spirits sank?
Still, as the money flowed away,
He wondered how on earth she spent it.
"You cost me twenty pounds a day,
At least!" cried Tottles (and he meant it).
 
She sighed. "Those Drawing Rooms, you know!
I really never thought about it:
Mamma declared we ought to go——
We should be Nobodies without it.
That diamond-circlet for my brow——
I quite believed that she had sent it,
Until the Bill came in just now——"
"Viper!" cried Tottles (and he meant it).