Page:Carroll - Tangled Tale.djvu/133

apart, let me thank Old Cat for some very kind words of sympathy, in reference to a correspondent (whose name I am happy to say I have now forgotten) who had found fault with me as a discourteous critic. O. V. L. is beyond my comprehension. He takes the given equations as (1) and (2): thence, by the process [(2)-(1)] deduces (rightly) equation (3) viz. $\scriptstyle s\ +\ 3b\ =\ 3$: and thence again, by the process [×3] (a hopeless mystery), deduces $\scriptstyle 3s\ +\ 4b\ =\ 4$. I have nothing to say about it: I give it up. Sea-Breeze says "it is immaterial to the answer" (why?) "in what proportion 3d. is divided between the sandwich and the 3 biscuits": so she assumes s = 1½d., b = ½d. Stanza is one of a very irregular metre. At first she (like Janet) identifies sandwiches with biscuits. She then tries two assumptions ($\scriptstyle s\ =\ 1,\ b\ =\ {\frac {2}{3}}$, and $\scriptstyle s\ =\ {\frac {1}{2}},\ b\ =\ {\frac {5}{6}}$), and (naturally) ends in contradictions. Then she returns to the first assumption, and finds the 3 unknowns separately: quod est absurdum. Stiletto identifies sandwiches and biscuits, as "articles." Is the word ever used by confectioners? I fancied "What is the next article, Ma'am?" was limited to linendrapers. Two Sisters first assume that biscuits are 4 a penny, and then that they are 2 a penny, adding that "the answer will of course be the same in both cases." It is a dreamy