human
Ah!... All sixpence on that shelf except the one from Oxford. For that I must have two shillings--'t a'n't badly worn, you see.
gpt
What is truth? said John Kenny._) Ben sniffed again.
human
Some pages gone.
gpt
I know. Two shillings is cheap all the same.
human
Why, damme, suppose my brother wishes to know the very things told of in these lost pages?
gpt
Must even look elsewhere. However, merely because I like your face--oh, what if I do die in the almshouse?--buy it for two shillings and you may add a sixpence book for nothing, and I'll tie the both of 'em in a piece of string dissected, sir, from the very rope that hanged Johnny Quelch.
human
Done! Ben grabbed the next volume at random--_Neurologia Universalis_, by Raymond de Vieussens. It looked fat.
gpt
And tie 'em in any string, or do you take me for a mooncalf?
human
Anything but that, old friend! Can't tempt you with Johnny?
gpt
Why, man, Quelch swung there till he rotted and the rope too, and what would I want of his furniture?
human
Only what they say, you know--bit of hanging rope--wonderful fine tonic for the vessels of generation.
gpt
They say that, do they now?
human
Ah, they do, but at your age why should you need it? He winked, and gurgled, and scratched his armpit, and tied the books in a common string.
gpt
I venture you wouldn't believe the number of old men have gone away from here, sir, skipping, sir, with a hank of the rope that hanged Johnny. I must have given away a league of it. You don't mind, I hope, if I talk a certain amount of shit?
human
Thrive on it,