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The Club of Queer Trades | Gilbert K. Chesterton | |
The Noticeable Conduct of Professor Chadd |
Page 10 of 12 |
"I have a suggestion to make," said Basil, and sat down abruptly in his chair, drawing it up to the table. "I am delighted, of course," said the gentleman from the British Museum, coughing and drawing up his chair also. The clock on the mantelpiece ticked for just the moments required for Basil to clear his throat and collect his words, and then he said: "My proposal is this. I do not know that in the strict use of words you could altogether call it a compromise, still it has something of that character. My proposal is that the Government (acting, as I presume, through your Museum) should pay Professor Chadd L800 a year until he stops dancing." "Eight hundred a year!" said Mr Bingham, and for the first time lifted his mild blue eyes to those of his interlocutor--and he raised them with a mild blue stare. "I think I have not quite understood you. Did I understand you to say that Professor Chadd ought to be employed, in his present state, in the Asiatic manuscript department at eight hundred a year?" Grant shook his head resolutely. "No," he said firmly. "No. Chadd is a friend of mine, and I would say anything for him I could. But I do not say, I cannot say, that he ought to take on the Asiatic manuscripts. I do not go so far as that. I merely say that until he stops dancing you ought to pay him L800 Surely you have some general fund for the endowment of research." Mr Bingham looked bewildered. "I really don't know," he said, blinking his eyes, "what you are talking about. Do you ask us to give this obvious lunatic nearly a thousand a year for life?" "Not at all," cried Basil, keenly and triumphantly. "I never said for life. Not at all." |
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The Club of Queer Trades Gilbert K. Chesterton |
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