Page:Erewhon-1872-003.djvu/131

nunciation, wherein I am told that the slightest change in accentuation or tone of voice alters the meaning of a whole sentence. Whatever is incoherent in my description must be referred to the fact of my never having attained to a full comprehension of the subject.

So far however as I could collect anything certain, they appeared to have two entirely distinct currencies, each under the control of its own banks and mercantile codes. The one of them (the one with the musical banks) was supposed to be the system, and to give out the currency in which all monetary transactions should be carried on: as far as I could see, all who wished to be considered respectable, did keep a certain amount of this currency at these banks: on the other hand if there is one thing of which I am more sure of than another it is that the amount so kept was but a very small part of their possessions. I think they took the money, put it into the bank, and then drew it out again, repeating the process day by day, and keeping a certain amount of currency for this purpose and no other, while they paid the expenses of the bank with the other coinage. I am sure that the managers and cashiers of the musical banks were not paid in their own currency. Mr Nosnibor used to go to these musical banks, or rather to the great mother bank of the city, sometimes but not very often. He was a pillar of one of the other banks, though he appeared to hold some minor office also in these. The ladies generally went alone; as indeed was the case in most families, except on stated occasions.

I had long wanted to know more of this strange