Page:Erewhon-1872-003.djvu/82

but I seldom saw him, and Yram and I generally found other things to talk about.

Another month flew by, during which I made such progress in the language, that I could understand all that was said to me, and even express myself with tolerable fluency. My instructor professed to be astonished with the progress I had made, which I was careful to attribute to the pains he had taken with me, and to his admirable method of explaining my difficulties; so we became excellent friends.

My visitors became more and more frequent. Among them there were some, both men and women, who delighted me entirely by their simplicity, unconsciousness of self, kindly genial manners, and last, but not least, by their exquisite beauty; there came others less well-bred, but still comely and agreeable people, while some were snobs pure and simple.

At the end of the third month, the jailor and my instructor came together to visit me, and told me that communications had been received from the Government to the effect that if I had behaved well and seemed generally reasonable, and if there could be no suspicion at all about my bodily health and vigour, and if my hair was really light, and my eyes blue and complexion fresh, I was to be sent up at once to the metropolis, in order that the king and queen might see me and converse with me; but that, when I arrived there, I should be set at liberty, and that a suitable allowance would be made me. My teacher also told me that one of the leading merchants had sent me an invitation to repair to his house, and to consider myself his guest for as long a time as I chose. “He is a delightful