Hullo! here comes Bastin." Bastin it was, dishevelled and looking much the worse for wear, also minus his Bible in the native tongue.
"Well, how have you been getting on ?" said Bickley.
"I should like some tea, also anything there is to eat." We supplied him with these necessaries, and after a while he said slowly and solemnly: "I cannot help thinking of a childish story which Bickley told or invented one night at your house at home.

I remember he had an argument with my wife, which he said put him in mind of it, I am sure I don't know why.

It was about a monkey and a parrot that were left together under a sofa for a long while, where they were so quiet that everybody forgot them.

Then the parrot came out with only one feather left in its tail and none at all on its body, saying, 'I've had no end of a time!' after which it dropped down and died.

Do you know, I feel just like that parrot, only I don't mean to die, and I think I gave the monkey quite as good as he gave me!" "What happened ?" I asked, intensely interested.
"Oh! the Glittering Lady took me into that palace hall where Oro was sitting like a spider in a web, and left me there.