The boy looked up wistfully, and over the face of the philosopher, too,
came a sudden shadow. When Walter grew older? Hand in hand, the two
passed silently out of sight.

'He is a good man, after all,' said the Owl sententiously. And then
there came by a British manufacturer, in a gold watch-chain and patent
creaking leather boots, warranted to creak everywhere without losing
tone.

'Who is that?' asked Queen Mab.

'It is one of the pillars of the Church,' replied the Owl. 'The Dragon's
church, I mean, where he is worshipped by himself. In some places
you may worship St. George and the Dragon together; but in the Stock
Exchange, for instance, you may only worship the Dragon.'

'Is the Dragon very wicked?'

'I don't know,' said the Owl. 'I think he can't be, or else so many
respectable people would not worship him. The professor doesn't, or very
little; but then he doesn't worship St. George either. The people who
worship the Dragon are sometimes called Snobs--not by themselves though;
it is one of the marks of the true Snob that he never knows he is one.
They never call the Dragon by that name either. He has as many other
names as Jupiter used to have, and all the altars, and temples, and
sacrifices are made to him under the other names.'

'Sacrifices!' exclaimed Queen Mab. 'What do they sacrifice?'

'It would be shorter to say what they _don't_ sacrifice,' replied the
Owl. 'Only nobody knows, for many of his worshippers sacrifice anything
and everything. The manufacturer you saw go past--'

'Yes,' said Queen Mab, a good deal impressed, for the owl was speaking
solemnly.

'He is sacrificing the happiness, and even the lives of hundreds of men
and women. Also the playtime of the children and their innocence. As for
his own peace and charity, he sacrificed them long ago. And yet--it is
very strange; he calls himself a worshipper of St. George. You remember,
in very early times there used to be sacrifices to the Dragon.'

'I remember,' said the fairy. 'In wicker baskets. But never anything.
like this!'

'I daresay not,' said the Owl 'We do things on a larger scale now,
sacrifices and all. Everybody prefers, of course, to make sacrifices
of the belongings of other people; but there are certain possessions of
their own that unavoidably go too--as Truth, Sympathy, Justice; abstract
nouns, the names of any quality, property, state or action,' murmured
the Owl, falling unconsciously into his old habit of parsing. '