nger support
the suspense. The classical and learned doubts that beset me grew
intensely painful; and arising with the greatest caution, in order
not to alarm the speakers, I prepared to put an end to them all by the
simple and natural process of actual observation.

The voices came from the antechamber, the door of which was slightly
open. Throwing on a dressing-gown, and thrusting my feet into slippers,
I moved on tiptoe to the aperture, and placed my eye in such a situation
as enabled me to command a view of the persons of those who were still
earnestly talking in the adjoining room. All surprise vanished the
moment I found that the four monkeys were grouped in a corner of the
apartment, where they were carrying on a very animated dialogue, the two
oldest of the party (a male and a female) being the principal speakers.
It was not to be expected that even a graduate of Oxford, although
belonging to a sect so proverbial for classical lore that many of them
knew nothing else, could at the first hearing decide upon the analogies
and character of a tongue that is so little cultivated even in that
ancient sea of learning. Although I had now certainly a direct clew to
the root of the dialect of the speakers, I found it quite impossible to
get any useful acquaintance with the general drift of what was passing
among them. As they were my guests, however, and might possibly be in
want of some of the conveniences that were necessary to their habits, or
might even be suffering under still graver embarrassments, I conceived
it to be a duty to waive the ordinary usages of society, and at once
offer whatever it was in my power to bestow, at the risk of interrupting
concerns that they might possibly wish to consider private. Using the
precaution, therefore, to make a little noise, as the best means of
announcing my approach, the door was gently opened, and I presented
myself to view. At first I was a little at a loss in what manner to
address the strangers; but believing that a people who spoke a language
so difficult of utterance and so rich as that I had just heard, like
those who use dialects derived from the Slavonian root, were most
probably the masters of all others; and remembering, moreover, that
French was a medium of thought among all polite people, I determined to
have recourse to that tongue. "Messieurs et mesdames," I said,
inclining my body in salutation, "mille pardons four cette intrusion feu
convenable"--but as I am