me
out politely.

The observation seems hard, after thinking over guns so intently;
yet it must be aggravating to attempt to serve a man who does not
know what he wants--yet (one's mood changes quickly) it was his
own fault for trying to force, to positively force, that
twenty-five-guinea thing on me instead of giving me a chance to
choose. I had seen rows on rows of guns stacked round the shop, rank
upon rank; in the background a door partly open permitted a glimpse
of a second room, also perfectly coated with guns, if such an
expression is permissible. Now, I look on ranges of guns like this
much the same as on a library. Is there anything so delicious as the
first exploration of a great library--alone--unwatched? You shut the
heavy door behind you slowly, reverently, lest a noise should jar on
the sleepers of the shelves. For as the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
were dead and yet alive, so are the souls of the authors in the care
of their ancient leathern binding. You walk gently round the walls,
pausing here to read a title, there to draw out a tome and support
it for a passing glance--half in your arms, half against the shelf.
The passing glance lengthens till the weight becomes too great, and
with a sigh you replace it, and move again, peering up at those
titles which are foreshortened from the elevation of the shelf, and
so roam from folio to octavo, from octavo to quarto, till at last,
finding a little work whose value, were it in the mart, would be
more than its weight in gold, you bear it to the low leather-covered
arm-chair and enjoy it at your ease. But to sip the full pleasure of
a library you must be alone, and you must take the books yourself
from the shelves. A man to read must read alone. He may make
extracts, he may _work_ at books in company; but to read, to absorb,
he must be solitary. Something in the same way--except in the
necessity for solitude, which does not exist in this case--I like to
go through a battery of guns, picking up this one, or that, glancing
up one, trying the locks of another, examining the thickness of the
breech. Why did not the fellow say, 'There are our guns; walk round,
take down what you please, do as you like, and don't hurry. I will
go on with some work while you examine them. Call me if you want any
explanation. Spend the day there if you like, and come again
to-morrow.' It would have been a hundred chances to one that I had
found a gun to suit D., for the shop was a famou