ess.
I tried to get him to tell me what he thought of the learned horse but
could get nothing out of him. Long; silences make me uncomfortable. I
felt at last that it was better to talk nonsense than not to talk at
all.

"I suppose," I said, "that learned men look almost as grotesque to the
angels as learned horses do to us. I can fancy Raphael watching a German
professor writing a book on the origin of religion. He would feel all
the while that the creature's front paw was meant by nature for nobler
uses."

"Yes," said Ascher, "yes. Quite so."

He spoke vaguely. I think he did not hear what I said. Or perhaps the
learned horse struck him differently. Or his mind may have been entirely
occupied with the problem of Mexican railways so that he could pay no
attention either to the learned horse or to me. If so, he was wakened
from his reverie by the next performance.

A company of acrobats in spangled tights, three men and one young woman,
took possession of the arena. At first they tumbled, turned somersaults,
climbed on each other's shoulders and assumed attitudes which I should
have said beforehand were impossible for any creature with bones. Then
a large net was stretched some six feet from the ground and several
trapezes which had been tied to the roof were allowed to hang down. The
acrobats climbed up by a ladder and swung from one trapeze to another.
The business was commonplace enough, but I became aware that Ascher was
very much interested in it. He became actually excited when we reached
the final act, the climax of the performance.

The programme, at which I glanced, spoke of "The Flying Lady." The
woman, her spangles aglitter in a blaze of lime light, did indubitably
fly, if rushing unsupported through the air at some height from solid
ground is the essence of flying. Two of the men hung on their trapezes,
one by his hands and the other by his legs. They swung backwards and
forwards. The length of the ropes was so great that they passed through
large arcs, approaching each other and then swinging back until there
was a long space between them. The young woman, standing on a third
trapeze, swung too. Suddenly, at the upward end of a swing, just as her
trapeze hung motionless for an instant, she launched herself into the
air. The man on the next trapeze came swinging towards her. She caught
him by the feet at the very moment when he was nearest to her. He swung
back and she dangled below him. When he reache