intention of doing business with the bank.
But there might be more inside. I stole up to the curtain, and ventured
to draw the extreme edge of it on one side. No, there was hardly any one
there. I saw a large number of cashiers, all at their desks ready to pay
cheques, and one or two who seemed to be the managing partners. I also
saw my hostess and her daughters and two or three other ladies; also
three or four old women and the boys from one of the neighbouring
Colleges of Unreason; but there was no one else. This did not look as
though the bank was doing a very large business; and yet I had always
been told that every one in the city dealt with this establishment.

I cannot describe all that took place in these inner precincts, for a
sinister-looking person in a black gown came and made unpleasant gestures
at me for peeping. I happened to have in my pocket one of the Musical
Bank pieces, which had been given me by Mrs. Nosnibor, so I tried to tip
him with it; but having seen what it was, he became so angry that I had
to give him a piece of the other kind of money to pacify him. When I had
done this he became civil directly. As soon as he was gone I ventured to
take a second look, and saw Zulora in the very act of giving a piece of
paper which looked like a cheque to one of the cashiers. He did not
examine it, but putting his hand into an antique coffer hard by, he
pulled out a quantity of metal pieces apparently at random, and handed
them over without counting them; neither did Zulora count them, but put
them into her purse and went back to her seat after dropping a few pieces
of the other coinage into an alms box that stood by the cashier's side.
Mrs. Nosnibor and Arowhena then did likewise, but a little later they
gave all (so far as I could see) that they had received from the cashier
back to a verger, who I have no doubt put it back into the coffer from
which it had been taken. They then began making towards the curtain;
whereon I let it drop and retreated to a reasonable distance.

They soon joined me. For some few minutes we all kept silence, but at
last I ventured to remark that the bank was not so busy to-day as it
probably often was. On this Mrs. Nosnibor said that it was indeed
melancholy to see what little heed people paid to the most precious of
all institutions. I could say nothing in reply, but I have ever been of
opinion that the greater part of mankind do approximately know where they
get