power, and he is kindly furnishing us with one. This
is an experience which I think our friend over there [_looking towards_
Mr Germsell] would find it difficult to classify.

_Germsell_. Fussle, have the goodness to step here for a moment--[_points
to a woman beating a carpet in the back-yard of an adjoining house_].
That is the tom-tom in the Himalayas they are listening to.

_Fussle_. Well, now, do you know, I don't feel quite sure of that. I
was certainly conscious of a sort of internal hearing of something when
you called me, which was not that; it was as though I had fiddlestrings
in my head and somebody was beginning to strum upon them.

_Germsell_. Fiddlestrings indeed--say rather fiddlesticks. I am
surprised at a sensible man like yourself listening to such nonsense.

_Fussle_ [_testily_]. It is much greater nonsense for you to tell me I
don't hear something I do hear, than for me to hear something you can't
hear. You may be deaf, while my sense of hearing may be evolving. Can
you hear what Lord Fondleton is saying to Mrs Gloring at this moment?

_Germsell_. No, and I don't want to.

_Fussle_. Ah, there it is. You won't hear anything you don't want to.
Now I can, and he ought not to say it;--look how she is blushing. Oh, I
forgot you are short-sighted. Well, you see, I can hear further than
you, and see further than you. Why should you set a limit on the
evolution of the senses, and say that no man in the future can ever hear
or see further than men have in the past? How dare you, sir, with your
imperfect faculties and your perfunctory method of research, which can
only cover an infinitesimal period in the existence of this planet,
venture to limit the potentialities of those laws which have already
converted us from ascidians into men, and which may as easily evolve in
us the faculty of hearing tom-toms in the Himalayas while we are sitting
here, as of that articulate speech or intelligent reasoning which, owing
to their operation, we now possess?

_Germsell_. Pardon me, you do not possess them, Mr Fussle.

_Lady Fritterly_. Mr Fussle, might I ask you to take this cup of tea to
Mrs Allmash? Mr Germsell, it would be too kind of you to hand Mrs
Gloring the cake.

_Fussle_ [_savagely_]. We will continue this conversation at the
Minerva.

_Mrs Allmash_ [_apart to the_ Khoja]. Oh, Mr Allyside, I am so glad to
hear that you speak English so perfectly! I want you to tell me all
about