Some say that the cat knows him and follows
him; at all events when he makes a move the cat generally jumps towards
him soon afterwards."
"You give him a very high character."
"Yes, but I have my doubts about his doing much in this matter; he is
getting old, and Hanky burrows like a mole night and day. There is no
knowing how it will all end."
"And the people at Sunch'ston? Has it got well about among them, in
spite of your admirable article, that it was the Sunchild himself who
interrupted Hanky?"
"It has, and it has not. Many of us know the truth, but a story came
down from Bridgeford that it was an evil spirit who had assumed the
Sunchild's form, intending to make people sceptical about Sunchildism;
Hanky and Panky cowed this spirit, otherwise it would never have
recanted. Many people swallow this."
"But Hanky and Panky swore that they knew the man."
"That does not matter."
"And now please, how long have you been married?"
"About ten months."
"Any family?"
"One boy about a fortnight old. Do come down to Sunch'ston and see
him--he is your own nephew. You speak Erewhonian so perfectly that no
human being would suspect you were a foreigner, and you look one of us
from head to foot. I can smuggle you through quite easily, and my mother
would so like to see you.
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