In fact, when presently he suddenly laid a hand over my eyes and then let go of my head with a pleasantly put question as to how I felt, I had no difficulty whatever in answering him in his own tongue, and rose from the ground as one gets from a hair-dresser's chair, with a vague idea of looking round for my hat and offering him his fee.
"My word, sir!" I said, in lisping Martian, as I pulled down my cuffs and put my cravat straight, "that was a quick process.

I once heard of a man who learnt a language in the moments he gave each day to having his boots blacked; but this beats all.

I trust I was a docile pupil ?" "Oh, fairly, sir," answered the soft, musical voice of the strange being by me; "but your head is thick and your brain tough.

I could have taught another in half the time." "Curiously enough," was my response, "those are almost the very words with which my dear old tutor dismissed me the morning I left college.
Never mind, the thing is done.

Shall I pay you anything ?" "I do not understand." "Any honorarium, then?
Some people understand one word and not the other." But the boy only shook his head in answer.
Strangely enough, I was not greatly surprised all this time either at the novelty of my whereabouts or at the hypnotic instruction in a new language just received.