"
They decided to borrow the Bromwicks' carryall to use, beside
their own, for the first day, and Mr. Peterkin and Agamemnon
drove into town to bring all the teachers out. One was a Russian
gentleman, travelling, who came with no idea of giving lessons,
but perhaps he would consent to do so. He could not yet speak
English.
Mr. Peterkin had his card-case, and the cards of the several
gentlemen who had recommended the different teachers, and he
went with Agamemnon from hotel to hotel collecting them. He
found them all very polite, and ready to come, after the
explanation by signs agreed upon. The dictionaries had been
forgotten, but Agamemnon had a directory, which looked the
same, and seemed to satisfy the foreigners.
Mr. Peterkin was obliged to content himself with the Russian
instead of one who could teach Sanscrit, as there was no new
teacher of that language lately arrived.
But there was an unexpected difficulty in getting the Russian
gentleman into the same carriage with the teacher of Arabic, for
he was a Turk, sitting with a fez on his head, on the back seat!
They glared at each other, and began to assail each other in every
language they knew, none of which Mr. Peterkin could
understand. It might be Russian, it might be Arabic. It was easy to
understand that they would never consent to sit in the same
carriage. Mr. Peterkin was in despair; he had forgotten about the
Russian war! What a mistake to have invited the Turk!
Quite a crowd collected on the sidewalk in front of the hotel.
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