Mein Herr began thoughtfully balancing his spoon on the edge of his teacup, while he pondered over this request. “Something wonderful—like Fortunatus’s Purse? _That_ will give you—when it is made—wealth beyond your wildest dreams: but it will not give you _Time_!” A pause of silence ensued—utilised by Lady Muriel for the very practical purpose of refilling the teacups. “In _your_ country,” Mein Herr began with a startling abruptness, “what becomes of all the wasted Time?” Lady Muriel looked grave. “Who can tell?” she half-whispered to herself. “All one knows is that it is gone—past recall!” “Well, in _my_—I mean in a country _I_ have visited,” said the old man, “they store it up: and it comes in _very_ useful, years afterwards! For example, suppose you have a long tedious evening before you: nobody to talk to: nothing you care to do: and yet hours too soon to go to bed. How do _you_ behave then?” “I get _very_ cross,” she frankly admitted: “and I want to throw things about the room!” “When that happens to—to the people I have visited, they never act _so_. By a short and simple process—which I cannot explain to you—they store up the useless hours: and, on some _other_ occasion, when they happen to _need_ extra time, they get them out again!” The Earl was listening with a slightly incredulous smile. “Why cannot you _explain_ the process?” he enquired. Mein Herr was ready with a quite unanswerable reason. “Because you have no _words_, in _your_ language, to convey the ideas which are needed. I could explain it in—in—but you would not understand it!” “No indeed!” said Lady Muriel, graciously dispensing with the _name_ of the unknown language. “I never learnt it—at least, not to speak it _fluently_, you know. _Please_ tell us some more wonderful things!” “They run their railway-trains without any engines—nothing is needed but machinery to _stop_ them with. Is _that_ wonderful enough, Miladi?” “But where does the _force_ come from?” I ventured to ask. Mein Herr turned quickly round, to look at the new speaker. Then he took off his spectacles, and polished them, and looked at me again, in evident bewilderment. I could see he was thinking—as indeed _I_ was also—that we _must_ have met before. “They use the force of _gravity_,” he said. “It is a force known also in _your_ country, I believe?” “But that would need a railway going _down-hill_,” the Earl remarked. “You ca’n’t have _all_ your railways going down-hill?” “They _all_ do,” said Mein Herr. “Not from _both_ ends?” “From _both_ ends.” “Then I give it up!” said the Earl. “Can you explain the process?” said Lady Muriel. “Without using that language, that I ca’n’t speak fluently?” “Easily,” said Mein Herr. “Each railway is in a long tunnel, perfectly straight: so of course the _middle_ of it is nearer the centre of the globe than the two ends: so every train runs half-way _down_-hill, and that gives it force enough to run the _other_ half _up_-hill.”