The Professor laughed a jolly laugh. “Oh, he’s quite tame!” he said. “He never bites. He’s only a little—a little _dreamy_, you know.” He took hold of Bruno’s other hand, and led the children down a long passage I had never noticed before—not that there was anything remarkable in _that_: I was constantly coming on new rooms and passages in that mysterious Palace, and very seldom succeeded in finding the old ones again. Near the end of the passage the Professor stopped. “This is his room,” he said, pointing to the solid wall. “We ca’n’t get in through _there_!” Bruno exclaimed. Sylvie said nothing, till she had carefully examined whether the wall opened anywhere. Then she laughed merrily: “You’re playing us a trick, you dear old thing!” she said. “There’s no _door_ here!” “There isn’t any door to the room,” said the Professor. “We shall have to climb in at the window.” [Illustration: THE OTHER PROFESSOR] So we went into the garden, and soon found the window of the Other Professor’s room. It was a ground-floor window, and stood invitingly open: the Professor first lifted the two children in, and then he and I climbed in after them. The Other Professor was seated at a table, with a large book open before him, on which his forehead was resting: he had clasped his arms round the book, and was snoring heavily. “He usually reads like that,” the Professor remarked, “when the book’s very interesting: and then sometimes it’s very difficult to get him to attend!” This seemed to be one of the difficult times: the Professor lifted him up, once or twice, and shook him violently: but he always returned to his book the moment he was let go of, and showed by his heavy breathing that the book was as interesting as ever. “How dreamy he is!” the Professor exclaimed. “He must have got to a _very_ interesting part of the book!” And he rained quite a shower of thumps on the Other Professor’s back, shouting “Hoy! Hoy!” all the time. “Isn’t it _wonderful_ that he should be so dreamy?” he said to Bruno. “If he’s always as _sleepy_ as that,” Bruno remarked, “a _course_ he’s dreamy!” “But what are we to _do_?” said the Professor. “You see he’s quite wrapped up in the book!” “Suppose oo _shuts_ the book?” Bruno suggested. “That’s it!” cried the delighted Professor. “Of course that’ll do it!” And he shut up the book so quickly that he caught the Other Professor’s nose between the leaves, and gave it a severe pinch. The Other Professor instantly rose to his feet, and carried the book away to the end of the room, where he put it back in its place in the book-case. “I’ve been reading for eighteen hours and three-quarters,” he said, “and now I shall rest for fourteen minutes and a half. Is the Lecture all ready?” “Very nearly,” the Professor humbly replied. “I shall ask you to give me a hint or two—there will be a few little difficulties——” “And a Banquet, I think you said?”