"Where do you go, dwarf?" he said.
"I go to the Ancient House," he made answer to himself.
"What do you get?"
"I do not go to get; I go to give."
"What do you go to give?"
"I go to leave an empty basket at the door, and the lantern that the
Shopkeeper set in the hand of the pedlar."
"Who is the pedlar, hunchback?"
"The pedlar is he that carries the pack on his back."
"What carries he in the pack?"
"He carries what the Shopkeeper gave him--for he had no money and no
choice."
"Who is the Shopkeeper, dwarf?"
"The Shopkeeper--the Shopkeeper is the father of dwarfs and angels and
children--and fools."
"What does he sell, poor man?"
"He sells harness for men and cattle, and you give your lives for the
harness."
"What is this you carry, dwarf?"
"I carry home the harness of a soul."
"Is it worth carrying home?"
"The eyes grow sick at sight of the old harness in the way."
The watching figure, hearing, pitied.
It was Valmond. Excited by Parpon's last words at the hotel, he had
followed, and was keen to chase this strange journeying to the end,
though suffering from the wound in his head, and shaken by the awful
accident of the evening.
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