"My dear chap," he said, "I am not going to sit here and allow you to
destroy the work of so many hours. There is not the slightest reason to
disturb anything. Unless I am greatly mistaken, Van Sneck will lay his
had upon the ring for us without so much as the sacrifice of a blossom."
"I don't fancy so," Van Sneck replied. "I can't remember."
"Well, you are going to," Bell said, cheerfully. "Did you ever hear of
artificial memory?"
"The sort of thing you get in law courts and political speeches?" David
suggested. "All the same, if you have some patent way of getting at the
facts I shall be only too glad to spare my poor flowers. Their training
has been a labour of love with me."
Bell smoked on quietly for some time. He toyed with the red blossoms
which had so stimulated Van Sneck's recollection, then tossed a spray
over to Van Sneck and suggested that the latter should put it in his
button-hole.
"So as to have the fragrance with you all the time," he said.
Van Sneck obeyed quietly, remarking that the scent was very pungent. The
Dutchman was restless and ill at ease; he seemed to be dissatisfied with
himself--he had the air of a man who has set out with two or three
extremely important matters of business and who has completely forgotten
what one of them is.
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