great-grandfather sometimes tells me I am a little cracked on this
subject of fine building; and indeed I DO think that the energies of
mankind are chiefly of use to them for such work; for in that
direction I can see no end to the work, while in many others a limit
does seem possible."



CHAPTER VI: A LITTLE SHOPPING



As he spoke, we came suddenly out of the woodland into a short street
of handsomely built houses, which my companion named to me at once as
Piccadilly: the lower part of these I should have called shops, if
it had not been that, as far as I could see, the people were ignorant
of the arts of buying and selling. Wares were displayed in their
finely designed fronts, as if to tempt people in, and people stood
and looked at them, or went in and came out with parcels under their
arms, just like the real thing. On each side of the street ran an
elegant arcade to protect foot-passengers, as in some of the old
Italian cities. About halfway down, a huge building of the kind I
was now prepared to expect told me that this also was a centre of
some kind, and had its special public buildings.

Said Dick: "Here, you see, is another market on a different plan
from most others: the upper stories of these houses are used for
guest-houses; for people from all about the country are apt to drift
up hither from time to time, as folk are very thick upon the ground,
which you will see evidence of presently, and there are people who