At last, by pointing to a large one that had a green ground, and saying, "Color like that," and then to a small one of a different kind, and saying, "Small, like that," the shopman began to understand.
"Yes, sir," said the shopman; "yes, sir; I understand. Must one make--make. See!"
So saying, the shopman opened a door in the back side of the shop, and showed Rollo and Charles the entrance to a room in the rear, where the boys had heard before the sound of a continual thumping, and where now they saw several silk looms, with girls at work at them, weaving scarfs.
"Ah, yes," said Rollo. "You mean that you can make me one. That will be a good plan, Charley," he added. "Lucy will like it all the better if I tell her it was made on purpose for her.
"When can you have it done?" asked Rollo.
"Yes, sir," said the shopman, bowing and smiling; "yes, sir; yes, sir."
"Ah, yes, sir," said the shopman. "The time. All time, every time. Yesterday."
"To-morrow," said the man, correcting himself. He had said yesterday by mistake for to-morrow. "To-morrow. To-morrow he will be ready--the scarf."
"What time to-morrow shall I come?" asked Rollo.
"Yes, sir," said the shopman, bowing again, and smiling in a very complacent manner. "Yes, sir, to-morrow."
"But what _time_ to-morrow?" repeated Rollo, speaking very distinctly, and emphasizing very strongly the word _time_. "What time?"
"O, every time," said the man; "all time. You shall have him every time to-morrow, because you see he will make begin the work on him this day."
"Very well," said Rollo, "then I will come to-morrow, about noon."
So Rollo and Charles bade the shopman good by, and went out of the shop.
"Is that what they call speaking English?" asked Charles.
"So it seems," said Rollo. "Sometimes they speak a great deal worse than that, and yet call it speaking English."
So Rollo and Charles got into the carriage again. Rollo took out his wallet, and made a memorandum of the name of the shop where he had engaged the sash, and of the street and number. The coachman sat quietly upon his seat, waiting for Rollo to finish his writing, and expecting then to receive directions where he was to go.
"If I could only find a commissioner that speaks French or English," said Rollo, "I could tell him what we want, and he could tell the coachman, and in that way we should soon get home."