“After the late hours and the excitement, of course,” said Clovis; “and I said their homes were in the Himalayas. You can have Himalayan elephants in Cutch Behar, I suppose, just as you have Irish-bred horses running at Ascot.”

“You said they were going back to the Himalayas,” objected Bertie.

“Well, they would naturally be sent home to recuperate. It’s the usual thing out there to turn elephants loose in the hills, just as we put horses out to grass in this country.”

Clovis could at least flatter himself that he had infused some of the reckless splendour of the East into his mendacity.

“Is it all going to be in blank verse?” asked the critic.

“Of course not; ‘Durbar’ comes at the end of the fourth line.”