“That seems so cowardly; however, it explains why you pitched on Cutch Behar.”

“There is more connection between geographical place-names and poetical inspiration than is generally recognized; one of the chief reasons why there are so few really great poems about Russia in our language is that you can’t possibly get a rhyme to names like Smolensk and Tobolsk and Minsk.”

Clovis spoke with the authority of one who has tried.

“Of course, you could rhyme Omsk with Tomsk,” he continued; “in fact, they seem to be there for that purpose, but the public wouldn’t stand that sort of thing indefinitely.”

“The public will stand a good deal,” said Bertie malevolently, “and so small a proportion of it knows Russian that you could always have an explanatory footnote asserting that the last three letters in Smolensk are not pronounced. It’s quite as believable as your statement about putting elephants out to grass in the Himalayan range.”