“You are telling me about the ’cello,” said Aubrey, quietly.  “But in order to arrive at the ’cello we had to hear about your visit to the publishers with your mass of manuscript, which resulted from having acquired in Central Africa the useful habit of not needing more than half an hour of sleep in the twenty-four; which, possibly, Dick Cameron did not consider sufficient.  Doctors are apt to be faddy in such matters.  Whereupon you, naturally, told him you were perfectly fit.”

“Ah, yes, I remember,” said Ronnie.  “Am I spinning rather a yarn?”

“Not at all, my dear fellow.  Do not hurry.  We have the whole evening before us—­night, if necessary.  You can put in your half-hour at any time, I suppose; and I can dispense with sleep for once.  It is not often one has the chance of spending a night in the company of a noted author, an African traveller straight from the jungle, and the man who has married one’s favourite cousin.  I am all delighted attention.  What did your friend Dick Cameron say?”

“Well, I met him as I was hurrying back to the hotel, carrying the Infant, who did not appear to advantage in the exceedingly plain brown canvas bag which was all they could give me at Zimmermann’s.  When I get home I shall consult Helen, and we shall order the best case procurable.”

“Naturally.  Probably Helen will advise a bassinet by night, and a perambulator by day.”

Ronnie looked perplexed.  “Why a bassinet?” he said.

“The Infant, you know.”

“Oh—­ah, yes, I see.  Well, of course I wanted to introduce the Infant properly to Dick Cameron, but he objected when I began taking it out of its bag in the street.  He suggested that it might take cold—­it certainly is a dank day.  Also that there are so many by-laws and regulations in Leipzig connected with things you may not do in the streets, that probably if you took a ’cello out of its case and stood admiring it in the midst of the crowded thoroughfare, you would get run in by a policeman.  Dick said:  ’Arrest of the Infant of Prague in the Streets of Leipzig’ would make just the kind of sensational headline beloved by newspapers.  I realised that he was right.  It would have distressed Helen, besides being a most unfortunate way for her to hear first of the Infant.  Helen is a great stickler for respectability.”

Aubrey Treherne’s pale countenance turned a shade paler.  His thin lips curved into the semblance of a smile.

“Ah, yes,” he said, “of course.  Helen is a great stickler for respectability.  Well?  So you gave up undressing your Infant in the street?”

Again Ronnie’s eager face took on a look of perplexity.

“I did not propose undressing it,” he said.

“I only wanted to take it out of its bag.”

“I see.  Quite a simple matter.  Well?  Owing to our absurd police regulations you were prevented from doing this.  What happened next?”

“Dick suggested that we should go to his rooms.  Arrived there he ceased to take any interest in my ’cello, clapped me into a chair, and stuck a beastly thermometer into my mouth.”