“Sir?”

“The ice to Madame Sagittarius instantly!”

Mr. Ferdinand, who was trembling in every limb at having to assist at such a scene in his dining-room, which had hitherto been the very temple of soft conversation and the most exquisite decorum, advanced towards Madame, clattering the flat silver dish, and causing the frozen delicacy that the cook had elegantly posed upon it to run first this way and then that as if in imitative agitation.

“I cannot,” sobbed Madame, beginning once more to catch her breath.  “At such a moment food becomes repulsive!”

“I assure you our cook’s ice puddings are quite delicious; aren’t they, grannie?”

“I have no idea, Hennessey,” said Mrs. Merillia, who was so upset by the extraordinary scene at which she was presiding in the character of hostess, that she mechanically clutched the left bandeau of her delightful wig, and set it quite a quarter of an inch awry.

“Try it, Madame,” cried the Prophet.  “I implore you to try it.”

Thus adjured Madame detached a large piece of the agile pudding with some difficulty, and subsided into a morose silence, while her husband sat with his eyes fixed imploringly upon her, totally regardless of his social duties.  As both Mrs. Merillia and Lady Julia were by this time thoroughly unnerved, and Sir Tiglath was once more immersed in his food, the whole burden of conversation fell upon the Prophet, who indulged in a feverish monologue that lasted until the end of dinner.  What he talked about he could never afterwards certainly remember, but he had a vague idea that he discussed the foreign relations of England with Madagascar, the probable future of Poland, the social habits of the women of Alaska, the prospects of tobacco culture in West Meath, and the effect that imported Mexicans would be likely to produce upon the natural simplicity of such unsophisticated persons as inhabit Lundy Island or the more remote districts of the Shetlands.  When the ladies at length rose to leave the dining-room his brain was in a whirl and he had little doubt that his temperature was up to 104.  Nevertheless his mind was still active, was indeed preternaturally acute for the moment, and he saw in a flash the impossibility of leaving Madame Sagittarius alone with his grandmother and Lady Julia.  As they got up from their seats he therefore took out his watch and said,—­

“Dear me!  It is later than I had supposed.  I am afraid we ought to be starting for Zoological House.  Mrs. Bridgeman will be expecting us.”

“Certainly, sir, certainly!” said Mr. Sagittarius, with all the alacrity of supreme cowardice, and casting a terror-stricken glance towards Sir Tiglath, who was glowering at him with glassy eyes above a glass of port.  “Mrs. Bridgeman will be expecting us!”

“I will assume my cloak,” said Madame, fiercely.  “Jupiter!”

“My darling!”

“Kindly seek my furs.”