“To say nothing of catechising a man on the subject of an old and dreadful scandal,” put in Munchausen.  “I’m surprised at you, Livingstone.  African etiquette seems to have ruined your sense of propriety.”

“I’d just as lief ask him,” said Doctor Johnson.  “Etiquette?  Bah!  What business has etiquette to stand in the way of human knowledge?  Conventionality is the last thing men of brains should strive after, and I, for one, am not going to be bound by it.”

Here Doctor Johnson touched the electric bell, and in an instant the shade of a buttons appeared.

“Boy, is Adam in the club-house to-day?” asked the sage.

“I’ll go and see, sir,” said the boy, and he immediately departed.

“Good boy that,” said Thackeray.

“Yes; but the service in this club is dreadful, considering what we might have,” said Darwin.  “With Aladdin a member of this club, I don’t see why we can’t have his lamp with genii galore to respond.  It certainly would be more economical.”

“True; but I, for one, don’t care to fool with genii,” said Munchausen.  “When one member can summon a servant who is strong enough to take another member and do him up in a bottle and cast him into the sea, I have no use for the system.  Plain ordinary mortal shades are good enough for me.”

As Munchausen spoke, the boy returned.

“Mr. Adam isn’t here to-day, sir,” he said, addressing Doctor Johnson.  “And Charon says he’s not likely to be here, sir, seeing as how his account is closed, not having been settled for three months.”

“Good,” said Thackeray.  “I was afraid he was here.  I don’t want to have him asked about his Eden experiences in my behalf.  That’s personality.”

“Well, then, there’s only one other thing to do,” said Darwin.  “Munchausen claims to be able to speak Simian.  He might seek out some of the prehistoric monkeys and put the question to them.”

“No, thank you,” said Munchausen.  “I’m a little rusty in the language, and, besides, you talk like an idiot.  You might as well speak of the human language as the Simian language.  There are French monkeys who speak monkey French, African monkeys who talk the most barbarous kind of Zulu monkey patois, and Congo monkey slang, and so on.  Let Johnson send his little Boswell out to drum up information.  If there is anything to be found out he’ll get it, and then he can tell it to us.  Of course he may get it all wrong, but it will be entertaining, and we’ll never know any difference.”

Which seemed to the others a good idea, but whatever came of it I have not been informed.

CHAPTER VII:  A DISCUSSION AS TO LADIES’ DAY

“I met Queen Elizabeth just now on the Row,” said Raleigh, as he entered the house-boat and checked his cloak.

“Indeed?” said Confucius.  “What if you did?  Other people have met Queen Elizabeth.  There’s nothing original about that.”