‘That’s the Pierian Spring.’

‘And what is the wine on my table, sir?’

‘Exhaustless if your verses come of it.’

‘And pure, you may say of the verses and the fount.’

’And neither heady nor over-composed; with a blush like Diana confessing her love for the young shepherd:  it’s one of your own comparisons.’

‘Oh!’ Con could have roared his own comparisons out of hearing.  He was angry with Forbery for his obstructive dulness and would not taste the sneaking compliment.  What could Forbery mean by paying compliments and spoiling a game!  The ten minutes were dancing away like harmless wood-nymphs when the Satyr slumbers.  His eyes ranged over his guests despondently, and fixed in desperation on Mr. Rumford, whom his magnanimous nature would have spared but for the sharp necessity to sacrifice him.

The wine in Rumford at any rate let loose his original nature, if it failed to unlock the animal in these other unexcitable Saxons.

’By the way, now I think of it, Mr. Rumford, the interpretation of your Royal Standard, which perplexes you so much, strikes me as easy if you ‘ll examine the powerfully different colours of the two beasts in it.’

Mr. Rumford protested that he had abandoned his inquiry:  it was a piece of foolishness:  he had no feeling in it whatever, none.

The man was a perfect snail’s horn for coyness.

The circumstances did not permit of his being suffered to slip away:  and his complexion showed that he might already be classed among the roast.

’Your Lion:—­Mr. Rumford, you should know, is discomposed, as a thoughtful patriot, by the inexplicable presence of the Unicorn in the Royal Standard, and would be glad to account for his one horn and the sickly appearance of the beast.  I’m prepared to say he’s there to represent the fair one half of the population.

Your Lion, my dear sir, may have nothing in his head, but his tawniness tells us he imbibes good sound stuff, worthy of the reputation of a noble brewery.  Whereas your, Unicorn, true to the character of the numberless hosts he stands for, is manifestly a consumer of doctor’s drugs.  And there you have the symbolism of your country.  Right or left of the shield, I forget which, and it is of no importance to the point—­you have Grandgosier or Great Turk in all his majesty, mane and tail; and on the other hand, you behold, as the showman says, Dyspepsia.  And the pair are intended to indicate that you may see yourselves complete by looking at them separately; and so your Royal Standard is your national mirror; and when you gaze on it fondly you’re playing the part of a certain Mr. Narcissus, who got liker to the Lion than to the Unicorn in the act.  Now will that satisfy you?’

‘Quite as you please, quite as you please,’ Mr. Rumford replied.  ‘One loves the banner of one’s country—­that is all.’  He rubbed his hands.  ‘I for one am proud of it.’