“Lunch is ready,” he said, “let’s get on to it.”
They passed into the dining-room. Luke observing salmon at one end of the table, and cutlets at the other, asked, with a smile, if those two sentences generally ran concurrently.
“Oh, hold your jaw,” said Dagshaw.
“That’s the way to talk to him,” said Mabel approvingly.
“Yours, too,” Dagshaw added, turning to Mabel. “I’ll do any talking that has to be done. I’m here to talk about my circus. Yes, and to eat ham. Isn’t any? Ought to be. Give me three of those cutlets. You don’t realize what a circus is, you people. It’s a church. It’s a cathedral. It’s more.”
“I hope,” said Luke, “that it’s getting on nicely, and will be a great success.”
“Bound to be. Can’t help it. When I bought the land from the Garden Settlement Syndicate I made it a condition that there should be a clause in every lease granted that a year’s season ticket should be taken for the Mammoth Circus.”
“I don’t quite see,” said Mabel, “how it’s like a church.”
“The circus has a ring. The ring is a circle. The circle is the symbol of eternity. Will anybody be able to see my highly-trained chimpanzee in the trapeze act without realizing as he has never realized before, the meaning of the word uplift? Think of the stars in their program. And by what strenuous discipline and self-denial they have reached their high position.”
“‘Per ardua ad astra,’” quoted Luke.