‘Oh no,’ cried Willie; ‘you have forgotten Mr. Dusautoy.’
‘I was afraid you had,’ said Lucy, ‘or you could not have left him to the last.’
‘I am tempted to abdicate,’ said Mr. Ferrars.
‘No,’ Albinia said. ‘He must have his share, and no one but you can do it. Where can he be? the pause becomes awful!’
‘Willie is making suggestions,’ said Gilbert; ‘his imagination would never stretch farther than a lion. It’s what he thinks himself and no mistake.’
‘He is big enough to be the elephant,’ said little Mary.
‘The half-reasoning!’ said Ulick, softly; ‘and I can answer for his trunk, I saw it come off the omnibus.’
‘Ladies and gentlemen, if you persist in such disorderly conduct, the exhibition will close,’ cried the showman, waving his wand as Willie trumpeted Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy in, and on the demand what animal he wanted to see, twitched him as Flibbertigibbet did the giant warder, and caused him to respond—‘The Giraffe.’
‘Has it not another name, sir? A short or a long one, more or less syllables!’
‘Camelopard. A polysyllabic word, certainly,’ said Algernon, looking with a puzzled expression at the laughers behind; and almost imagining it possible that he could have made an error, he repeated, ‘Camel-le-o-pard. Yes, it is a polysyllable’—as, indeed, he had added an unnecessary syllable.