The horror of the fact suggested passed directly into indignation at the suggestion of it. They turned on the Biologist, demanding an explanation. The little General voiced the public feeling. He shot up out of his chair, and shook the tall savant violently by the lappels of his coat.
‘Have you been drinking, sir? Do you know that there are ladies present?’
A chorus of inarticulate wrath went up. They crowded scowling round the frightened Parchmin, women with folded arms, men with their hands thrust deep down into their trouser pockets.
‘Now then sir, explain yourself!’ said the General; ‘what do you mean by a tail?’
‘Da ... da ... did I say a tail?’
The General shook him again. ‘You know you did!’
‘I ... I ... I ... I didn’t mean a tail,’ stammered the Biologist; ‘not in the ordinary sense....’
‘You said tail, sir!’
‘I didn’t mean an ... an ... an actual prolongation of the caudal vertebrae.’
‘Well, what did you mean, then?’