‘Well, ladies,’ said the Biologist, taking the centre, and reconciling himself very readily to the situation. He fondled and smoothed his periods with undulating gestures of the long sleek freckled hands. ‘You’ve all of you heard, no doubt, of Darwin?’
‘Oh, yes,’ everybody chorussed.
‘What, Sir Julius Darwin, who bought Upton Holes?’
‘No, no, Lord Glendover,’ explained Lady Lillico, ‘one of the Shropshire Darwins—a very well-known scientist.’
‘Ah!’ said Lord Glendover, sinking back and losing all interest.
‘Well, when he traced the relationship between Man and the ... er, Anthropoids....’
‘Oh, please don’t use technical terms, Sir Peter!’ cried Lady Lillico. ‘We’re none of us specialists here.’
‘Well, let us say the manlike apes ... when he had traced the relationship, there was still one place left empty in the ... er ... so to speak, in the genealogical tree.’ The Biologist emitted this with a grin. ‘No remains have ever been found of the hypothetical animal from which man and the apes are descended: and this link, which is still lacking to the completeness of the series, has therefore been called the Missing Link.’
A very young soldier, with a handkerchief sticking out of his sleeve, leaned forward at this point, blushing deeply:
‘Then do I understand you, sir, that we are not actually descended from monkeys?’