“Mr Goble! Mr Goble!”
“What is it now?”
“Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet. His name was Khayyam.”
“That wasn’t the way I heard it,” said Mr Goble doggedly. “Did you?” he enquired of Wally. “I thought he was born at Khayyam.”
“You’re probably quite right,” said Wally, “but, if so, everybody else has been wrong for a good many years. It’s usually supposed that the gentleman’s name was Omar Khayyam. Khayyam, Omar J. Born 1050 A.D., educated privately and at Bagdad University. Represented Persia in the Olympic Games of 1072, winning the sitting high-jump and the egg-and-spoon race. The Khayyams were quite a well-known family in Bagdad, and there was a lot of talk when Omar, who was Mrs Khayyam’s pet son, took to drink and writing poetry. They had had it all fixed for him to go into his father’s date business.”
Mr Goble was impressed. He had a respect for Wally’s opinion, for Wally had written “Follow the Girl” and look what a knock-out that had been. He stopped the rehearsal again.
“Go back to that Khayyam speech!” he said, interrupting Lord Finchley in mid-sentence.
The actor whispered a hearty English oath beneath his breath. He had been up late last night, and, in spite of the fair weather, he was feeling a trifle on edge.
“‘In the words of Omar of Khayyam’…”
Mr Goble clapped his hands.