"Who?"
"Hosea Ballou."
"I doubt if there is such a person," said Mr. Deeley stiffly. He did not appear to be enjoying himself.
"Oh, you do, do you?" retorted Mr. Pottle. "Suppose you look him up in your encyclopedia—if," he added with crushing emphasis—"if you have one. You'll find that Hosea Ballou was born in 1771, founded the Trumpet Magazine, the Universalist Expositor, the Universalist Quarterly Review, and wrote Notes on the Parables."
"What has that to do with baboons?" demanded Mr. Deeley.
"A lot more than you think," was Mr. Pottle's cryptic answer. He turned from the Xenian with a shrug of dismissal, and smiled upon Mrs. Gallup.
"Don't you think, Blossom," he said, "that Babylonia is a fascinating country?"
"Oh, very," she smiled back at him. "I dote on Babylonia."
"Perhaps," suggested Mr. Pottle, "Mr. Deeley will be good enough to tell us all about it."
Mr. Deeley looked extremely uncomfortable.