“She used to make Paul ill——” Mrs. Sixsmith began, but stopped discreetly. “Oh, listen,” she murmured, glancing up towards the nigger band and insouciantly commencing to hum.
“What is it...?”
“It’s the Belle of Benares—
“‘My other females all yellow, fair or black,
To thy charms shall prostrate fall,
As every kind of elephant does
To the white elephant Buitenack.
And thou alone shall have from me,
Jimminy, Gomminy, whee, whee, whee,
The Gomminy, Jimminy, whee.’”