perceived from the first instant would have to be completely
simulated; for instinct told him, as Mr. Peters began to talk,
that he was about to be bored as he had seldom been bored in his
life.

Mr. Peters, in his character of showman, threw himself into his
work with even more than his customary energy. His flow of speech
never faltered. He spoke of the New Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom,
Osiris and Ammon; waxed eloquent concerning Mut, Bubastis,
Cheops, the Hyksos kings, cylinders, bezels and Amenophis III;
and became at times almost lyrical when touching on Queen Taia,
the Princess Gilukhipa of Mitanni, the lake of Zarukhe, Naucratis
and the Book of the Dead. Time slid by.

"Take a look at this, Lord Emsworth."

As one who, brooding on love or running over business projects in
his mind, walks briskly into a lamppost and comes back to the
realities of life with a sense of jarring shock, Lord Emsworth
started, blinked and returned to consciousness. Far away his mind
had been--seventy miles away--in the pleasant hothouses and shady
garden walks of Blandings Castle. He came back to London to find
that his host, with a mingled air of pride and reverence, was
extending toward him a small, dingy-looking something.

He took it and looked at it. That, apparently, was what he was
meant to do. So far, all was well.

"Ah!" he said--that blessed word; covering everything! He
repeated it, pleased at his ready resource.