No More Learning

He settled himself comfortably on Torpenhow's table and turned over the
pages.

"What a fortune you would have been to Blake, Nilghai! " he said.
"There's a succulent pinkness about some of these sketches that's
more than life-like. 'The Nilghai surrounded while bathing by the
Mahdieh'--that was founded on fact, eh? "

"It was very nearly my last bath, you irreverent dauber. Has Binkie come
into the Saga yet? "

"No; the Binkie-boy hasn't done anything except eat and kill cats.
Let's see. Here you are as a stained-glass saint in a church. Deuced
decorative lines about your anatomy; you ought to be grateful for being
handed down to posterity in this way. Fifty years hence you'll exist in
rare and curious facsimiles at ten guineas each. What shall I try this
time? The domestic life of the Nilghai? "

"Hasn't got any.
"

"The undomestic life of the Nilghai, then. Of course. Mass-meeting of
his wives in Trafalgar Square. That's it. They came from the ends of the
earth to attend Nilghai's wedding to an English bride. This shall be an
epic. It's a sweet material to work with. "

"It's a scandalous waste of time," said Torpenhow.

"Don't worry; it keeps one's hand in--specially when you begin without
the pencil. " He set to work rapidly. "That's Nelson's Column. Presently
the Nilghai will appear shinning up it. "

"Give him some clothes this time. "

"Certainly--a veil and an orange-wreath, because he's been married. "

"Gad, that's clever enough! " said Torpenhow over his shoulder, as Dick
brought out of the paper with three twirls of the brush a very fat back
and labouring shoulder pressed against stone.