‘I’m not doing anything at present,’ said the elephant, ‘but when I do, I shall do it very well. Who asked you to come?’ ‘Nobody exactly,’ said David, feeling rather uncomfortable. ‘I—I understood I was to.’ ‘Have you brought your card?’ asked the elephant. David looked down and found he was in his sailor clothes again, and pulled a handful of cards out of his pocket. ‘Yes, I’ve got lots of them,’ he said, ‘and all yours too.’ ‘Then introduce yourself,’ said the elephant. ‘I’m David Blaize,’ said David. ‘I knew that. Now introduce me, and there we are. In order to introduce me properly, you must say “Elegant Elephant” six times over without stopping, or squinting, or stuttering. Now begin.’ ‘Elegant Elephant, Ephalent Egalent, Egaphent Elelant, Ephagant Legegant, Ephephant Ephegal, Egantel Ephantel,’ said David all in one breath. There was an awful pause; the elephant’s mouth had dropped open, and he turned quite pale. All the Noahs stopped playing and leaned over the edge of the gallery, and several of their hats fell on to the floor. Then there came a dreadful silence, and you could have heard a pin-partridge drop. ‘Where did you learn to talk?’ asked the elephant in a faint voice. ‘I didn’t learn anywhere particular,’ said David. ‘It happened. But it’s dreadfully hard to say that six times. I don’t believe you could do it yourself.’ The elephant looked round in a frightened manner. ‘Change the subject,’ he said hurriedly. ‘Change the object, change places, change partners, change your money, change your socks, change the weather, change everything. But, whatever you do, change the subject.’ He was so distressed at the thought of having to say it, that David felt it would be very bad manners to insist upon it. ‘I was going to dance with the giraffe,’ he said. ‘Would you tell me how to do it, and where I’m to begin?’ The elephant grew blue again. ‘That’s a good boy,’ he said. ‘Begin as high up as you can. Take one leg first, and let the band play as loud as possible.’ This didn’t seem very promising, but David did as he was told, and put his arm round the foreleg of the giraffe that was nearest him, and began revolving about it. But he had hardly begun, when he found that he could shift his hands higher up the leg, and still higher, for he was growing in the most extraordinary manner. Soon his head began going up through the staircase, and he felt his arm round the giraffe’s waist. Still he grew, his head passed the second storey, and came up to the third, where it went into an attic where his partner’s head was. One foreleg of the giraffe and his own arm stuck out of the window, and they kept slowly revolving to the sound of the piano. They were getting fearfully tangled up with the banisters of the stairs, and presently they began to reverse, and unwound themselves again. ‘You dear creature,’ said the giraffe, ‘I thought you’d grow, though I wasn’t sure about it.’ [Illustration: David dances with the giraffe]