enteen.

"It _is_ a humorous way they have," she said.

"But suppose you really were an animal altogether, it wouldn't annoy
you at all. An elephant isn't annoyed at being an elephant; he just
tries to be a good elephant, and he'd be miserable if he couldn't do
things with his trunk. The annoying thing is to look like an elephant,
to have the very complicated--er--inside of an elephant, and yet all
the time really to be a man."

They were all intensely interested. Woggs thought that it was going
to lead up to a revelation of what sort of animal Prince Udo really
was, but in this she was destined to be disappointed. After all there
were advantages in Udo's present position. As a man he had never been
listened to so attentively.

"Now suppose for a moment I am a lion. I have the--er--delicate
apparatus of a lion, but the beautiful thoughts and aspirations of a
Prince. Thus there is one--er--side of me which craves for raw beef,
but none the less there is a higher side of me" (he brought his paw up
towards his heart), "which--well, you know how _you'd_ feel about it
yourself."

The Princess shuddered.

"I _should_," she said, with conviction.

Belvane was interested, but thought it all a little crude.

"You see the point," went on Udo. "A baby left to itself doesn't know
what is good for it. Left to itself it would eat anything. Now turn
a man suddenly into an animal and he is in exactly the same state as
that baby."

"I hadn't thought of it like that," said Hyacinth.

"I've _had_ to think of it! Now let us proceed further with the
matter." Udo was thoroughly enjoying himself. He had not had such a
time since he had given an address on Beetles to all the leading
citizens of Araby at his coming-of-age. "Suppose again that I am a
lion. I know from what I have read or seen that raw meat agrees best
with the lion's--er--organisation, and however objectionable it might
look I should be foolish not to turn to it for sustenance. But if you
don't quite know what animal you're supposed to be, see how difficult
the problem becomes. It's a question of trying all sorts of horrible
things in order to find out what agrees with you." His eyes took on a
faraway look, a look in which the most poignant memories seem to be
reflected. "I've been experimenting," he said, "for the last three
days."

They all gazed sadly and sympathetically at him. Except Belvane. She
of course wouldn't.

"What went best?" sh