RAJAH (Waving Pike back into his chair) Please … I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting. But what I say is, a punctual politician is a politician who does not have enough to do. In other words, an impossibility.

PIKE I’m so grateful to you for this.

RAJAH No, no—delighted. I hope you find the hotel comfortable? We are not one of the international chains, you know. You mustn’t be deluded on that point, no matter how much we exert ourselves to delude you.

PIKE The hotel is excellent, your Highness.

RAJAH Actually, I am not ‘Your Highness’, I am, in fact, just one of 542 members of the Lok Sabha, the House of the People, popularly elected, I am happy to say, by this District. Thank you so much for your book. I have already read the Indian letters. Perhaps you are wondering what happened to my grandfather’s motor cars.

PIKE No, I hadn’t really … What did happen to them?

RAJAH My father presented them to the war effort. I can’t think what he had in mind. Despatches carried by Rolls Royce, Staff Officers reporting for duty in snazzy Italian racing models … But by that time the collection had suffered the attrition of my grandfather’s generosity. He gave several away, sometimes as farewell presents to his lady friends. Which brings me to your letter. To begin with, there was a disappointment. There is no Flora Crewe in the visitors book in April 1930. However, my archivist has excelled himself. (The Rajah takes a letter from his pocket.) The Collected Letters are not complete!

PIKE A letter from Flora?

RAJAH A thank-you note.

PIKE May I?

The Rajah gives him the letter and waits while Pike reads it.

He gave her a painting.

RAJAH I believe we have identified it. Or rather, the volume from which it came. A miniature. From our Gita Govinda of about 1790, artist unknown. The series is by no means complete, but even so, I wish my grandfather had given her a motorcar.

PIKE Thank you. Yes, indeed.

He gives the letter back.

RAJAH I had a copy made for you.

The Rajah gives Pike the copy of the letter.

PIKE Thank you. That was thoughtful of you. The Gita Govinda … would that be anything to do with a herdswoman, Radha?

RAJAH But absolutely. It is the story of Radha and Krishna.

PIKE Yes. And … erotic? She could have been nude?

RAJAH Well, let us say, knowing His Highness, the painting would have been appropriate to the occasion.

PIKE A watercolour, of course. On paper.

RAJAH Are you not feeling well, Professor Pike?

PIKE No, I’m fine. Thank you. Actually, I’m not ‘Professor’, I’m just one of the English Faculty … Please call me Eldon.

RAJAH (Getting up) Well, Eldon … I hope I have been of some service to your biography of Miss Crewe.

PIKE Yes. You could say that. But thanks anyway. (Correcting) A lot. Thanks a lot. (Remembering himself) Thank you, Your Highness. (Correcting) Sir.