Collis coughed. ‘You have to bring them up from the bed of the sea, and boil them. That’s all. But it all sounds like too much hard work to me. Father said they often caught thirty-pounders, which took two men to hold down, and five hours to boil.’

Henry raised an eyebrow. ‘The nearest I’ve ever seen to a thirty-pound lobster is Isaac Singer, that sewing-machine fellow.’

Nathan Hackett frowned. ‘And I’ve never seen a thirty-pound lobster at all. My dear fellow, a thirty-pound lobster would be the size of a small boy. If you ask me, your dear father’s been pulling your leg.’

‘He said it was true,’ retorted Collis. ‘And if he said it was true, then it was.’

‘Well,’ said Nathan, leaning back in his armchair, ‘I hate to dispute his word. But if you can find me a thirty-pound lobster, and set it on a plate in front of me, then I will pay you a hundred dollars.’

‘Two hundred,’ said Collis intently.

Nathan glanced at Henry. ‘Young Collis is getting riled up, don’t you think, Henry? I didn’t think he was on speaking terms with his dear father, let alone ready to fight on his behalf.’

He turned to Collis, smiled, and said, ‘Three hundred.’

Collis put out his hand, and they settled the wager with a firm shake.

‘I’ll have one of those monsters snapping its claws at you within the next six weeks,’ he promised. ‘Then you can eat your words, and your wager besides.’

Nathan smiled and shrugged. ‘I’ll believe it when I see it. That’s all I can say.’

‘Quiet, you two,’ said Henry. ‘I believe the exhibition’s starting.’

‘About time too,’ grumbled Lewis. ‘A fellow can grow weary of “Nymphs and Shepherds”, even when it’s played in the altogether.’

The three girl musicians faltered into silence, and then an imposing-looking woman, fiftyish and grey-haired, in a sparkling turban and a peacock-blue gown, came out from behind the drapes and stood by the daybed, smiling and nodding in the gaslight.

‘Gentlemen, we’re so pleased that you’re here tonight. I am Mrs Netta de La Paige, and these talented young ladies are my orchestra, the Nightingales. In a moment, I wish to present to you one of the most artistic and instructive of exhibitions, which will feature my Nubian artiste Cornelia and my Aryan artiste Henrietta, together with one of the most magnificent of male physical specimens, the Mighty Marmaduke.’