He did not know which was more painful to witness: Hempel's unmanly cringing, or the air of fatuous satisfaction that succeeded it.

At Indian partition in 1947, the nizam chose to resume Hyderabad's independent status, but India invaded the state (1948) and took control.

He had four chattering daughters who were always prophesying the end of the world and seemed to have little time for the work of the household. Still, Philip’s fat wife cooked well and they would all have eaten a pleasant meal together—the daughters, when not prophesying, were good silent trencherwomen—if another regular prophesier had not called, well remembered from Antioch, his name Agabus.

I abjectly apologise for the damage I have done.