Insooth, good friend, your father might have kept This Calfe, bred from his Cow from all the world

But if they had known, / Then had there been no mystery; / And Life had been poorer, / And laughter unsurer, / And the shadow of death securer

It seemed to them the ideal place for those confidential mid-morning potations and games of pool for which the Foreign Office had invented the phrase “elevenses”, after the hour of the morning when one feels one most needs a short swift drink, or a long “unwinder”, to use slang.

But come let's wing our Steps with utmost Speed, The swiftest Haste is laggard to the Deed.