He was just getting through the evening; and this hot and crowded den, with its glitter of lights, promised a thrill of excitement which would for a moment lift him from the torture of his thoughts.
But the antagonists still lingered in their dressing-rooms while their trainers put the final touch to their preparations.

And while the antagonists lingered, the two young men next to him began again to talk, and this time the words fell on Shere Ali's ears.
"I think it ought to be stopped," said one.

"It can't be good for us.

Of course the fellow who runs the circus doesn't care, although he is an Englishman, and although he must have understood what was being shouted." "He is out for money, of course," replied the other.
"Yes.

But not half a mile away, just across the Maidan there, is Government House.