We were stopped on South Audley Street by the two gigantic elephant-sized elephants made entirely of china that filled the high window of Goodes.
‘What do you make of those?’ asked C.D., calling my attention to them.
‘Crazy,’ I replied admiringly.
‘Would you like to have them?’
‘They’re what I want most.’
C.D. considered. ‘Only one I think though, don’t you?’
‘Oh yes. Two’s too much.’
‘We’d like to inquire about the elephants in your window,’ C.D. told the startled sales clerk. ‘We rather fancy something for our hall. We have a very big hall and we need something to fill it. I think one of those elephants would do nicely in our front hall, wouldn’t it, my dear? Right in the centre.’
‘Not perhaps the teensiest bit off centre?’ I wondered.
‘Dear me, no. Dead centre. Yes. Instead of a fountain.’
‘Now I see. Of course, darling.’
Elaine Dundy, The Old Man and Me
