We went out of the room and closed the door. The shopkeeper smiled at me with his yellow teeth.
 'Wonderful, sir, isn't it?' he said. 'The best Elephant Man in England! Hundreds of people come to see him, you know, hundreds! I take him all over the country, I do!'
'Yes, very interesting,' I said.'Can I sit down?' 'Yes, sir, of course. Here's a chair.' He looked at me, smiling.'Would you like a glass of water, sir?' 'Yes, please,' I said. Then I looked at the things in the dirty shop. There were two or three bad apples and some old black bananas: that was all. 'Er, no...no, thank you. I'm all right,' I said. 'Did you...did you call the creature Merrick?'