'The ship, the ship, he sang'



‘He opened his mouth and let the shirt drop to the floor.
"I ‘m the prince", he said.
He took the banjo out of the suitcase and plucked the strings. They made short, dull tones, and he began singing under his breath.
"The ship, the ship", he sang."The ship isn’t going to sail".

Gerard Kornelis van het Reve in: The acrobat and other stories Amsterdam London 1956 p.153