_Podb._ Find you see it better with your eyes shut? But I say, I wish
you'd explain what you were sniggering at.

_Culch._ Take my advice, and don't press me, my dear fellow; you may
regret it if you do!

_Podb._ I'll risk it. It must be a devilish funny joke to tickle you
like that. Come, out with it!

_Culch._ Well, if you must know, I was laughing.... Oh, he'll _never_
get those horses round in.... I was--er--rather amused by your evident
assumption that I must have been _rejected_ by Miss PRENDERGAST.

_Podb._ Oh, was _that_ it? And you're nothing of the kind, eh? [_He
chuckles again._

_Culch._ (_with dignity_). No doubt you will find it very singular;
but, as a matter of fact, she--well, she most certainly did not
_discourage_ my pretensions.

_Podb._ The deuce she didn't! Did she tell you RUSKIN's ideas about
courtship being a probation, and ask you if you were ready to be under
vow for her, by any chance?

_Culch._ This is too bad, PODBURY; you must have been there, or you
couldn't possibly know!

_Podb._ Much obliged, I'm sure. I don't listen behind doors, as a
general thing. I suppose, now, she set you a trial of some kind, to