SWEET. Why, I came down in a sitting posture, plump on his back—one squeak, and it was all over.
MRS. SWEET. (seeing that nothing is the matter with her husband) Come, William, I think you are nearly all right again now.
SWEET. Yes, my dear, thank you, I shall get round again in a day or two, I dare say. You were far more frightened than I was.
MRS. SWEET. (smiling) Oh come, William, I am not quite so sure about that. Now the danger is over we can afford, you know, to laugh at it. (playfully) You were not at all alarmed, were you, dear? Ha, ha! and the droll manner in which you fell, ha, ha!
SHORT. Exactly; it certainly broke his fall, and the dog’s back at the same time. Much better than falling the other way. Ha, ha, ha!
MRS. SWEET. (with good-humoured merriment) Ha, ha, ha! Only picture to yourselves my husband’s attitude after his descent, comfortably sitting in the middle of the road without his hat. Ha, ha, ha!
SHORT. Ha, ha, ha! With all the dirty little vagabonds in the parish gathered around him! Ha, ha, ha!
SWEET. (getting offended) I’m glad you’re amused! I really don’t see the joke.
MRS. SHORT. (aside, to MRS. SWEET) Don’t, Fanny! he don’t like it.
MRS. SWEET. (thrusting her handkerchief in her mouth) I oughtn’t to laugh, perhaps, but I positively can’t help it! Ha, ha, ha!