Because they find no dry bobs on your Party
False Count note:
dry bobs. A bob was a sarcastic jest or jibe. cf. Sir Giles Goosecappe (1606), Act v, I. ‘Marry him, sweet Lady, to answere his bitter Bob,’ and Buckingham‘s The Rehearsal (1671), Act iii, I, where Bayes cries: ’There‘s a bob for the Court.’ A dry bob (literally = a blow or fillip that does not break the skin) is an intensely bitter taunt, cf. Cotgrave (1611), Ruade seiche, a drie bob, jeast or nip. Bailey (1731) has ‘Dry Bob. a Taunt or Scoff’.
[Note to p. 302]: Starters.
Lucky Chance note:
Starter. This slang word usually means a milksop, but here it is equivalent to ‘a butterfly’, ‘a weathercock’—a man of changeable disposition. A rare use.