Smitherton. “Yes! just one year to a fraction. You will remember, Mr. Rumgudgeon, that I called with Captain Pratt on this very day last year, to pay my parting respects.”
Uncle. “Yes, yes, yes—I remember it very well—very queer indeed! Both of you gone just one year. A very strange coincidence indeed! Just what Doctor Dubble L. Dee would denominate an extraordinary concurrence of events. Doctor Dub—”
Kate (interrupting). “To be sure papa, it is something strange; but then Captain Pratt and Captain Smitherton didn’t go altogether the same route, and that makes a difference you know.”
Uncle. “I don’t know any such thing, you hussy! How should I? I think it only makes the matter more remarkable. Doctor Dubble L. Dee—”
Kate. “Why, papa, Captain Pratt went round Cape Horn, and Captain Smitherton doubled the Cape of Good Hope.”
Uncle. “Precisely! the one went east and the other went west, you jade, and they have both gone quite round the world. By the bye, Doctor Dub—”
Myself (hurriedly). “Captain Pratt, you must come and spend the evening with us to-morrow—you and Smitherton—you can tell us all about your voyage, and we’ll have a game of whist, and—”
Pratt. “Whist, my dear fellow—you forget. To-morrow will be Sunday. Some other evening—”
Kate. “Oh, no, fie!—Robert’s not quite so bad as that. To-day’s Sunday.”
Uncle. “To be sure—to be sure.”