“Let all I's rich friends subscribe according to their means from £5 upwards.
“Result, easily attained, £5,000.
“Say that eighty people subscribed £62 10s. apiece. Are there not eighty people in London, Manchester, and Liverpool who could do this and not miss it so much as I should miss a farthing put by accident into a Church plate—of course I mean by mistake for half a sovereign.
“But how could such a mistake arise? you would say.”
(We wouldn't, but he couldn't tell that.)
“Why simply because I never give less in Church than half a sovereign. Ergo, I never give in Church unless I have half a sovereign in my pocket. But I never have half a sovereign in my pocket.”
[Smiles from everyone, and applause from Milburd, towards whom the Professor looks appealingly, as much as to say, “There, I can be just as funny as you, only without Tomfoolery.”]
“Ergo . . . cela va sans dire.
“So, you see, eighty people could make ‘I’ happy.
[Medford is practising his trick with a shilling by himself.]