Mr. Snooks: I beg your pardon, sir; I thought you meant the part to be funny.
Mr. Gilbert: Yes, so I do; but I don't want you to tell the audience you're the funny man. They'll find it out, if you are, quickly enough. Go on, please.
Mr. Snooks enters again with a rapid and sharp catch-the-six-thirteen-Liverpool-street-local-train kind of walk.
Mr. Gilbert: No, no, no, Mr. Snooks. This is not a "walking gentleman's" part. As it is only a short one, there is no necessity to hurry through it like that. Enter like this.
Mr. Gilbert proceeds to exemplify what he requires, and after a trial or two Mr. Snooks gets it nearly right.
Mr. Gilbert (encouragingly): That'll do capitally. Go on, please.
Mr. Snooks: The King is in the counting-house.
Mr. Gilbert: No, no, Mr. Snooks; he is nothing of the sort. He is in the counting-house.
Mr. Snooks: The King is in the counting-house.
Mr. Gilbert (very politely): I am afraid I have not made myself understood. It is not counting-house, but counting-house. Do you understand me?