"Have a dash at starting at the beginning."
Eustace stared gloomily at a stranded crab on the beach below. The crab stared gloomily back.
"Well, you remember my telling you about the girl I met on the boat?"
"Jane Something?"
"Jane Hubbard," said Eustace reverently. "Sam, I love that girl."
"I know. You told me."
"But I didn't tell her. I tried to muster up the nerve, but we got to Southampton without my having clicked. What a dashed difficult thing a proposal is to bring off, isn't it! I didn't bring it off, and it began to look to me as though I was in the soup. And then she told me something which gave me an idea. She said the Bennetts had invited her to stay with them in the country when she got to England, Old Mr. Bennett and his pal Mortimer, Bream's father, were trying to get a house somewhere which they could share. Only so far they hadn't managed to find the house they wanted. When I heard that, I said 'Ha!'"
"You said what?" asked Sam.
"I said 'Ha!'"
"Why?"