“Yes. I’ve got that all right now,” he said, after three minutes of strenuous mental exertion.

“Well, what would you say of him?”

“That he was a damned fool.”

The Prophet looked very much upset.

“No, no, Bob, I meant to him. What would you say to him?”

“That he was a damned fool.”

The Prophet began to appear thoroughly broken down. However, he still stuck to his interpellation.

“Very well, Bob,” he said, with unutterable resignation—as of a toad beneath the harrow—“but, putting all that aside—”

“Give us a chance, Hen! I’ve got to shunt all that, have I?”

“Yes, at least all you would say of, and to, the man.”