Miller: “I never thought of that.” To the Elevator Boy: “Start her down.” To the people on the landing above: “Hurrah! She’s off!”
Campbell: “Well, now start her up!”
A joint cry from the elevator: “Thank you! we’ll walk up this time.”
Miller: “Here! let us out at this landing!” They are heard precipitately emerging, with sighs and groans of relief, on the floor below.
Mrs. Roberts, devoutly: “O Willis, it seems like an interposition of Providence, your coming just at this moment.”
Campbell: “Interposition of common sense! These hydraulic elevators weaken sometimes, and can’t go any farther.”
Roberts, to the shipwrecked guests, who arrive at the top of the stairs, crestfallen, spent, and clinging to one another for support: “Why didn’t you think of starting her down, some of you?”
Mrs. Roberts, welcoming them with kisses and hand-shakes: “I should have thought it would occur to you at once.”
Miller, goaded to exasperation: “Did it occur to any of you?”
Lawton, with sublime impudence: “It occurred to all of us. But we naturally supposed you had tried it.”