take my wife. If you are good perhaps she will ask you out to tea one
afternoon."

"How many staterooms are there, Jimmie? Can we invite people to stay
with us over night?" demanded Bee.

"You cannot," said Jimmie, firmly. "I said a house-boat, not a house
party."

"I shall ask the duke," said Bee, clearing her throat in a pleased way.
"Can't I, Mrs. Jimmie?"

"Certainly, dear. Ask any one you like."

"If you do," growled Jimmie, who hates the duke because he wears gloves
in hot weather, "I'll invite the chambermaid and the head-waiter of this
hotel."

"We ought to be starting," said Mrs. Jimmie, pacifically, and we started
and went and arrived.

As we were driving to the station I noticed all the way along, and I had
noticed them ever since we had been in London, large capital H's on a
white background, posted on stone walls, street corners, lampposts, and
occasionally on the sidewalks.

"What are those H's for, Jimmie?" I asked. To which he replied with
this record-breaking joke:

"Those are the H's that Englishmen have been dropping for generations,