"I wish I'd known! You silly chump, you ruined my collar."

"Ah, well, it's seven years ago. You would have had to send it to the
wash anyhow by this time. But don't let us brood on the past. Let us
put our heads together and think how we can get you out of this
terrible situation."

"I don't want to get out of it. I confidently expect to be the hit of
the evening."

"The hit of the evening! You! Singing!"

"I'm not going to sing. I'm going to do that imitation of Frank Tinney
which I did at the Trinity Smoker. You haven't forgotten that? You were
at the piano taking the part of the conductor of the orchestra. What a
riot I was--we were! I say, Eustace, old man, I suppose you don't feel
well enough to come up now and take your old part? You could do it
without a rehearsal. You remember how it went ... 'Hullo, Ernest!' 'Hullo,
Frank!' Why not come along?"

"The only piano I will ever sit at will be one firmly fixed on a floor
that does not heave and wobble under me."

"Nonsense! The boat's as steady as a rock now. The sea's like a
mill-pond."

"Nevertheless, thanking you for your suggestion, no!"

"Oh, well, then I shall have to get on as best I can with that fellow
Mortimer. We've been rehearsing all the afternoon and he seems to have