"Reggie, old man, you're--you're not--This hot weather----"

"I am perfectly well, and in possession of all my faculties. Now tell
me. Can you imagine anything more awful than to spend a weekend with
Bodfish?"

On the spur of the moment I could not.

"Can you imagine anything more delightful, then, than _not_
spending a weekend with Bodfish? Well, that's what I'm doing now.
Soon, when you have gone--if you have any other engagements, please
don't let me keep you--I shall not go into the house and not listen to
Mrs. Bodfish on the subject of young Willie Bodfish's premature
intelligence."

I got his true meaning. "I see. You mean that you will be thanking
your stars that you aren't with Bodfish."

"That is it, put crudely. But I go further. I don't indulge in a mere
momentary self-congratulation, I do the thing thoroughly. If I were
weekending at Bodfish's, I should have arrived there just half an hour
ago. I therefore selected that moment for beginning not to weekend
with Bodfish. I settled myself in this chair and I did not have my
back slapped at the station. A few minutes later I was not whirling
along the country roads, trying to balance the car with my legs and an
elbow. Time passed, and I was not shaking hands with Mrs. Bodfish. I
have just had the most corking half-hour, and shortly--when you have
remembered an appointment--I shall go on having it. What I am really
looking forward to is the happy time after dinner. I shall pass it in