"I confess that your theory is new to me; it had never occurred to me before.

For one who has only been inside a theatre two or three times in his life you seem to have elaborated your conclusions pretty quickly.

I may infer, then, that you're not exactly hankering to go on the stage yourself ?" "_I_ ?" said Austin, drawing himself up.

"I, disguise myself in paint and feathers to be a public gazing-stock?
Of course you mean it as a joke." "And yet there _are_ gentlemen upon the stage," observed St Aubyn, in order to draw him on.
"So much the better for the stage, perhaps; so much the worse for the gentlemen," replied Austin haughtily.
A pause.

They were now well out in the open country, with the moonlit road stretching far in front of them.