You have been blown up by a patent gas lamp--" He said: "I really think, you know, that was my fault; I think I must have screwed it up too tight." I said: "I am quite willing to believe that if there was a wrong way of handling the thing that is the way you handle it.

You should take that tendency of yours into consideration; it bears upon the argument.

Myself, I did not notice what you did; I only know we were riding peacefully and pleasantly along the Whitby Road, discussing the Thirty Years' War, when your lamp went off like a pistol-shot.

The start sent me into the ditch; and your wife's face, when I told her there was nothing the matter and that she was not to worry, because the two men would carry you upstairs, and the doctor would be round in a minute bringing the nurse with him, still lingers in my memory." He said: "I wish you had thought to pick up the lamp.

I should like to have found out what was the cause of its going off like that." I said: "There was not time to pick up the lamp.