The Briton weighs everything carefully before he commits himself, and even though a certain point may strike him as funny, he isn't going to laugh until he has fully made up his mind that it is funny.

I remember once riding down Piccadilly with Froude in a hansom cab.

Froude had a copy of _Punch_ in his hand, and he began to laugh immoderately over something.

I leaned over his shoulder to see what he was laughing at.

'That isn't so funny,' said I, as I read the paragraph on which his eye was resting.