t this stage served
to sober him by furnishing another complication.

"Oh, I say, Bultitude," he piped shrilly in Paul's ear, "I forgot all
about it. Where's my rabbit?"

The unreasonable absurdity of such a question annoyed him excessively.
"Is this a time," he said reprovingly, "to talk of rabbits? Mind your
book, sir."

"Oh, I daresay," grumbled little Porter, the boy in question: "it's all
very well, but I want my rabbit."

"Hang it, sir," said Paul angrily, "do you suppose I'm sitting on it?"

"You promised to bring me back a rabbit," persisted Porter doggedly;
"you know you did, and it's a beastly shame. I mean to have that
rabbit, or know the reason why."

At the other end of the table Biddlecomb had again dexterously allured
Herr Stohwasser into the meshes of conversation; this time upon the
question (_a propos de bottes_) of street performances. "I vill tell you
a gurious thing," he was saying, "vat happened to me de oder day ven I
vas valking down de Strandt. I saw a leedle gommon dirty boy with a tall
round hat on him, and he stand in a side street right out in de road,
and he take off his tall round hat, and he put it on de ground, and he
stand still and look zo at it. So I shtop too, to see vat he vould do
next. And bresently he take out a large sheet of baper and tear it in
four pieces very garefully, and stick zem round de tall round hat, and
put it on his head again, and zen he set it down on de grount and look
at it vonce more, and all de time he never speak von vort. And I look
and look and vonder vat he would do next. And a great growd of beoples
com, and zey look and vonder too. And zen all at once de leedle dirty
boy he take out all de paper and put on de hat, and he valk avay,
laughing altogetter foolishly at zomzing I did not understand at all. I
haf been thinking efer since vat in the vorldt he do all zat nonsence
for. And zere is von ozer gurious thing I see in your London streets zat
very same day. Zere vas a poor house cat dat had been by a cab overrun
as I passed by, and von man vith a kind varm heart valk up and stamp it
on de head for to end its pain. And anozer man vith anozer kind heart,
he gom up directly and had not seen de cat overrun, but he see de first
man stamping and he knock him down for ill-treating animals; it was
quite gurious to see; till de policeman arrest dem both for fighting.
Goggs, degline 'Katze,' and gif me ze berfect and bast barticiple of
'kampfen,' to fight.