It could now be seen that the old man Fullbil was simply aflame with a
destructive reply, and even Bobbs paused under the spell of this
anticipation of a gigantic answering. The literary master began very
deliberately.

"My good friend Bobbs," said he, "I see your nose gradually is turning
red."

The drama immediately pitched into oblivion. The room thundered with a
great shout of laughter that went to the ceiling. I could see Bobbs
making angry shouts against an invulnerable bank of uncontrolled
merriment. And amid his victory old Fullbil sat with a vain smile on
his cracked lips.

My excellent and adjacent friend turned to me in a burst of
enthusiasm.

"And did you ever hear a thing so well turned? Ha, ha! 'My good friend
Bobbs,' quoth he, 'I see your nose gradually is turning red.' Ha, ha,
ha! By my King, I have seldom heard a wittier answer."

"Bedad!" said I, somewhat bewildered, but resolved to appreciate the
noted master of wit, "it stamped the drama down into the ground. Sure,
never another play will be delivered in England after that tremendous
overthrow."

"Aye," he rejoined, still shuddering with mirth, "I fail to see how
the dramatists can survive it. It was like the wit of a new
Shakespeare. It subsided Bobbs to nothing. I would not be surprised at
all if Bobbs now entirely quit the writing of plays, since Fullbil's
words so closely hit his condition in the dramatic world. A dangerous
dog is this Fullbil."

"It reminds me of a story my father used to tell--" I began.

"Sir," cried my new friend hastily, "I beg of you! May I, indeed,
insist? Here we talk only of the very deepest matters."

"Very good, sir," I replied amiably. "I will appear better, no doubt,
as a listener; but if my father was alive--"

"Sir," beseeched my friend, "the great Fancher, the immortal critic,
is about to speak."

"Let him," said I, still amiable.

A portly gentleman of middle age now addressed Bobbs amid a general
and respectful silence.

"Sir," he remarked, "your words concerning the great age of what I
shall call the five-minutes-intelligent-explanation theory was first
developed by the Chinese, and is contemporaneous, I believe, with
their adoption of the custom of roasting their meat instead of eating
it raw."

"Sir, I am interested and instructed," rejoined Bobbs.

Here old Fullbil let go two or three growls of scornful disapproval.

"Fancher," said he, "my delight in your company is sometimes dimmed