only been able to call my revered and fatherly benefactor, Hon'ble Sir Cummerbund, he would infallibly have testified—
The Judge. As you did not think proper—no doubt for excellent reasons—to put Sir Chetwynd in the box when you could have done so, Mr Jabberjee, I shall most certainly not allow you to make any comments now upon the evidence he might or might not have given.
Baboo J. I beg to knuckle very submissively to your lordship's argument. The fact is, that the said Sir Cummerbund, on hearing my answers when I was acting in the capacity of a harrowed toad under my friend Witherington's cross-examination, very handsomely stated that I had left nothing for him to say, and begged modestly that he might be excused. But indeed, Misters, I occupy but a very beggarly apartment in this Fools' Hotel of a world, and it is the moral impossibility for me to pay any damages whatever! Moreover, it is a well-authenticated fact that I am a shocking coward, and was induced to become affianced by haunting apprehensions of receiving a succession of severe kicks. For how, being suddenly put to my choice between being barbarously kicked and punched or acquiring a spruce and blooming bride, could I hesitate for a moment to accept the lesser of two evils? Nevertheless, I did remain uninterruptedly devoted to the plaintiff for many weeks—until I encountered a still
