Curate.—Thanks for your visit.
First Par.—Ah! well! that is all right. I will hasten on.
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Curate.—As he said I was to let him know if any of the parishioners came, I will go and tell him what has passed. Pray! are you in?
Rector.—Oh! that is you!
Curate.—How dull Your Reverence must be feeling!
Rector.—No, I am not dull.
Curate.—Somebody has just been here.
Rector.—Did he come to worship, or was it that he had business with us?
Curate.—He came to borrow an umbrella; so I lent him one.
Rector.—Quite right of you to lend it. But tell me, which umbrella did you lend?
Curate.—I lent the one that came home new the other day.
Rector.—What a thoughtless fellow you are! Would anybody ever dream of lending an umbrella like that one, which had not even been once used yet? The case will present itself again. When you do not want to lend it, you can make an excuse.
Curate.—What would you say?
Rector.—You should say: "The request with which you honour me is a slight one. But a day or two ago my master went out with it, and encountering a gust of wind at a place where four roads meet, the ribs flew off on one side, and the skin[1] on another. So we have tied both skin and ribs by the middle, and hung them up to the ceiling. This being so, it would hardly be fit to answer your purpose." Something like that, something with an air of truth about it, is what you should say.
Curate.—Your injunctions shall be kept in mind, and I will make that answer another time. Now I will be going.
Rector.—Are you off?
Curate.—Yes.
Rector, Curate.—Good-bye! good-bye!
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Curate.—What can this mean? Let my master say what he likes, it does seem strange to refuse to lend a thing when you have it by you.
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Second Par.—I am a resident in this neighbourhood. As I am going on a
- ↑ The "cover" of an umbrella is called by the Japanese its skin. Similarly they speak of the skin of a tree, the skin of an apple, the skin of bread (its crust), etc. In fact, the outside of most things is termed their "skin."
