In the reader, Gordon Wright's letter will, perhaps, excite surprise rather than hilarity; but Longueville thought it highly characteristic of his friend.

What it especially pointed to was Gordon's want of imagination--a deficiency which was a matter of common jocular allusion between the two young men, each of whom kept a collection of acknowledged oddities as a playground for the other's wit.

Bernard had often spoken of his comrade's want of imagination as a bottomless pit, into which Gordon was perpetually inviting him to lower himself.

"My dear fellow," Bernard said, "you must really excuse me; I cannot take these subterranean excursions.

I should lose my breath down there; I should never come up alive.