Actually he came to deliver an ultimatum from Hurst--But, I mustn't disturb the harmony of this festive gathering with litigious discords." "Now, why mustn't you ?" asked Thorndyke.

"Why is a subject in which we are all keenly interested to be _tabu_?
You don't mind telling us about it, do you ?" "No, of course not.

But what do you think of a man who buttonholes a doctor at a dinner-party to retail a list of his ailments ?" "It depends on what his ailments are," replied Thorndyke.

"If he is a chronic dyspeptic and wishes to expound the virtues of Doctor Snaffler's Purple Pills for Pimply People, he is merely a bore.

But if he chances to suffer from some rare and choice disease, such as Trypanosomiasis or Acromegaly, the doctor will be delighted to listen." "Then are we to understand," Miss Bellingham asked, "that we are rare and choice products, in a legal sense ?" "Undoubtedly," replied Thorndyke.