Nobody else can do it.' I told him it was impossible.

My London letter for the _Hari Kari_ was not even begun; and the last post to catch the mail to Japan was at a quarter-past six in the morning.

I had an article to write for your father, too.

And, as the sun had been shining all day, I was almost distracted with hay fever.

'If you were to go down on your knees,' I said, 'I could not find time to read up the _flora_ of the West Indies and finish an article before morning.' He went down on his knees.