Page:Baboohurrybungsh00anstiala.djvu/273

Rh mighty hunter, Mr, I perceive! Ever shoot any elephants? . . . . No elephants? That's a pleasure to come, then. Now, about your relations with the plaintiff prior to your engagement—you were a good deal in her company, weren't you?. . . . Well, you constantly escorted her to various places of amusement, come? . . . . Yes, yes; I am quite aware a chaperon was always present. We are both agreed that my client has acted throughout with the most scrupulous propriety—but you liked being in her society, didn't you? . . . . Exactly so, and, at that time at all events, you admired her extremely? . . . . "Merely as a friend," eh? no idea of proposing? Well, just tell us once more how it was you came to engage yourself. . . . You were afraid your landlady would summon a boarder and ask him to give you a kicking? . . . . And the prospect of being kicked terrified you to such an extent that you were willing to promise anything—is that your story? . . . . But you are a man of iron nerve, you know, you've just been giving us a description of your performances in the jungle. How did you come to be so alarmed by a boarder, when the attack of the fiercest tiger or wild boar never made you turn a hair? . . . . But that is what you gave us to understand just now, wasn't it? . . . . Then do you tell his lordship and the jury now that, as a matter of fact, you never shot a solitary tiger or speared a single boar in your