_Culch._ He probably imagines you are merely expressing your satisfaction with Venice. And I don't see how you expect him to remove the entire cabin here! (_PODBURY crawls in again, knocking his head._) I think we did well to let the--the others travel on first. More _dignified_, you know! _Podb._ Um--don't see any particular dignity in missing the train, myself! _Culch._ They won't know it was not intentional. And I think, PODBURY, we should go on--er--asserting ourselves a little while by holding rather aloof. It will show them that we don't mean to put up with-- _Podb._ Don't see that either. Not going to let that beast, VAN BOODELER have it _all_ his own way! _Culch._ Surely you know he decided suddenly to stay at Vicenza? He said so at breakfast. But I will _not_ have your friend BOB perpetually-- _Podb._ At breakfast? Oh, I came down late. Vicenza, eh? Then _he_'s out of it! Hooray! But as for BOB, _he_'s all right too. Oh, I forgot you cut _déjeuner_. HYPATIA had another squabble with Miss TROTTER, and poor old BOB got dragged into it as usual, and now they ain't on speaking terms. _Culch._ (_overjoyed_). You don't say so! Then all _I_ can say, PODBURY, is that if we two can't manage, in a place like this, to recover all the ground we have lost-- _Podb._ More water than ground in a place like this, eh? But _I_ know what you mean--we _must_ be duffers if we don't leave Venice engaged men--which we're not as yet, worse luck! _Culch._ No--but we _shall_ be, if we only insist upon being treated seriously. _Podb._ She treats me a devilish deal _too_ seriously, my boy. But there, never mind--things will go better now! SCENE--_A double-bedded room in the Grand Hotel, Dandolo, which PODBURY and CULCHARD have to share for the night._ _Podb._ (_from his bed, suspiciously, to CULCHARD, who is setting fire to a small pastille in a soap-dish_). I say, old chappie, bar _fireworks_, you know! What the deuce _are_ you up to over there? _Culch._ Lighting a "fidibus." Splendid thing to drive out mosquitoes. (_The pastille fizzes, and begins to emit a dense white smoke, and a suffocating odour._) _Podb._ (_bounding_). Mosquitoes! It would drive a _dragon_ out. Phew--ah! (_CULCHARD closes the window._) You _don't_ mean to say you're going to shut me up in this infernal reek on a stifling night like this? _Culch._ If I didn't, the mosquitoes would come in again. _Podb._ Come in? With that pastille doing the young Vesuvius! _Do_ you think a mosquito's a born fool? (_He jumps out and opens the window._) I'm not going to be smoked like a wasps' nest, _I_ can tell you! _Culch._ (_calmly shutting it again, as PODBURY returns to bed_). You'll be grateful to me by-and-by. [_Slips between his mosquito-curtains in a gingerly manner, and switches off the electric light. A silence._ _Podb._ I say, you ain't asleep, are you? Think we shall see anything of them to-morrow, eh?