PODB. (_with a ghastly chuckle_). Like your shares, eh, old chap? And mine too, for that matter. Well, _I'm_ ready enough to go. Only, for goodness' sake, let's get away without being seen! [_They slip softly down the series of inclined planes, and out to the steps, where they re-embark. As their gondola pushes off_, MR. TROTTER _and_ BOB PRENDERGAST _appear from the Museum_. MR. T. Why, land sakes! ain't that Mr. Podbury and Mr. Culchard? Hi! you ain't ever going away? There's my darter and Miss Hypatia around somewhere--They'll be dreadful disappointed to have missed you! PODB. (_with an heroic attempt at cheeriness_). We--we're awfully disappointed to have missed _them_, Mr. Trotter. Afraid we can't stop now! Good-bye! [CULCHARD _pulls his hat-brim over his eyes and makes a sign to the gondoliers to get on quickly_; MR. TROTTER _comments with audible astonishment on their departure to_ BOB, _who preserves a discreet silence_. CHAPTER XXVI. +Podbury Kisses the Rod.+ SCENE--_On the Lagoons._ CULCHARD _and_ PODBURY'S _gondola is nearing Venice. The apricot-tinted diaper on the facade of the Ducal Palace is already distinguishable, and behind its battlements the pearl-grey domes of St. Mark's shimmer in the warm air._ CULCHARD _and_ PODBURY _have hardly exchanged a sentence as yet. The former has just left off lugubriously whistling as much as he can remember of "Che faro," the latter is still humming "The Dead March in Saul," although in a livelier manner than at first_. CULCH. Well, my dear Podbury, our--er--expedition has turned out rather disastrously! PODB. (_suspending the_ "_Dead March_," _chokily_). Not much mistake about _that_--but there, it's no good talking about it. Jolly that brown and yellow sail looks on the fruit barge there. See? CULCH. (_sardonically_). Isn't it a little late in the day to be cultivating an eye for colour? I was about to say that those two girls have treated us infamously. I say deliberately, my dear Podbury, _infamously_! PODB. Now drop it, Culchard, do you hear? I won't hear a word against either of them. It serves us jolly well right for not knowing our own minds better--though I no more dreamed that old Bob would----Oh, hang it, I can't talk about it yet! CULCH. That's childishness, my dear fellow; you _ought_ to talk about it--it will do you good. And really, I'm not at all sure, after all, that we have not both of us had a fortunate escape. One is very apt to--er--overrate the fascinations of persons one meets abroad. Now neither of those two was _quite_---- PODB. (_desperately_). Take care! I swear I'll pitch you out of this gondola, unless you stop that jabber!