second part is wishing you would turn off the tap and go home. I mean"
"If," said the captain, "you're reciting something, stop. If you're trying to tell me what you're doing here, make it shorter and easier."
Archie saw his point. Of course, time was money—the modern spirit of hustle—all that sort of thing.
"Well, it was this bathing suit, you know," he said.
"What bathing suit?"
"Mine, don't you know. A lemon-coloured contrivance. Rather bright and so forth, but in its proper place not altogether a bad egg. Well, the whole thing started, you know, with my standing on a bally pedestal sort of arrangement in a diving attitude—for the cover, you know. I don't know if you have ever done anything of that kind yourself, but it gives you a most fearful crick in the spine. However, that's rather beside the point, I suppose—don't know why I mentioned it. Well, this morning he was dashed late, so I went out"
"What the devil are you talking about?"
Archie looked at him, surprised.
"Aren't I making it clear?"
"No."
"Well, you understand about the bathing suit, don't you? The jolly old bathing suit, you've grasped that, what?"
"No."
"Oh, I say," said Archie. "That's rather a nuisance. I mean to say, the bathing suit's what you might call the good old pivot of the whole dashed affair, you see. Well, you understand about the cover, what? You're pretty clear on the subject of the cover?"
