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SCENE -- _The Lower Hall of the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice. British Tourists discovered studying the Tintorets on the walls and ceiling by the aid of Ruskin, Hare, and Baedeker, from which they read aloud, instructively, to one another._ MISS PRENDERGAST _has brought "The Stones of Venice" for the benefit of her brother and_ PODBURY. _Long self-repression has reduced_ PODBURY _to that unpleasantly hysterical condition known as "a fit of the giggles," which, however, has hitherto escaped detection_.
MISS P. (_standing opposite "The Flight into Egypt" reading_). "One of the principal figures here is the Donkey. " Where _is_ Mr. Podbury? [_To_ P., _who reappears, humbly proffering a tin focussing-case_.] Thanks, but you need not have troubled! "The Donkey. um -- um -- never seen -- um -- um -- any of the nobler animals so sublime as this quiet head of the domestic ass" -- (_here_ BOB _digs_ PODBURY _in the ribs behind_ MISS P. 'S _back_) -- "chiefly owing to the grand motion in the nostril, and writhing in the ears. " (_A spasmodic choke from_ PODBURY.) May I ask what you find so amusing?