Why they hesitated I never could tell, unless they did it by way of a joke. More probably, they found it difficult, on account of being so fat, to make up their minds.
They all seemed highly amused at the success of the king's 'joke.'
We began to laugh again, feeling sure that they were indulging in some joke that was intended to crown our little entertainment.
"The joke became a little tedious; and Richard asked half-seriously and half in jest:
His hunting was always successful; he was ever ready to render any assistance in the camp or on the march; while his jokes, his antics, and the very cut of his countenance, so full of whim and comicality, kept every one in good-humor.
Still his wit was never frozen, nor his sunshiny temper beclouded; and his innumerable antics and practical jokes, while they quickened the circulation of his own blood, kept his companions in high good-humor.
'Don't tease so,' said Alice, looking about in vain to see where the voice came from; 'if you're so anxious to have a
joke made, why don't you make one yourself?'
Maybe he'll be willing to explain his joke to the Hoppers."
The other Horners who were standing by roared with laughter and seemed to like their Chief's joke as much as he did.
"It is an excellent
joke. The cream of it is too that I am in earnest; neither you nor any of those ladies whom I see out there will sit at my table again."
"It means, my dear friend," explained the Woggle-Bug, "that our language contains many words having a double meaning; and that to pronounce a
joke that allows both meanings of a certain word, proves the joker a person of culture and refinement, who has, moreover, a thorough command of the language."
Stepan Arkadyevitch was telling his sister-in-law his
joke about divorce.
Though it's other people must see the
joke in a niece's putting a slight on her mother's eldest sister, as is the head o' the family; and only coming in and out on short visits, all the time she's been in the town, and then settling to go away without my knowledge,--as I'd laid caps out on purpose for her to make 'em up for me,--and me as have divided my money so equal "
An ironical smile played on Evgenie's lips all the while the recitation was proceeding, which showed that he, too, was probably in the secret of the 'poor knight' joke. But it had become quite a different matter with Aglaya.
At all events her performance--which was a joke, of course, if rather a crude one,--was premeditated.
