"May 25

Carrie brought down some of my
shirts and advised me to take them to
Trillip's round the corner. She said:
'The fronts and cuffs are much frayed.' I said
without a moment's hesitation: 'I'm *frayed* they
are.' Lor! how we roared. I thought we should
never stop laughing. As I happened to be sitting
next the driver going to town on the 'bus, I told
him my joke about the 'frayed' shirts. I thought
he would have rolled off his seat. They laughed at
the office a good bit too over it.

May 26
Left the shirts to be repaired at
Trillip's. I said to him: 'I'm
*'fraid* they are *frayed.* He said,
without a smile: 'They're bound to do that, sir.'
Some people seem to be quite destitute of a sense
of humour."

George and Weedon Grossmith
*The Diary of a Nobody*
(first published 1940)