Refers to the strategic actions that Mr. Lodge employed in an (unsuccessful, naturally! :P) attempt to prevent the clumsy accident-prone
Archie from bumblingly knocking over his "priceless 'n' super-fragile" antique
Ming Dynasty vase: he placed the ultra-vulnerable artifact on a small display-stand away off in the far end of the room, and put an indestructible rubber replica of the vase in the center of the room for Archie to look at instead of the genuine --- and incredibly breakable --- clay
urn.
Mr. Lodge
smugly gloats to his daughter Veronica about the ingenious eVASEive maneuver he has employed to protect his lovely valuable work of art from the soon-to-arrive-for-a-visit
Archie --- "I had a rubber replica made of it; Archie won't be able to break this bouncy duplicate no matter how hard he bumps into it!" Of course, his seemingly-foolproof plan fails miserably (as usual!)... the hapless Archie --- fearing that he'll damage the
vase even though it's just a rubber replica --- backs
warily away from it and unknowingly blunders straight into the REAL
VASE that's sitting on a stool behind him, sending it crashing to the floor and
splintering all to pieces. :P