2
Precisely; you do not know. And now suppose you go first; you do not like following, that is what it is; you understand, if you chose.
3
Oh, I am willing enough; only you have not made any solecisms in the usual sense.
3
How about that last? Now watch me well, as you did not get me that time.
3
I cannot say I did.
3
Now for a rabbit, then; there, that’s him! Has he got by? There he is, that’s him, I tell you. Hims enough to fill a warren, if you don’t wake up.
3
Oh, I am wide awake.
3
Well, they are gone.
3
Never!
3
The fact is, your too much learning renders you unconscious to solecisms; whatever case I take, it is always the same.
4
What you mean by that I am sure I don’t know; but I have often caught people out in blunders.
4
Well, you will catch me about the time that you are a sucking child again. By the way, a babe laying in his cradle would hardly jar on your notions of grammar, if you have not yet got me.
4
Well, I am convinced.
4
Now, if we cannot detect blunders like these, we are not likely to know much about our own; you see, you have just missed another. Very well now, never again call yourself competent either to detect blunders or to avoid them.
5
This is my blunt way, you see. Socrates of Mopsus, with whom I was acquainted in Egypt, used to put his corrections more delicately, so as not to humiliate the offender. Here are some specimens: What time do you set out on your travels?—What time? Oh, I see, you thought I started to-day.
5
The patrimonial income supplies me well enough.—Patrimonial? But your father is not dead?
5
So-and-so is a tribes-man of mine.—Oh, you are a savage, are you?
5
The fellow is a boozy.—Oh, Boozy was his mother’s name, was it?
5
Worser luck I never knew.—Well, you need not make it worserer.
5
I always said he had a good ’eart.—Yes, quite an artist.
5
So glad to see you, old cock!—Come, allow me humanity.
5
Contemptuous fellow! I would not go near him.—If he were contemptible, it would not matter, I suppose.
5
He is the most unique of friends.—Good; one likes degrees in uniqueness.
