2–4
Lycinus
A complete triolet of them.
Purist
You are certainly joking.
5
Lycinus
And you are as certainly a poor detective.
Purist
If you were to say something, one might have a chance.
Lycinus
Four chances you have had, and no result. It would have been a fine feather in your hat to have got them all.
Purist
Nothing fine about it; it is no more than I undertook.
Lycinus
Why, there you are again!
10
Lycinus
‘Feather in your hat’?!
Purist
I don’t know what you mean.
Lycinus
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.
Purist
Oh, I am willing enough; only you have not made any solecisms in the usual sense.
Lycinus
How about that last? Now watch me well, as you did not get me that time.
Purist
I cannot say I did.
Lycinus
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.
Purist
Oh, I am wide awake.
5
Lycinus
Well, they are gone.
Lycinus
The fact is, your too much learning renders you unconscious to solecisms; whatever case I take, it is always the same.
Purist
What you mean by that I am sure I don’t know; but I have often caught people out in blunders.
