OF SPECIALISED CONVERSATION 175 



this one round the corner was a good pound and 

 three-quarters. 



CHAVEN : Oh, I know. There's a twig sticks 

 up just outside him, a black twig. 



WICK : Well, blackish. 



CHAVEN : There's a young copper beech opposite. 



WICK : Yes, youngish. 



I : Oh, that one. 



WICK : Yes. 



CHAVEN : Of course. 



WICK: Well- 



At this point my wife suddenly began to favour 

 us with some very pungent observations. She 

 said, among other things, that she had not asked 

 Wickham and Chavender to Willows that they 

 might entertain her with this kind of prating. 

 She asked them plainly if they had left their 

 wits behind them in London. She expressed 

 astonishment that two such splendid intellects 

 could concern themselves with folly of so colossal 

 an order. She threatened to remove the teapot 

 if Chavender so much as said " trout " again. For 

 a week, she said, she had been living for that witty 

 discourse upon really interesting topics of which 

 she knew them to be capable. She called Heaven 

 to witness, that of all tedious subjects angling 

 was the most tiresome. Them and their copper 

 beeches ! Them and their measurements along the 



