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Indiana University Studies 



the table. He gives the natural setting and perspective to their 

 very words. An example of the last in this conversation at 

 Rosalind's table between herself, Sally, and Fenwick. It jumps 

 from one person to the other, just as in life: 



"Weil, kitten, I suppose you'll go your own way; only I shall be very 

 glad when you're back in your machine. Coffee, Gerry?" 



"Yes, coffee — in the big cup with the chip, and lots of milk. You're 

 a dangerous young monkey, Sarah; and I shall get old Benjamin's boat, 

 and hang about. And then you'll be happy, Rosey, eh?" 



"No, I shan't! We shall have you getting capsized, too. (I put in 



three lumps of sugar No, not little ones — • big ones!) What 



a thing it is to be connected with aquatic characters!" 77 



When people talk, the} T do not use well-rounded, complete 

 sentences. Characters in most books do. De Morgan's, how- 

 ever, are remarkable exceptions. Rosalind, speaking to Fenwick 



one day, says: 



"But then Shakespeare might have gone on and written a, dry respect- 

 able story — not a love-story; an esteem story — about how Juliet took an 

 interest in Romeo's welfare, and Romeo posted her letters for her, and 

 presented her with a photograph album and so on. And how the families 

 left cards." 78 



The sentence-fragment with which this concludes is very 

 characteristic of De Morgan's mode of representing conversation. 

 That, really, is the way people talk. The whole of this conversa- 

 tion illustrates the spare use of the ordinary machinery of book 

 dialogue — the "he saids" and the "she replieds". It occupies 

 two pages, and yet there occur only one "said Fenwick", one "as 

 Fenwick says", one "she replies", and one "Fenwick repeats". 

 It is De Morgan's principle not to depend on such identifying 

 tags, but to so individualize his people's words that we have no 

 doubt which one is speaking. He has also caught the secret of 

 representing the chatter of several persons talking at once. 

 This he does by throwing their sentences together, with no identi- 

 fication whatever, except the marks of individuality accompanying 

 each speaker's words. When Tishy and the Counter Jumper take 

 their honeymoon at St. Sennans-on-Sea and Sally and her mother 

 first see them, the effect of reality is given to their first words by 

 these conglomerates : 



"How did you manage to get it arranged?" "Why ?iow? Have you 

 quarrelled with your mother?" "How long can you be away? I hate the 

 stingy honeymoon!" "You've got no things." "Do you think they'll know 

 at home where you are?" "Where are you going afterwards?" "What do 



77 Somehow Good, p. 358. 

 ™IMd., p. 240. 



