﻿Hale: William De Morgan 



19 



you think your father will say?" "What I want to know is, what put it 

 into your head now, more than any other time?" 79 



As De Morgan says, "It does not really matter who were the 

 speakers, nor what the share of each was", for in real life people 

 run on in this way, with no one paying any particular attention 

 to what the other is saying. 



Another reason why this author's conversations produce the 

 effect of reality is the limited length of each speaker's parts. In a 

 great many books an intimate conversation consists of series of 

 orations, while in actual life only the bore monopolizes the con- 

 versation in this way. De Morgan allows his people, however, 

 to speak only a normal amount at a time, and this has a great 

 deal to do with their genuineness. He' has given verisimilitude 

 to the conversations, also, by the little individual peculiarities of 

 pronunciation which he sometimes indicates. For instance, 

 Beppino was in the habit of saying "Juvence" for "Joe Vance", 

 and "Tinny-son' ' for that poet. At one time he had a way of 

 calling Joe "Medea. Fill. Awe" {my dear fellow), and at another 

 he pronounced it "Deiphila". 80 Sally constantly exclaimed 

 "we-e-e-ell", 81 and Mr. Tick was fond of "absoli-yootly". 82 Uncle 

 Drury always said "char char" for " 'pshaw". 83 Many of our 

 author's best conversations occur in the dialect of the slums, of 

 which the tilt between Frederick 'Orkins and Mrs. Groves of 

 Vatted Rum Corners furnishes a good illustration: 



"Marcy me, no!" said Mother Groves of the chestnuts when requested 

 by him to 'and over a good un, fair- and no cheating. "The riskis lies with 

 the buyers. Where 'ud I be, in half the time, at that rate?" 



"Then I'll 'ave the law of yer. Just see if I don't." He danced again, 

 and this time his dance seemed to express confidence in his solicitor. But 

 presently he stopped, and offered a composition: "You lookee here, Missis 

 Groves", he said. "I'll 'and you back the mouldy one, onbit-into and 

 closin' over the busted shell, acrost a clean new un, and I'll take another 

 highp'orth off you, and pay square. If that ain't fair, nothin' ain't! But 

 you got to look sharp, or the chance '11 be gone." 



Mother Groves rejected the chance "It ain't consideration enough to 

 go again' the rules on, and me to take my 'ands out in the perishing cold. 

 Make it a penn'orth and pick yourself, all exceptin' the three top." 



"Hin't got no penny! Feel in my porket and see. It's open to yer to 

 feel. There hin't no horbstickle. Here's a highp'ny and the bloomin' nut, 

 shell and all. Mike your mind up!" 84 



^Somehow Good. pp. 332-333. 

 %Q Joseph Vance, p. 340, etc. 

 &l Somehow Good, p. 84, etc. 

 **A Likely Story, p. 249. 

 ™The Old Madhouse, p. 4. 



9i It Never Can Happen Again, p. 137. Christopher Vance's talk (in Joseph 

 Vance) is always admirable. 



