unearths some literary gems.
***
[I believe this is our second encounter with a French "Mr. Somebody." (I don't think the previous one was from this same author, though I could be wrong.) The genericized gentilhomme in the dialogue below is a rhetorical straw man running a hypothetical correspondence course in hairdressing. And no extra charge for an Uncle Bob!]
"Send five guineas to Monsieur Whatsit, and Bob's your Uncle!"
***
"She gave me the sort of look that novelists call 'withering,' and I thought her nose was going to coincide with her chin."
***
Perhaps later he might make the effort to stroll as far as San Zanipolo....Perhaps he might make his way to one of those other squares....Perhaps he would hire a gondola, and go to sleep. Most likely he would do none of these things. It was enough for Humphrey to know that he could do them if he would.
***
[Eating Someone Else's Hat dept.]
If those two aren't suddenly mortally afraid, thought Pellew, I'll eat George Cartwright's hat.
***
[Yes, the semicolon does help. Nonetheless, I confess I got an accordion-playing dachshund on my first trip through this sentence! (:v>]
He cherished a long-haired dachshund, which never left his side; and would frequently enliven his periods of duty on the bridge by playing gently on an accordion.
***
Bonuses:
"the susurrus of sandals"
a character named Francis Pinecoffin
