"Nine and a half hours. My Flibbertigibbet is too much for me at times, and I had to walk off my temper."
"All those hours were required?"
"You are training for your Alpine tour?"
"It's doubtful whether I shall get to the Alps this year. I leave the Hall, and shall probably be in London with a pen to sell."
"Willoughby knows that you leave him?"
"As much as Mont Blanc knows that he is going to be climbed by a party below. He sees a speck or two in the valley."
"He has spoken of it."
"He would attribute it to changes."
I need not discuss how far this advances the novelist's narrative, but it is plain that it is not a model for the beginner. For smartness and "point" nothing could be better than Anthony Hope's "Dolly Dialogues," although the style is not necessarily that of a novel.