“Do you still fall?” (He was notorious for his tumbles.)
“Yes.”
“How often?”
He reflected. Then: “About twelve times an hour.... If I skated all day and all night I should fall twelve twelves—144, isn’t it?”
I said it would be twenty-four twelves.
“Oh! I see——”
“Two hundred and——”
“Eighty-eight,” he overtook me quickly. “But I didn’t mean that. I meant all day and all night, you know—‘evening. People don’t generally skate all through the night, do they?” Pause. “Six from 144—138, isn’t it? I’ll say 138, because you’d have to take half an hour off for dinner, wouldn’t you?”
He became silent, discussing seriously within himself whether half an hour would suffice for dinner, without undue hurrying.