‘It was Hazlitt at the beginning of last year, sir. Then it was Hunt, and Lamb. Now it’s Thackeray.’
‘Keats anywhere?’
‘Oh! Keats?9 The tone was enough.
‘Favourite bit of Keats now?’
‘Oh, sir, you can’t have favourite bits of Keats.’
‘Come! The darling.’
‘“St Agnes,”’ said Paul; ‘Chapman’s Homer, “The Nightingale,” “Hyperion.”’
‘Oh! One love at a time.’
‘I can’t, sir.’
‘Wordsworth?’