"There are gaps in your learning after all. I'll be happy to tell you about Harvey if you like. About Signor Malpighi too, who as it happens discovered the presence of the capillaries by dissecting the lung of a frog. Not one of your frogs of course. Some Swiss or Italian frog, unknown benefactor of science."
"Did you think, sir, I was all vain because I like to make comical noises with big words?"
"No, sir. On reflection—no; I did not think that."
"I've been called—oh, flippant or the like, because it seems I do now and then laugh at the wrong time."
"Who calls you that?"
"Oh!... My tutor for one, but meaneth no harm by it. Actually he's very kind, and I suppose I try him badly, but then by chance I'll pronounce some Latin quantity correctly or come unscathed through the horrid jungle of some Greek verb, and he forgiveth all."
"M. Cory, I have been sitting here fearing that perhaps I had laughed at the wrong times, and that you might regard me as—mm-yas, flippant or the like."
"I do not."
"In that view of the case, perhaps you and I ought to be friends."
"As a matter of fact," said Reuben, "I thought we already were."