2. But this is a fashion I love to kiss the hand or wave a handkerchief to people I shall never see again to play with possibility and knock in a peg for fancy to hang upon
3. You see what it is to be a gentleman I beg your pardon what it is to be a pedler.
4. Centralization said he but the landlord was at his throat in a minute
5. There should be some myth but if there is I know it not founded on the shivering of the reeds there are not many things in nature more striking to man’s eye
6. “The fire should have been here at this side” explained the husband “then one might have a writing table in the middle books and” comprehensively[11] “all it would be quite coquettish ça serait tout-à-fait coquet.”
Quotation Marks.
1. Marks of quotation, or, as the English call them, inverted commas, are placed around direct quotations. Many students neglect a part of this little duty: they fail to mark the end of the quotation.
2. A quotation within a quotation stands between single commas. Thus: “We were gathered on shore, watching the schooner. Gray spoke up: ‘She’s certainly going down, and we must let the saving station know it. Maybe the patrol has already seen her; I saw a sailor walking on the beach not long since, and singing, “Yeave ho, my lads, the wind blows free.”’” Note that when there is a quotation within the second quotation, it receives the double marks.
3. Sometimes a quotation is given in substance, with no attempt at accuracy; to show this fact it is quoted in single commas. Thus: ‘A foolish consistency frightens little minds.’ This is the substance of Emerson’s remark, “A foolish consistency is the bugbear of little minds.”
Theme.—Write a dialogue a page or two long. Show the change from speaker to speaker by the use of quotation marks and paragraphing. Each reply of each interlocutor, with its word or two of introduction, if such there be, should go by itself as a paragraph. Choose your own topic; or take one of these, changing the wording: (1) Smith tries to make Brown see the difference between relative clauses restrictive and those merely coördinate. (2) Two girls lament the difficulties of punctuation. (3) Two lads [or, men] talk politics. Do not begin each speech as in Shakespeare each is begun—with the speaker’s name. Refer occasionally to the speakers, if you please, e.g., “‘Not by any means,’ responded Bangs, rather tartly”; but do not hesitate to let most of the speeches stand without comment. Punctuate the dialogue carefully, as you write. Then revise it carefully for punctuation.