"I have not known much of you, either in preaching or in practicing, as yet. We shall see."
"Shall I begin now?"
"If you like," answered the young girl.
"Which shall it be, preaching or practicing?"
"I should say that, as you have me entirely at your mercy, the opportunity is favorable for preaching."
"I would not make such an unfair use of my advantage," said the professor. "I detest preaching. In practice I never preach"——
"You are making too much conversation out of those two words," interrupted Hermione. "If I let you go on, you will be making puns upon them."
"You do not like puns?"
"I think nothing is more contemptible."
"Merely because that way of being funny is grown old-fashioned," said Cutter. "Fifty or sixty years ago, a hundred years ago, when a man wanted to be very bitingly sarcastic, he would compose a criticism upon his enemy which was only a long string of abominable puns; each pun was printed in italics. That was thought to be very funny."