“I never before tasted Madeira.”
“Then you ask for a wine without knowing what it is?”
“I ask for it, sir, that I may know what it is.”
“Well, there is logic in that, as Parr would say; you have heard of Parr?”
“Old Parr?”
“Yes, old Parr, but not that Parr; you mean
the English, I the Greek Parr, [225a] as people call him.”
“I don’t know him.”
“Perhaps not—rather too young for that, but were you of my age, you might have cause to know him, coming from where you do. He kept school there—I was his first scholar; he flogged Greek into me till I loved him—and he loved me: he came to see me last year, and sat in that chair; I honour Parr—he knows much, and is a sound man.”
“Does he know the truth?”