“Do you think you can?”
“I am sure of it.”
He rang for the landlady, and asked for writing materials. She apologised for the penny bottle of ink, and spoke of getting a table from the next room, but he said he could write very well on the chimney-piece. “I suppose I had better begin, 'Sir'?”
“Don't people generally begin, 'Dear Sir'?”
“Not when they don't know the people they are writing to.”
“But you do know him a little. He always said you were very haughty. You used to sit at his table.”
“I think I had better begin the letter with 'Sir.'”
“Very well. You know best. He was always very jealous.”