"Yes; but I can't. I want to know all you know, and I want to know it now."
"All I know wouldn't be much, according to the Spragues, who gave me my status in this town, long ago, as an ignoramus."
"Perhaps you were then, papa."
"Yes; I hadn't been schooled fifteen years by my accomplished daughter."
"A lie is truth to those who only tell the truth."
"What does that mean?"
"It's simple enough—a home-made epigram. People who tell nothing but the truth are easiest made to believe a lie. The Spragues had heard of you as ignorant, and believed it. You can't blame them for that."
"I don't blame them because it was a lie. I blame them because it was the truth. I don't care a straw how many lies are told about me—it's the ill-natured truth I object to."
"I'm afraid that you will have a hard time in life if you like lies better than the truth."
"I didn't say that."