Tyc. So sponging is an art, eh?
Si. It is; and I profess it.
Tyc. So you are a sponger?
Si. What an awful reproach!
Tyc. What! you do not blush to call yourself a sponger?
Si. On the contrary, I should be ashamed of not calling myself so.
Tyc. And when we want to distinguish you for the benefit of any one who does not know you, but has occasion to find you out, we must say ‘the sponger,’ naturally?
Si. The name will be more welcome to me than ‘statuary’ to Phidias; I am as proud of my profession as Phidias of his Zeus.
Tyc. Ha, ha, ha! Excuse me—just a particular that occurred to me.
Si. Namely——?