Mr Saltzburg, purple in the face, made a last effort.
“This young man is new,” he bellowed carefully, keeping to words of one syllable. “He does not yet know the steps. He says this is his first day here, so he does not yet know the steps. When he has been here some more time he will know the steps. But now he does not know the steps.”
“What he means,” explained the young man in tweeds helpfully, “is that I don’t know the steps.”
“He does not know the steps!” roared Mr Saltzburg.
“I know he doesn’t know the steps,” said Mr Miller. “Why doesn’t he know the steps? He’s had long enough to learn them.”
“He is new!”
“Hugh?”
“New!”
“Oh, new?”
“Yes, new!”