“Then, I should say off-hand that you are a teacher, and are now taking a vacation in Europe. Am I right?”
“Tell me first why you think so?”
“I am afraid to tell you. I do not want to drift towards the line of enmity.”
“You need have no fear. I have every respect for a man who tells the truth when he has to.”
“Well, I think a school teacher is very apt to get into a certain dictatorial habit of speech. School teachers are something like military men. They are accustomed to implicit obedience without question, and this, I think, affects their manner with other people.”
“You think I am dictatorial, then?”
“Well, I shouldn’t say that you were dictatorial exactly. But there is a certain confidence—I don’t know just how to express it, but it seems to me, you know—well, I am going deeper and deeper into trouble by what I am saying, so really I shall not say any more. I do not know just how to express it.”
“I think you express it very nicely. Go on, please.”
“Oh, you are laughing at me now.”
“Not at all, I assure you. You were trying to say that I was very dictatorial.”