"Stay," he said; "you must have a motto. Do you know Italian?"
"Not a word."
"Or Spanish, or German?"
"No."
"Well, you surely can recollect some Greek—for next to manuscript quotations and old plays, you can't do better than have some foreign lines at the beginning of the chapter. What Greek do you remember?—for, 'pon my honour; I've forgotten all mine."
"My dear Jack, I only know a line here and there."
"Out with them. Put them all in a row, and never mind the meaning."
Thus urged, I indited the following as a headpiece.]
"Deinè de clangè genet' argurioio bioio,
Be d'akeion para thina poluphlosboio thalasses,
Thelo legein Atreidas, thelo de Cadmon adein,
Ton d'apomeibomenos prosephè podas-ocus Achilleus."
HOMER, Iliad, 1. I.
["Excellent! bravo!" said Jack; "they'll see at once the author is a gentleman and a scholar; and now go on.">[