Monday, December 02, 2024

There are tiffs, and then there are TIFFS

     "D'Arcy Cheesewright," she said, getting right off the mark without so much as a preliminary "What ho, there," "is an obstinate, mulish, pigheaded, overbearing, unimaginative, tyrannical jack in office."

    Her words froze me to the core. I was conscious of a sense of frightful peril. Owing to young Edwin's infernal officiousness, this pancake had been in receipt only a few hours earlier of a handsome diamond brooch, ostensibly as a present from Bertram W., and now, right on top of it, she had had a falling out with Stilton, so substantial that it took her six distinct adjectives to describe him. When a girl uses six derogatory adjectives in her attempt to paint the portrait of the loved one, it means something. One may indicate a merely temporary tiff. Six if big stuff.

(from Joy in the Morning, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

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