Tex: I sometimes mention places which I have never visited.
Joseph: Bucharest is a second Paris.
Tex: Grrrrrrrrmph!
Joseph: Though I daresay it has been destroyed by now.
Tex: (to his wife). . . . Have you done with Femina? If so, I'll give it to those Dutch ladies.
(Stalks off to Mrs. and Miss van L.) Joseph: (to an Irish widow) I have been to all the capitals of Europe . . . (and holds the wretched Mrs. N. enthralled, so I am told, for two mortal hours). . . .
Later. Joseph (to [my wife]): How clever of your husband to speak Dutch to those ladies!
'[My wife]: Not at all! He's a Dutchman.
Joseph: I know Holland very well. I have been to Rotterdam. I have been to Java. The finest botanical gardens in the world are at Buitenzorg near Batavia.
'[My wife]: Re-e-ally!
Can you Teixeira asks, 2. 12. 20, lend me that book by James Joyce (Portrait of the Artist), which you once wrote to me about? I see Barbellion praises it enthusiastically in the new diary.
Would you like me to lend you A Last Diary or have you bought it?
Your Uncle Joseph was in disgrace yesterday.
