"Long?" I said. "Why, my goodness! you don't call that Brotherly Love sermon of yours long , do you?"
"It takes fully fifty minutes to deliver."
"Surely not?"
"Your incredulity, my dear Wooster, is extremely flattering—far more flattering, of course, than I deserve. Nevertheless, the facts are as I have stated. You are sure that I would not be well advised to make certain excisions and eliminations? You do not think it would be a good thing to cut, to prune? I might, for example, delete the rather exhaustive excursus into the family life of the early Assyrians?"
"Don't touch a word of it, or you'll spoil the whole thing," I said earnestly.
"I am delighted to hear you say so, and I shall preach the sermon without fail next Sunday morning."
What I have always said, and what
