The
dictionary gives _stroke_ for _blow_, and I'm sure that's it."
"Rot! they don't mean to say that at all! It ain't a _blow_ to the
noble mind, it's just the opposite; that's what _they_ mean."
"How can it be the opposyte?" shrilled Polly. "Ain't it a knock-down
if you get what you don't deserve?"
"I tell you _they_ don't mean that. Can't you understand? Why, it's
as plain as the nose on your face."
"Is it?" retorted Polly with indignation. "If I've got a plain nose,
why didn't you tell me so before? If that's your way of talking to a
lady--"
"Don't be a fool, Polly! It's a saying, ain't it?"
And they parted as usual, in dudgeon on both sides, which was not
soothed when both found themselves wrong in the literary contest;
for the missing word this week, discovered by an East-end licensed
victualler, was _pick-me-up_.
Public opinion found fault with this editorial English. There rose a
general murmur; the loftier spirits demanded a purer vocabulary, the
multitude wanted to know whether that licensed victualler really
existed.
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