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A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
page 71 of 571 (12%)
pronunciation of a dead language is of much importance; yet your
accents and quantities have a grotesque sound to my ears. I
thought first that you had acquired your way of breathing the
vowels from some of the northern colleges; but it cannot be so
with the quantities. What I was going to ask was, if your
instructor in the classics could possibly have been an Oxford or
Cambridge man?'

'Yes; he was an Oxford man--Fellow of St. Cyprian's.'

'Really?'

'Oh yes; there's no doubt about it.

'The oddest thing ever I heard of!' said Mr. Swancourt, starting
with astonishment. 'That the pupil of such a man----'

'The best and cleverest man in England!' cried Stephen
enthusiastically.

'That the pupil of such a man should pronounce Latin in the way
you pronounce it beats all I ever heard. How long did he instruct
you?'

'Four years.'

'Four years!'

'It is not so strange when I explain,' Stephen hastened to say.
'It was done in this way--by letter. I sent him exercises and
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