... than 'a profe-4or.' lf, however he had been a mere professor no one would have minded him much, for prigs are as common as blackberries in this and every other country. But it so happened he was a prig who had the knack of writing uncommonly good English ...

... probably never before gathered together within the walls of a newspaper office; members of Parliament were as plentiful as blackberries in autumn, and famous journalists wandered, unheeded, among their superiors In station. Here is my usual poignie of gossip ...