human
I'm sorry, sir--didn't go for to startle you, Mr. Welland.
gpt
Oh, didn't you!
human
It was the wig.
gpt
The wig, sir? Oh, you mean the absence of my wig. I'm in a manner disguised. I understand your synecdoche, or do I mean hypallage?
human
Metonymy,
gpt
Brrr! said Amadeus Welland.
human
Mm-yas, of course, 'tis the spotted child, the younger one. How's your brother, Mr. Cory?
gpt
Well,
human
Ah, the wig! The structure! I employ it, you understand, for medical purposes. Wondrous therapeutic--I dare venture you and your brother were so frightened by it that you were forced to recover in spite of the worst my simples could do. Yet plainly no one in his right mind could dwell in such a thing, let alone go for a walk in the woods.
gpt
I can see that, sir.
human
You can, ha? I bought it in Newport, said Mr. Welland dreamily.
gpt
Ten years ago. The moths have been at it a little since then; at that time there were more ribbons in it, and I was younger myself. It doth own one other function beside the medical. Not exactly duplicity nor artifice--let us say, concealment. As a scholar, Mr. Cory, you'll discover how a man of learning must often hide in the bushes, not only from the ignorant, sir, but even more from the almost-wise. Now a man of medicine, if he hath also some pretension to scholarship, is much exposed, sir, much exposed to the winds of mischance, and so must even carry his own dem'd shrubbery about with him, and that's what I do. Honestly, Reuben, a'n't it a _hell_ of a wig?
human
Oh, Mr. Kenny! said Faith Jenks.
gpt
Brier roses? I'll rest content with that till you say a prettier.