Wu Ting
How would you interpret the last sentence? Most definitely, I am not married, or involved in any secret romance. Those stories are completely invented. The Violet Brown in question is my stenographer. She wears cotton gloves indoors and unless some terrible accident has deceived us, never has shared a coffee cup that touched my lips. She accompanied me on the research trip to Yucatán, so the gossip-marketers must have learned about it and fallen in love with their fantasies. Believe me, the lady is chaste. This latest run of stories has been very troubling, harder for her than for me. I’m constantly stupefied that anyone believes the nonsense that runs in the papers. And yet they do, time and again. Tommy, you ought to know I am not one for marriage, any more than I was one for the army, back when you and I were ducking bullets for the National Museum. So put your poor cracked heart back together, soldier. I didn’t snub you from any wedding list.How would you interpret the last sentence? Literally, does it mean he wouldn’t forget to send his friend a wedding list if he ever wanted to marry someone?Oops, I was wrong. He used ‘didn’t, so I think the last sentence means he had married no one, right?
Apr 26, 2015 1:47 AM
Answers · 1
1
Yes, you're right. Apparently his friend was sure he (the writer) was going to get married to his stenographer, and was upset that he (the friend) didn't get invited to the wedding. The writer is assuring his friend that he did not exclude him, because there was no wedding. The implication is that of course he would invite his friend if there were a wedding.
April 26, 2015
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