Reading progress update: I've read 160 out of 299 pages.

Clouds of Witness - Dorothy L. Sayers

‘He said what he thought,’ said Mary. ‘Of course, Lord Mountweazle, poor dear, doesn’t understand that the present generation is accustomed to discuss things with its elders, not just kow-tow to them. When George gave his opinion, he thought he was just contradicting.’ ‘To be sure,’ said the Dowager, ‘when you flatly deny everything a person says it does sound like contradiction to the uninitiated. But all I remember saying to Peter was that Mr Goyles’s manners seemed to me to lack polish, and that he showed a lack of independence in his opinions.’

‘A lack of independence?’ said Mary, wide-eyed.

‘Well, dear, I thought so. What oft was thought and frequently much better expressed, as Pope says – or was it somebody else? But the worse you express yourself these days the more profound people think you – though that’s nothing new.

Hear, hear, Duchess.