A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FABLES FROM MULTIMODAL PERSPECTIVE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

PHAN THỊ HỒNG THẮM

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL
MEANING IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FABLES
FROM MULTIMODAL PERSPECTIVE

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH

Binh Dinh - 2019


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

PHAN THỊ HỒNG THẮM

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL
MEANING IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FABLES
FROM MULTIMODAL PERSPECTIVE

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8 22 02 01

Supervisor: VÕ DUY ĐỨC, Ph.D


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

PHAN THỊ HỒNG THẮM

NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH NGHĨA LIÊN NHÂN TRONG
TRUYỆN NGỤ NGÔN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT TỪ
PHƯƠNG DIỆN ĐA PHƯƠNG THỨC

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh
Mã số: 8 22 02 01

Người hướng dẫn: TS. VÕ DUY ĐỨC


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I hereby verify that the thesis titled “A comparative study of
interpersonal meaning in English and Vietnamese fables from multimodal
perspective” is my own work. No other person’s work has been used without
acknowledgement in the thesis. This thesis contains no material which was
previously published or written by another person, except where reference has
been made in the text. I have not submitted this thesis for the award of any
degree, diploma in any university or any other institution.

Quy Nhon city, 2019

PHAN THI HONG THAM


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my
supervisor Dr. Võ Duy Đức for his encouragement, source of valuable

materials related to multimodal genre, for his continuous support, patience,
enthusiasm and immense knowledge. His guidance helps me in all the time of
writing this thesis, without which this thesis could not be carried out.
I would send my sincere thanks all the lecturers in the English master
course for their perceptive judgments and discerning analysis, for their
valuable lectures which provide important materials for this thesis.
I am also grateful for source of materials and helpful suggestions on
fabled genre in my thesis of my friends, who inspired me to do this thesis.
Lastly, my sincere thanks go to my parents, my husband and my son for
their love, helping and supporting me spiritually throughout the time this
study is carried out.


ABSTRACT
This thesis aims at conducting a contrastive analysis of the Attitudinal
and Interpersonal resources in fables written in English and Vietnamese based
on the frameworks of Appraisal developed by Martin and White (2005) and
Grammar of Visual Design of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). The data for
this research were collected from 50 fables in English and in Vietnamese (25
in each language). In this study, a combination of variety methods such as
qualitative, quantitative, descriptive, comparative, analytic and synthetic
methods was employed to find out the correlations between fables in English
and Vietnamese in terms of how Interpersonal meanings are verbally and
visually conveyed. The findings of this study show some major similarities in
employing evaluative languages in the fables. Specifically, negative Affect is
used more commonly than positive Affect and positive Appreciation is used
more often than negative one. Moreover, the findings show that the imageproducers in both EFs and VFs tend to focus on the contact of Offer. In
addition, for Horizontal angle, the image-producer wants to employ more
Oblique than Frontal angle in both EFs and VFs. Some differences were
drawn out from the findings. The first difference is that the Affect is the most

frequently used in EFs while Appreciation ranks first in VFs. The next
difference lies in the use of Judgement resources. Vietnamese writers tend to
employ more negative Judgment while English writers tend to do the
opposite. Lastly, for Visual results, the image- producer in EFs tends to
employ Long Shot of Social Distance rather than Close shot and Medium
shot; while in VFs, the largest percentage is illustrated by Medium shot. The
results of this thesis make some pratical contribution to teaching and learning
English in Vietnam.


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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
There is no denying the fact that fables are popular and absolutely
pivotal in children's literature since they teach children lessons with
interesting animal characters. Fables are one type of folk literature with
stories containing characters as either animals or humans. Especially, fables
play a crucial role in our society as well as contain moral lessons or values
about life. According to Bonn (2010: 59-60) fable is “a prose or verse
narrative intended to convey a moral. Animals or inanimate objects with
human characteristics often serve as characters in fables”. Fables describe
what is morally right or wrong, the world of animals or humans, mostly in the
past, speaks of the moral lessons which are still relevant in present life and
tells a variety of subject matters like the explanations of phenomena in real
life or the teasing of bad habits of humans. Regarding this feature, Bartens
(2004) states that moral values are the basic standard of good and evil which
governs or rules individual behaviors and choices. Indeed, moral value deals

with a set of principle which is applied to evaluate the right or wrong in life.
In literary works, moral value is seen as a lesson which might inspire the
readers to be positive or to believe in better changes. Each story is a moral
lesson and through the words and behaviors of characters, we can draw
certain philosophies of life, in this case, fables in English and Vietnamese.
Among fables of various themes, images are also the attractiveness of fables.
It is irrefutable that photos are effective tools for attracting readers,
especially for children. Moreover, the combination of words and photos in


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those fables assists comprehension of the stories. So, understanding and
discovering the relationship between visual meaning and verbal meaning have
become the interest of many researchers. To the best of my knowledge, no
research has been done on fables from multimodal perspective. For all these
reasons, we decided to do the research entitled: “A comparative study of
Interpersonal meaning in English and Vietnamese fables from
multimodal perspective”.
1.2. Significance of the Study
The study is designed to examine Interpersonal and Attitudinal
meanings in fables in English and Vietnamese. Analyzing evaluative language
in EFs and VFs plays a crucial role in teaching and learning language since it
is helpful and effective for teachers and learners of English who use language
and images to analyze the highlights of the visual, especially for teaching the
lessons of the literature of English and Vietnamese. In addition, the findings
of the study are also of great importance to Vietnamese learners of English in
understanding and having profound lessons through the entertaining fables.
They are also expected to contribute to the process of teaching and learning
English in our country.

1.3. Aims and Objectives
1.3.1. Aims
The study aims at examining the interpersonal meaning in fables in
English and Vietnamese from verbal and visual perspectives in order to help
Vietnamese learners of English understand the importance of the fables and
the distinctive characteristics of these evaluative meanings. The findings of
the study hope to draw what the writers do to attract readers and to compare
the Attitudinal and Interpersonal meanings in fables in English and
Vietnamese.


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1.3.2. Objectives
The study attempts to achieve the following objectives:
-

Identify different Attitudinal values and Interpersonal features used in

fables in English and Vietnamese based on Appraisal theory developed by
Martin & White (2005) and Grammar of Visual Design of Kress and van
Leeuwen (2006).
-

Compare the Attitudinal and Interpersonal meanings in fables in

English and Vietnamese.
-

Find out the similarities and differences between English and

Vietnamese fables in terms of how those meanings are conveyed in the
stories.
1.4. Research Questions
To accomplish the objectives mentioned above, the study tries to
answer the following questions:
1.

How do the images in English and Vietnamese fables carry

interactional meanings?
2. How are Attitudinal resources used in the English and
Vietnamese
fables?
3.

What are the differences and similarities between English and

Vietnamese fables from verbal and visual perspectives?
1.5. Scope of the Study
The study focuses on analyzing the Attitude - one sub-system of
Appraisal and Interpersonal meaning through 25 fables in English and 25
fables in Vietnamese. In term of Appraisal theory, the attitude is classified into
Affect, Judgment and Appreciation which deal with how writers negotiate
their attitude with the readers, how they express their feeling toward
something or someone, and the way in which values are constructed. In terms


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of Visual meaning, within the limited time, the study just focuses on
Interactional meaning of these photos in the stories to find out the differences
and similarities between English and Vietnamese fables from visual
perspectives.
1.6. Organization of the Study
The study is organized into five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, which presents the rationale, the significance
of the study, the aims and objectives of the study, the scope of the study,
research questions and organization on the study.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, presents some theoretical concepts of
Appraisal and Grammar of Visual Design. Besides, it reviews some previous
studies as well as the comments of these studies.
Chapter 3, Methodology, describes method and procedure to carry out
the study. It includes research method, research procedure for carrying on the
study, description of samples, and the procedure of data collection and data
analysis.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussions, presents the work of description
of characteristics of Attitudinal and Interpersonal meanings used in fables in
English and Vietnamese, and then deals with the relationship between
Attitudinal meanings and Interpersonal meanings in those fables.
Chapter 5, Conclusions and Implications, summarizes the major
findings, shows conclusions, suggests some implications for teachers and
learners of English, especially reading skill. Moreover, some suggested ideas
are mentioned for further research.


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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Fables
According to The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (6th edition), a
fable is “ a brief allegorical narrative, in verse or prose, which illustrates a
moral thesis or satirizing human beings; the characters of a fable are usually
animals who talk and like people while retaining their animal traits.”. Fable is
also defined as “a traditional short story that teaches a moral lesson, especially
one with animals as characters” (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary,
2000). In other words, fables are stories that teach a moral lesson through the
use of animals as the main characters. Fables are narrations intended to
enforce a useful truth; especially one in which animals speak and act like
human beings. Fables are well liked in children's literature because they teach
children lessons which are interesting with the animal characters. They have
become beloved bedtime stories that are read to children all over the world.
According to Miller (2017), the characters in fables are typically animals that
can think, talk, behave like humans and face problems people face every day.
They are typical, with human strengths and weaknesses including a guileless
cat, a wise rabbit or a crafty fox. Remarkably, fables take off the need for
complex personalities, and this admits children to focus on its moral theme by
using simple characters. Because most fables are intended for children, their
structure is simple and straightforward. The beginning of a fable introduces
the main characters, which usually includes a hero and a villain. The
beginning also tells about a key event that leads to a conflict that the main
character must overcome. At the end, the main character is


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victorious. These three parts combine to teach children a moral lesson about
everyday life. In term of language, fables are written using simple language,

often with simple words and short sentences so they can be easily read and
understood by children of all ages. They may be written as a prose in the
same manner as other stories. The dialogue within a fable often poses
questions that are used to help the story along to its moral ending.
Aesop, the oldest of fables, is well-known by famous fables, The
Tortoise and the Hair, The Fox and the Grapes. No one knows who Aesop was
and it is unknown whether or not Aesop was a real person but is viewed as
one of the fathers of fables. Aesop’s fables are among the most widely read
and recited fables. According to the Children’s Literature network, scholars
have traced the origins of fables even further back than Aesop's time, all the
way back to 1800 B.C. According to the website Wikipedia, fables had a
further long tradition through the Middle Ages, and became part of European
high literature. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La
Fontaine (1621–1695) saw the soul of the fable in the moral, a rule of
behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the
court, the church, the rising bourgeoisie, indeed the entire human scene of his
time. In England, the tradition of fables was continued in the 17th and 18th
century by John Dryden and Jone Gay. There have been many writings of
fables such as “Fables of our times” by James Thurber's (1940) and “Animal
Farm” by George Orwell (1945). In United States, Marianne Moore wrote
poems quite similar to fables, “The fables of La Fontaine” (1954).
There have been a lot of studies on fables carried out by researchers and
linguists. Teupe (2013) explains the difference between animals in fairy tales
and animals in fables. She briefly introduces the genre of Animal Tales,
because it is similar to fairy tales and fables. Moreover, she expounds the


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function of talking animals in fairy tales and fables. Peter (2012) conducts a

study to compare the human presence in the text of Robert Henryson’s Fables
and William Caxton’s The History of Reynard the Fox. The principal method
used is the gathering of specific instances of human presence in the two texts,
and the categorising or coding of such instances. From this, the finding shows
the resulting categories of human presence used to generate a theory
concerning the functions of the human presence within the texts. In Vietnam,
Pham Minh Hanh (1991) explores the types of fables in Viet Nam. A
comparative method is employed to find out similarities and differences
between fables and other genres such as fairy tales, animal stories, jokes. This
thesis examines basic characteristics as well as content, artistic measures and
goals of fables. Nguyen Thi Oanh (2015) investigates the main characteristics
of folk tales including fables, legends, and fairy tales. The results of this
investigation show that comprehending the basic characteristics of folk tales is
necessary to help teachers not only understand the genres introduced in the
elementary curriculum but also to perfect the analysis of the work to improve
the quality of teaching and learning folk tales in the elementary curriculum.
However, no research has been done on fables from visual and attitudinal
perspectives based on the two theories namely Appraisal theory develop by
Martin & While (2005) and the theory of Grammar of Visual Design of Kress
and Leeuwen (2006). The following will present these theories.
2.2. Appraisal theory
According to White (2001:1) Appraisal is “an approach to exploring,
describing and explaining the way language is used to evaluate, to adopt
stances, to construct textual personas and to manage interpersonal
positionings and relationship”. In other words, what Appraisal basically
illustrates is how the speakers/ writers use their own language to express their


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attitudes, emotions and evaluate human beings' behaviors and things as well
as how they express their opinions in relation to other readers. Martin & Rose
(2003) also confirm that Appraisal concerned with evaluation, and Appraisal
is also a system of interpersonal meanings. Geoff Thompson (2004) also
asserts that Appraisal is the indication of what the speaker thinks that
something (a person, thing, action, event, situation, idea, etc) is good or bad.
The good or bad scales can be seen as the simplest and most basic one, but
there are many of other scales of Appraisal, and its shows what kinds of
values are established in any particular genre.
In the book The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English, Martin
& White (2005:34) state that “Appraisal is one of three major discourse
semantic resources construing interpersonal meaning”. This study was based
on Martin and Whites' classification in terms of Appraisal. According to
Martin and White (2005), Appraisal is itself divided into three sub- systems,
namely Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. Engagement deals with
sourcing attitudes and the play of voices around opinions in discourse.
Graduation attends to grading phenomena whereby feelings are amplified and
categories blurred. Attitude is itself divided into three regions of feelings,
‘Affect’, ‘Judgment’, and ‘Appreciation’. “Affect deals with resources for
construing emotional reactions”. “Judgment is concerned with resources for
assessing behavior according to various normative principles”. “Appreciation
looks at resources for construing the value of things”. (Martin & White,
2005:35-36) The Appraisal system can also be demonstrated in Figure 2.1 as
follows.


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monogloss

ENGAGEMENT
heterogloss

A
P

ATTI

P
R
A
I
S
A
L

GR

Figure 2.1. An overview of Appraisal resources

(Martin & White, 2005:38)
2.2.1. Engagement
Engagement is concerned with a range of resources by which speakers/
writers adjust and negotiate the arguability of their utterance (White, 2001). In
addition, according to Martin and White (2005: 94), Engagement is the
linguistic resources for the authorial voice positions itself with respect to other
textual voices and alternative positions at stake in a given communicative


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context. In broad term, there are two categories of this sub- system including
Monoglossic and Heteroglossic. Table 2.1 illustrates the distinction between
two types of Engagement:
Table 2.1. The monoglossic and the heteroglossic

(Martin & White, 2005:100)
Monoglossic ( no recognition of
dialogistic alternatives)
The banks have been greedy.

As can be seen from Table 2.1, the example of monoglossic type points
to no recognition to other dialogistic positioning. However, the examples of
heteroglossic indicates viewpoints and from the writer's and others' such as
There is the argument though that, In my view, Callers to talkback radio see,
The chairman of consumers association has stated, There can be no denying,
and Everyone knows.
In terms of Heteroglossic, Martin & White (2005) divide Heteroglossic
into some systems as follows. The first one is contract. It consists of Disclaim
and Proclaim. Disclaim is the textual voice position itself as at odds with, or


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rejecting, some contrary position. It can be recognized by some expressions
like no, didn’t, never, yet, although, amazingly, but… Proclaim presents the
proposition as highly warrantable. It can be expressed through some
expressions such as naturally, of course, obviously, there can be no doubt
that, as X has shown that,… Another system of engagement is Expand. Two
kinds of expand are Entertain and Attribute. Entertain explicitly presents the

propositions as grounded in its own contingent, individual subjectivity, the
authorial voice represent the proposition as but one of a range of possibility
positions. This sub- type can be described through some words like perhaps,
it seems, apparently, it’s possible, I believe that,… Attribute represents
proposition as grounded in the subjectivity of an external voice. Some
structures such as X said, X believes, X claims that... are used to illustrate
Attribute. Along with Engagement, Appraisal theory also involves Graduation
which is discussed in the next section.
2.2.2. Graduation
Graduation attends to grading phenomena whereby feelings are
amplified and categories blurred (Martin & White, 2005). The two dimensions
of graduation are force, meanings by which propositions are strengthened
ormitigated such as very, extremely, etc., and focus, meanings by which the
boundaries of semantic categories can be blurred or sharpened such as
exactly, sort of, kind of .
Based on Martin & White (2005), force covers assessments as to degree
of intensity and as to amount. Assessments of degree of intensity can operate
over qualities, processes, or the verbal modalities; and we call these kinds of
assessments intensification. Other assessments that provide for imprecise
measuring of number, of the presence or mass of entities such as size, weight,
distribution, proximity are called quantification. Intensification


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divides into two broad lexico-grammatical classes – isolating and infusing,
where a distinction is made with regards to whether the up- or down- scaling
is realized by an isolated item. For example, ‘a bit’, ‘somewhat’, ‘very’,
‘slightly’: isolating; ‘the water flooded out of the tap’: infusing.
Quantification involves scaling with respect to amount (e.g. size, weight,

strength, number), and to extent (scope in time and space) (e.g. many, little,
huge, a few, vast)
There are two sub-categories of Focus, one amplifying thing, through
notions of authenticity (e.g. true, real), and specificity (e.g. kind of, exactly,
nearly), and the other amplifying process (e.g. try to find, fail to achieve).
These can be used to either sharpen or soften the focus. According to Martin
and White (2005: 139), sharpening is often associated with positive attitudinal
assessment (e.g. a real father, a true friend), while softening often flags
negative assessment (e.g. They sort of play jazz, They are kind of crazy, It was
an apology of sorts). Focus is not scalable; however, under focus it is possible
to up-scale (sharpen) (e.g. a real father, a true friend), or down-scale (soften)
(e.g. They are kind of crazy, They sort of play jazz.). Along with Appraisal
theory, Attitude is employed to analyze and evaluate the verbal in texts which
is discussed in the next section.
2.2.3. Attitude
Attitude is one of the three sub-systems of Appraisal framework. Martin
and White (2005) stated that Attitude is concerned with our feelings, including
emotional reactions, judgements of behaviour and evaluation of things.
Attitude is itself divided into three regions of feelings, ‘Affect’, ‘Judgment’,
and ‘Appreciation’. Figure 2.2 summarizes the sub-types of Attitude.


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Dis/inclination
Dis/satisfaction
Affect

In/ Security

Un/happiness
Normality

Capacity
Attitude

Judgment

Tenacity

Veracity

Properiety
Reaction
Composition
Appreciation
Valuation
Figure 2.2. Categories in the sub-system of Attitude

(Martin & White, 2005)


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2.2.3.1. Affect
According to Martin and White (2005), Affect deals with resources for
construing emotional reactions. More specifically, Affect can be realized
through lexical items like verbs of emotion, adjectives, adverbs of emotion,
and nominalization. For example,

 Through verbs of emotion: like, dislike, love, hate, frighten,
interest, bore, reassure, please... (e.g. She likes him., He pleases
her.)
 Through adjectives: happy, sad, confident, worried, angry,
pleased, excited, satisfied... (e.g. I am confident that you will get
the job.)
 Through adverbs: happily, sadly, angrily, disappointedly… (e.g.
Happily, the damage was only slight.)
 Through nominalization: un/happiness, sadness, confidence,
insecurity...(e.g. Her eyes shone with happiness.)
White (1998) states that Affect is concerned with registering positive
and negative feelings: do we feel happy or sad, confident or anxious,
interested or bored? For example, The captain was happy: positive Affect;
The captain was sad: negative Affect.
Affect consists of two types: Authorial Affect and Observed Affect
(Non- Authorial Affect).White (2001) states that Authorial Affects are
emotional assessments which are entirely in the individual subjectivity of the
speaker/writer. Non-authorial Affects are not the author’s emotions; they are
those of other human individuals or groups. For example: No doubt the man
want to sleep with her but they also respect, like, and trust her.


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According to Martin and White (2005:49-50), Affect is divided into
four sub-categories: un/ happiness, in/ security, dis/ satisfaction, dis/
inclination.
 Un/ happiness refers to “the mood of feeling happy or sad”.
There are some words used to describe this feeling such as hug,
love, cry, hate, rubbish, abhor, cheerful, adore.

 In/ security deals with “feelings of peace and anxiety in relation
to our environs, including of course the people sharing them with
us”. It can be described through words like twitching, cry out,
uneasy, startled, declare, confident, commit, trusting.
 Dis/ satisfaction covers “feelings of achievement and
frustration in relation to the activities in which we are engaged,
including our roles as both participants and spectators”. This can
be expressed through words like fidget, stale, scold, angry, fed
up with, busy, involved, compliment, satisfied.
 Dis/ inclination includes fear and desire. Some words are used
to illustrate this sub-type such as miss, long for, yearn for, wary,
fearful, terrorised.
Table 2.2 (next page) illustrates the positive and negative Affect of all
four sub-types. (Martin & White, 2005: 51)
2.2.3.2. Judgement
Judgement deals with attitudes towards behavior, which we admire or
criticize, praise or condemn (Martin and White, 2005:42). Under judgment, we
are concerned with the system of legality/illegality, morality/immorality,
politeness/impoliteness, competence, or psychological disposition. (White, 2001)


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Table 2.2. Sub- categories of Affect

(Martin & White, 2005: 51)
Affect
dis/inclination
un/happiness

in/ security

dis/satisfaction

According to Martin and White (2005), Judgments can be divided into two
main regions: Social Esteem and Social Sanction. Judgements of Esteem
involves "normality" (how unusual someone is), "capacity" (how capable
someone is), and "tenacity" (how dependable someone is). Judgements of
Sanction are categorized into two types: "veracity" (how truthful someone is),


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and "propriety" (how ethical someone is). Table 2.3 and table 2.4 below
illustrate the Judgement domain in detail.
Table 2.3. Judgement-social esteem

(Martin & White, 2005:53)
SOCIAL
ESTEEM
normality
'how special?'

capacity
'how
capable?'

tenacity
'how
dependable?'

`

SOCIAL
SANCTION
'mortal'
veracity
[truth]
'how honest?'
propriety
[ethics]
'how far
beyond
reproach?'

Moreover, White (2001) also states that Judgment involves positive or
negative assessments of human behavior by reference to a system of social
norms. And a Judgment value can be directly or indirectly indicated.
Thus Judgment can be categorized into explicit and implicit Judgment.
Under explicit category, the evaluation is explicitly presented by means of a
lexical item carrying the Judgment value like skillfully, corruptly, lazily. With
implicit Judgment values are triggered by what can be viewed as simply
‘facts’, apparently unevaluated descriptions of some events or state of affairs;


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however, these values have the capacity in the culture to evoke judgmental
responses. For example,

(a) ‘The children were rudely talking’(Explicit Judgment)
(b) ‘The children talked while he was presenting the
lesson’(Implicit
Judgment). (White, 2001)
It is remarkable that in (a), through using the adverb rudely, the writer
explicitly expresses a negative assessment of the children who were talking.
Thus, the example (a) is regarded as explicit Judgment. In contrast, there is no
explicit value of the writer's Judgment in the example (b), readers have a
negative assessment on the student who talked while the teacher was present
the lesson. Nevertheless, the whole sentence may induce the children were
impolite and rude by the writer. So, the example (b) is regarded as implicit
Judgment.
2.2.3.3. Appreciation
Appreciation deals with resources for construing the value of things.
Moreover, While (2001) states that Appreciation is concerned not with human
behavior but with positive and negative evaluations of artefacts, states of
affairs and entities (including human when viewed as entities rather than
volitional actors). For instance,
‘To tell you the truth, Maturin, on a perfect vernal day like this, I find
nothing so pleasant as sitting on a comfortable chair in the sun, with green,
green grass stretching away, the sound of bat and ball, and the sight of
cricketers. Particularly such cricketers as these: did you see how Maitland
glanced that ball away to leg? A very pretty stroke. Do not you find watching
good cricket restful, absorbing, a balm to the anxious, harassed mind?' ' I do
not. It seems to me, saving your presence, unspeakably tedious.' ' Perhaps