“Word, word, where are you, little word?”

“What are you looking for?”

“A small word. It was the word I was about to use. For this lovely sentence I've been working on. I can't really complete it without this word, and now ...”

“Yeah, I know. What sort of word was it? What did it look like?”

“Oh, you know. Kind of non-descript.”

“Length?”

“Uh...”

“How many syllables?”

“Three. Uh, I think ... yeah.”

“Latin or Germanic?”

“Euh ... ”

“Because the ones people forget are often derived from Old French via Middle English, I find. 'Fungible'?”

“I'm sorry?”

“Was it 'fungible', the word you were looking for?”

“Uh ... no.”

“Was it 'usufruct'?”

“No! Certainly not.”

“'Tantamount'?”

“No! How could anyone forget that? You're not helping at all.”

.......

.....

“'Attinction'?”

“No. Can you stop, please?”

“H'mmm ... how about 'corbeling'?”

“That—that's it. Let me ... no, that's right. The very word. How—how on earth did you do that?”

“Oh. It's just a thing I picked up. Not much use in the sort of, you know, day-to-day ...”

“Oh, but it is, it is! Very useful. Thanks again.”

“Glad to be of help.” (Withdraws, thinking of the many years of study and practice at the Conservatory, the difficult apprenticeship, the poverty and loneliness and so on. Somehow it is worth it.)