Not a secret
In spite of the fact that Captain Barfoot was married, he visited Mrs. Flanders quite often. He was absolutely sure that his wife, who was disabled and didn’t have a large social circle, didn’t know where he went so often. The irony was that “Mrs. Barfoot knew that Captain Barfoot was on his way to Mrs. Flanders”. One might think that he/she could hide the truth but it could never be like that. Mrs. Flanders might be disabled but she was definitely clever to understand what was going on around her.
Beastly
Jacob Flanders liked to talk about literature and clearly enjoined sophisticated conversations about philosophers and writers. One day, he and Timmy Durrant visited Mr. Plumer, who was a college professor, in order to have a dinner together. The evening proved to be a disaster. As soon as they left his house, Jacob was constantly repeating “bloody beastly”. The irony was that the status of a professor couldn’t guarantee that that person would be a nice conversationalist or a genius. Jacob wanted to discuss the Greeks but instead of it he had to talk about Shaw and Well.
Disagreeable youth
Jacob Flanders was always ready to criticize people for their limited knowledge and unwillingness to read, to educate themselves. Jacob liked to say that “I am what I am, and intend to be it”. The irony was that the youth had been always been so “intolerably disagreeable” and if Jacob had been lucky enough to grow old, he would probably find himself in shoes of those people, who he had been always criticizing.
