hammer-and-rasp

Updated: May 9, 2025

He remembered a discussion of Pragmatism by the Improved Tories, when Gilbert had described a pragmatist as an unfrocked Jesuit.... And while he was burrowing into the first chapter, thinking more of James's graceful style than of his matter, there was a great rattle, an incessant hammer-and-rasp noise in the street. "Good God!" he exclaimed, jumping up and dropping the book, "what's that?"

St. John G. (St. John Greer) Ervine - Changing Winds: A Novel