He would cut mysterious jokes about the superiority of woman's wit over man's wisdom; commence obscure apologies for the blundering mistake he had committed respecting the generalship, the tactics, of "a personage not a hundred miles from Fieldhead." 
 he made mysterious jokes about the superiority of woman's wit over man's wisdom; and remarked on the generalship, the tactics, of "a person not a hundred miles from Fieldhead." 