The Adventures of a Modest Man

"Hello, old man!" he began.
"Gillian," I said, "don't call me 'Old Man.' At twenty, it flattered me; at thirty, it was all right; at forty, I suspected double entendre; and now I don't like it."
"Of course, if you feel that way," he protested, smiling.
"Well, I do, dammit!"—the last a German phrase. I am rather strong on languages.
Now another thing that is irritating— I've got ahead of my story, partly, perhaps, because I hesitate to come to the point.
For I have a certain delicacy in admitting that my second visit abroad, after twenty years, was due to a pig. So now that the secret is out—the pig also—I'll begin properly.