A writer in the May number of “The Sunday at Home” cites an amusing example of the ambiguities that lie hidden in our English tongue.

A lady wrote to an army officer as follows: “Mrs Smythe requests the pleasure of Capt Bunker’s company at dinner.”

The next day she received this note: “With the exception of three men who have the measles and one who is confined to barracks. Capt Bunker’s company accepts Mrs Smythe’s kind invitation with pleasure.”

[From the Watford Observer of May 17, 1919]

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