Why should I?
I seldom go over it.

Then he asked me whether it was a suspension bridge or a cantilever.

Of course I didn't know; I am not an engineer." "You are so tactlessly, needlessly candid," I expostulated.

"Why didn't you say boldly that the Brooklyn Bridge is a wooden cantilever, with gutta-percha braces?
He didn't know, or he wouldn't have asked you.

He couldn't find out until he reached home, and you would never have seen him again; and if you had, and he had taunted you, you could have laughed vivaciously and said you were chaffing.