"But it isn't true," said the professor.
"Not true?" echoed the journalist.
"No," replied the mathematician. "I made it up. I hadn't done my share
of the talking, and I didn't want you to think I had nothing to say for
myself."
"Not a single word of truth in it?" the journalist returned.
"Not a single word," was the mathematician's answer.
"Well, what of that?" the journalist declared. "I don't want to file it
in an affidavit--I want to print it in a newspaper."
(1894.)