And even, if circumstances required, a contingency plan for his contingency plan's contingency plan.

Well now," the scholar went on, "I'm just an old fuddy-duddy who could use a tan, so you needn't grant my opinion any authority, but I consider the queendom lucky that a handful of Milliners and their children lived incognito among the population during Redd's tyranny.

After a long silence, Dodge cleared his throat. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, 'Huh?'"-Dodge(obviously)

He talked to himself because there weren't many people as learned as he, and he liked to talk to learned people.