acidulous

I first hold the volume upside down and give its fanned-out pages a good ruffle, as if I were shaking fruit from a tree: out will fall toothpicks and hairpins, calling cards and bits of scrap paper, the well-pressed envelope for a stick of Doublemint gum, a carefully folded obituary of the book's author, the newsprint having acidulously shadowed its containing pages, or, now and then, a message, interred in the text, as I had flutter from a volume once owned by Arthur Holly Compton (and sold to me by the library of his own university).

Alice, fortunately, was facing away from the signboard, commenting acidulously on the fact that Gawgie had been able to find poor little ole her only a measly ole passel of catfish, she 'clahrred, foh her suppuh.