Hi, Anton -- on Feb 07 2022 at 09:25, you wrote:

 AS> If "How to come by magic?" is not grammatical, why "How come by
 AS> magic?" is?  How explain this difference?

First of all, the text you've quoted is a) old, b) fiction, c) deliberately (imo) written to sound mysterious and d) "How come by magic" is not grammatically correct.

I think you're causing yourself grief by using these old texts and trying to explain them using modern grammar.


Cheers... Dallas 

--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+